Cambridge In The Evening

The whole week of July 27-31, Katya was at her first annual Girls' Camp with our church girls. While she was away having fun camping and doing all sorts of activities like kayaking, bowling, sledding and making new friends, the boys did football camp on base (about that later) and played on the street. 

One of the nights, we drove back to Cambridge to show Mika a bit more of it than just "Five Guys". This time, traffic was great and we got to our new favorite Asian place Zhonghua Snacks right in time for dinner. We ordered a bunch of potstickers and enjoyed our meal thoroughly! This was Mika's first time to try such things:)

Next time we are in Cambridge looking for food, we should go back here.

After dinner, we drove to our usual place to park that offers great access to the most central part of town. There were NO CROWDS anywhere. In all these times we've visited Cambridge, we'd never seen it this empty. We could even take a picture of this beautiful building that we always pass on the way to King's College. 

Trying to get a picture with a British mailbox (but what's up with my arm??).

Pretty much all stores were closed. This was almost 8 pm. England has a funny way of shutting down its stores on main street around 5:30 pm. 

The first glimpse of the King's College Chapel in the evening sun.

But first, we have to stop and see our favorite 3D map of the centre of Cambridge. 

This iconic building doesn't get old. But WE need to come up with different poses for our pictures here to mix things up. 

Mika has the right idea. 

We walked through some back streets trying to find the particular street where "The Theory of Everything" was filmed. 

And we came out by the river Cam. As you can see--no people, no crowding by punting tourists. This  would have been the best time to go punting ourselves...

We were all very surprised at how quiet Cambridge was this evening after 7 pm. Most likely because students are gone on summer holidays and all tourist-daytrippers from London were heading back to the city. We loved it!

Lyana.

Alex's 10th Birthday CelebrationS:)

Alex's birthday celebrations had three parts this year! First of all, he really-really wanted to go to Five Guys for dinner for his birthday. One of their new locations includes a place in Cambridge, so we headed there on Friday before his birthday only to be stuck in traffic for over an hour and having a tough time finding a spot to park. BUT it was all worth it at the end. The kids were happy (except Mark who thought he was getting his own big drink but didn't). 

We played UNO and chatted getting warm from the heavy rain outside, waiting out the bad traffic home. Mika couldn't believe that Five Guys offers free peanuts to its customers, however much you want. He said it would be so awesome to live in Cambridge as you could stop by this place and get some peanuts any time you want. That's an interesting thought;)

Alex's actual birthday this year fell on Monday. Because we wanted everyone to be there for opening presents (including Robert who had to go to work early in the morning), we let him open a couple of presents at 7:30 am without some kids who were sleeping, and then the rest later in the day. 

New thing this year--Top Trumps. This is such a popular series of games with kids and adults alike. And there are so many subjects! Here is an example: 

It's like War, but the person whose turn it is to "call" the card names the category that he or she thinks will be higher than the opponent's. So if I had Kate Middleton, I'd say "Style Icon", and that would "trump" Prince William. So then I get that card as well. Anyway. It's easy and fun! So the kids now have a few subjects of Top Trumps like Harry Potter and Wonders of the World.  

"I Survived" book series are great as well. 

So is a purple lunch box with a Vikings logo. Is it a sign?;) Not sure. Alex just loves color purple and he was born in Minnesota, so I figured he deserved a Vikings lunch box. 

In the afternoon, he opened the rest of the presents--more books, TWO DVD's ("Newsies" and "Big Hero 6"), an iPod inherited from Katya and cubic Rubik.

This year we didn't have an extravagant party. Alex just wanted to invite a couple of friends to go bowling and have some pizza. This was the day (again) when traffic in Huntingdon area around the base stood still because of the annual Secret Garden party in Abbots Ripton. We were late for everything...and so was our friend coming from Warboys. But that's all right. The boys still had a great time despite the rain ruining our plans to picnic outside.

Bowling on base.

And being silly. Mark is really into "photobombing" lately.

After bowling and standing in traffic for half an hour we finally arrived home. We had planned a street get together to celebrate Alex's birthday and hang out. Robert was in charge of making a cake that was supposed to look like a basketball....Yeah...a basketball:)))

It was late on Sunday night (after 11 pm) that he realized he didn't have the right kind of sugar for the frosting. He was planning to wake up super early and go to Tesco at 6 am to get the icing sugar so I could make it during the day. I came up with a better idea--I just went to Tesco at midnight since it opens at midnight on Monday mornings. It's an interesting schedule, actually. It states Tesco is open 24 hours EXCEPT it's closed on Sunday from 4 pm till 12 am. 

Anyway, I made it home around 1 am, made the frosting in time for Robert to come home and decorate the cake during lunch. It was...interesting:))) 

and Alex loved it!

This is Robert telling Alex, "Don't cough on the cake!":))

Hearing the whole street sing "Happy Birthday" must feel quite special:) Happy 10th birthday!!!

After that, kids played all evening till it was dark outside.

We had lots of food, scores and great hanging out conversation. We love our street. 

Alex thought he had a great long birthday celebration:).

Lyana.

Mika Comes to Visit

Something that we have always talked about ever since we moved to England, actually became a reality:)

My cousin, Katia who lives in Ukraine, and I have discussed many-many times how we could send one of her sons to visit us here in England for a couple of weeks. It was obvious a very daring and complicated affair to complete as getting a UK visa for a child is not a simple fit. We also knew that if our hard worked paid off, her son, Mika, would experience a trip of a lifetime.

After a few weeks of waiting, a miracle did happen-Mika got a visa and his mom quickly purchased tickets for him to fly BY HIMSELF to the UK. We all were sooo excited!

Alex and I picked Mika up from Heathrow airport and drove home listening to all his stories about his life and school. It was nice that I could speak Ukrainian when he needed a break from all the English around him. I also told him to tell me whenever he saw things that he'd never seen before.

Mika slept in the same room as Mark. Alex slept in our "reading room" because he was still not feeling well. He ate all our weird food and especially liked enchiladas:))

For the first few days, the boys played a lot of football in the backyard. Our neighbor's kid is very good at football as well as Mika, so they had a great time challenging each other.

Our snack times were quite frequent with these three growing boys. 

Mika brought two awesome hats to the boys as presents. They matched each other looking very stylish:)

On one of the first evenings after dinner we took Mika for a walk through the village. At first, we walked over to the Brampton church across the street, walked through its graveyard which is always fascinating and just wondered around the building. 

Alex looks miserable in this picture as well (feeling the chills). We finally took him to the doctor the following day, I think.

Six months apart! Katya is just half a year older than Mika. 

We kept walking on our village High Street to show Mika a real British village. It was also strange to him that we went out after dinner "just for a walk". I think the British are great examples in how we should walk more--I love it! But I have to be honest, they do have some very pretty and walkable places to enjoy. 

Mika stayed with us for three weeks and it was great! Most the time the kids played outside but we took a few day trips to places nearby to show him England. So those stories are still to come.

Good night for now.

Lyana.

Finishing Another School Year BRITISH style.

We all already know how I feel a very long school year in England:). Yes, it's nice to have all those breaks throughout the year but also how painful it is to keep sending the boys to school when the weather is sunny, in the 70s, days are long and especially when we see all our kids' neighbors play outside all day long. But that's all right. We are just not sure how we'll do it next summer with moving--maybe we'll have to withdraw them from school early.

Every school year, the school organizes a few discos (that's really what they call them) for the kids. The boys love them! They have two different ones for younger and older kids. Next school year I will try to participate in the PTA more so that I could "revise" their list of kid-appropriate songs for these dances. I have voiced my concern with a few song choices to the headmistress, who agrees with me, but the PTA  members (a few parents on the committee) are the ones who put the list together and maybe never get the message. I am passionate about these things and cannot just stand by:)

Here are the boys before the disco on July 17. 

And finally! The end of the school year! Mark finished Year 1 with Ms. Machen. 

He has learnt SO much this year, it's incredible to me. He reads so fast, it amazes me. He has been flying through "Magic Tree House" books, reading them everywhere. And he loves math, it fascinates him. This is basically his second year of school, but age-wise, he finished Kindergarten. He definitely knows a lot more of math/science/reading than the other two kids did at his age. I am glad he loves learning.

Alex finished Year 5 with Mrs. Landeryou (ha! It took me 10 months to learn how to spell her name). This is the last but one year in Primary School. Next school year he will be in Year 6, the oldest grade in his school. He is very excited about that as he will get a chance to apply to be a House Captain (like in Harry Potter). 

Alex is a terrific student! He has so much knowledge of various subjects and retains information so easily that teachers really enjoy having him in class. His teacher always tells me how great it is to have students like Alex who have very good attitude about learning and eagerness to always try to do the best they can. Alex has many friends in his class, although his best friend is actually the only other American kid at his school. I know it's still tricky for him to fit in perfectly and that's why every once in a while he keeps wondering if he should switch to the American school on base. We talk about it with him often and all the "pros" of staying at the village school outweigh the cons... for now.

He wasn't feeling well at all days before the last day of school and even missed the last but one day of school, but he managed to survive the last day. He doesn't look quite like himself here because he (as it turned out a day later) had a horrible ear infection...poor guy.

Two British lads:) 

I know they are ready for summer holidays!!! And so am I.

Lyana. 

Northumberland: Farne Islands Boat Trip.

If seeing thousands and thousands of birds gives you an uneasy feeling, you better stop reading now:)

The second main thing that we wanted to do in Northumberland was to visit the Farne Islands. A few boat tour companies offer daily excursions to the islands from Seahouses (a small coastal town). The journey takes about 30 minutes to reach the first island, but be prepared for a very cold trip. Although we were visiting this area in JULY, we had to wear gloves and hats as it was so windy and not pleasant outside on the boat. At least it wasn't raining and we could see so much scenery with clarity. 

We took hundreds of pictures in the following three hours. Most of them are for us to invoke memories at how cool these islands are but I will post just a few.

The Farne Islands are famous for their bird colonies. It's possibly the most exciting breeding ground of seabirds in England. We were told you can find 23 different species of birds, together with 37,000 PAIRS of puffins. Incredible! And that's what attracted us to take one of these boat tours. 

Approaching one of the islands. 

Nothing REALLY special just yet.

We were astonished at the number of birds perched on these rocky islands. And that was just the beginning. 

I am sure you know where all that white coloring of the rock comes from.

And Robert was here. 

The boat came so close to the rocks that we were able to view hundreds of birds in detail. 

The next stop was another small island that was home to large grey seals! Seriously, about 1,000 seal pups are born here each fall. 

I had never been this close to so many seals in my life! 

The kids thought this was just amazing! The boat allowed us to take a ton of pictures telling us (the boat did not talk, just the boat captain) about how these seals enjoy their lives on this preserved island:).

This was probably my most exciting part of the journey. But there were still more amazing discoveries to come. 

Some seals were really good at showing off:) although for real, I have no idea what they were thinking of these boatloads of tourists... The good news is that we are not allowed to get off the boat here so they can live and breed without any fear.

The Farne Islands are owned by National Trust. Since we are members of National Trust, we didn't have to pay for the "entry" onto the next island where we landed saving 19 pounds for our family.

At first we thought, "Oh look, this is a cool island with an ancient church where monks used to come and live...with a few birds". 

And then we started seeing puffins. Puffins EVERYWHERE! 

They were in the grassy areas and on the cliffs and on the ground digging their holes and on the footpaths. It was incredible! 

I am only showing a few pictures of the puffins here, but I am not exaggerating when I say we took about a hundred pictures of puffins on this island. 

Ah, yeah...our rest place...from all the bird noise and fear of bird droppings. 

We had about an hour on this island. At the end of our stop, we took a little break inside a tiny church, like hermits in the 7th century. 

All I can say in conclusion is if you want to see puffins--THIS is the place to be from May to July. (just not for the whole three months). The boat tour was definitely worth it and was a very exciting thing to do for all of us.

Cheers!

Lyana.