Seventh Grade!

When I look at my Katya, I still see my little girl. When I look at the numbers such as "7th" grade or "12" years old...I see a beautiful young woman who is cruising through life with great enthusiasm and energy. 

Katya was ready to start school. We had a fantastic relaxing summer this year, but she was still very excited to find out what this 7th grade will bring. School started on August 31st, a very-very rainy and sad looking day:) Katya wore her new shirt that says "genius" on it (it's an inside joke for those who are aware of what she was doing last December). And she had to wear her sling. 

Because Katya wasn't allowed to lift her backpack yet, Alex volunteered to walk with her to the bus stop to help her. She was hoping our neighbor boys would help her at school as well (and they did). 

This semester Katya is taking English, Math (8th grade), Geography, Science, Chinese (beginner), Health and Choir. This is very different from when I was growing up. In seventh grade, I had at least thirteen subjects, as far as I remember. 

Katya was even more confident this year than last--after all she knew the ins and outs of the school and knew the teachers. She said 30% of the children at school are NEW this year. That's a military school for you--the only thing that is constant is change:).

Wishing Katya a great school year! 

Seventh grade, here she comes!

Celebrating Robert!

No matter how old you get, birthdays should still be special days! We can make them as fun (and yummy) as we want, we just need to put some effort into them:)

Robert was finishing his pediatric dental course in Texas on August 21st, the day before his birthday. He could have flown out of TX on the 22nd, but then he'd miss spending his birthday with us because of the time change. So we "convinced" him that we wanted him home ON his birthday, which meant he had to fly out in the evening, right after his course was over. He didn't mind:)) 

Originally, I was going to have a surprise party for him at our house with lots of friends and their families right as he arrived. But then it turned out that two of our best family friends were going to be out of town that day, so I decided to change our plans.

On the 22nd, we had a special dinner with Robert's favorite slow cooked cream cheese chicken and noodles and a chocolate cake. It was so nice to have him home relaxing. 

The kids totally got into this birthday celebration thing this year. They decorated the whole kitchen and entry way and made a "happy birthday" sign for Tato. 

Thirty Six--so young!

Our birthday celebration was not over:). On Wednesday, after Robert's birthday, I told him we were going out on a special birthday date with me. But in reality, I had invited ten other friends to join us. The plan was for us to show up at the restaurant and see everyone waiting for us as a surprise, but because of traffic, when we got there, only three people were there:)). So it was still a surprise, but quite a weak one:). Most people trickled in shortly after 6 pm, and it was still a great evening.

Mallory made a ghost tooth cake for Robert, which was delicious as always!

So grateful to be able to celebrate birthdays in a special way! Happy 36th birthday, sweets! 

"Well, hi, Adlai":)

Lyana.

Broken

On August 20th, two days before Robert was supposed to come home from Texas, another adventure came our way. 

I was watching our friends' kids for a couple of days during the day, our kids were playing all day outside with neighbor kids--all was perfectly fine. This afternoon, lots of kids were in our backyard playing on the TIRE SWING. At around 3:30 pm, I heard Katya run through the back sliding door inside crying like she never-ever does. She was holding on to her left arm, sat down on the kitchen floor by the wall and continued crying, complaining of not being able to move her arm or turn her head and neck. That's when I knew something was really wrong. 

Lucky for us, right after I gave Katya and ice pack and transferred her carefully to the couch, our friend came to collect his children. I also decided to drive to Lakenheath with Katya immediately. So I left the boys "on the street" with our next door neighbors, as they were still playing outside together. 

In the car, I got the full story. It was a long painful hour, although I gave Katya some pain killers and she had a pillow. She could hardly talk and didn't want any music or anything as she was in so much pain. Apparently, she was playing on the tire swing and was doing a trick she'd done so many times before--winding the rope around the tree and then kind of swinging around the tree on the tire jumping off before it hits the tree again. But this time, her shoe got stuck inside the tire and she was not able to jump off, so poor thing slammed her back against the tree in full swing. She held her tears back for ten seconds while she ran back into the house, still a bit in shock from the pain, and that's when she found me.

We were super lucky to have no traffic on the way to RAF Lakenheath, and no line to wait at the ER. Within the first half an hour of being there, she had her X-rays (very painful as they had to figure out where exactly, if any, the damage was) done and seen by the doctor. 

The verdict: broken collar bone. 

That means no swimming, no piano, no PE at least for 8 weeks (so only till middle of October, hopefully). But there is no cast, just a sling that she has to wear. They prescribed really strong pain killers for her, just in case, but she didn't take anything but ibuprofen even on the first night as she slept without waking up! 

We came home to see the boys around 8 pm. They were well taken care of by Cindy and Wendy and were having the best time ever! I am so grateful for neighbors who can help me like this at the time of need. 

As for Katya, she is one tough cookie. But no more "competitive tire swinging" (as one doctor put it) for her for a while.

Dental Stuff

It's kind of cool to stop by our clinic on base, if you ask me. Usually, if I am there for any reason, with kids or without, I go upstairs to the dental clinic as well to say "hi" to my favorite dentist. When we have regular doctor appointments, I send the kids upstairs (those who are not having an appointment) to watch a movie in the dental waiting room which they think is the best thing ever. 

Sometime in July, Mark had another real dental appointment. Robert had to finish putting sealants on him. I think it's fantastic that Mark still thinks that going to the dentist is like a special treat!

That is NOT the case with me. On our recent visit to Lakenheath, I had a dental appointment with our friend from dental school who is now an oral surgeon. It was not a very pleasant kind of visit although it was just an evaluation one, not even a procedure or anything. 

Katya came with me as it was in June after school was out, so she was snapping away all sorts of pictures capturing a different view of a dental treatment room-hahaha. 

Although we talk about teeth a lot in our family, I still don't like anything relating to teeth because of all sorts of dental issues I've had in my life. At the moment, I am just counting my blessings that all dental care is free for spouses and children of people stationed overseas. 

I must say goodnight now...or I'll be having dental nightmares tonight:)

Lyana.

Cousins! Sort of? First Cousins Once Removed?

Three weeks with Mika flew by really fast!! We were so blessed to have him come and stay with us and experience our true Watson family life.

By the end of those three weeks, Mika has definitely improved in his English. 

He'd tried many new kinds of foods and decided that he liked Mexican a lot:).

He made a number of new friends who were really eager to accept him in their circles as this is military children we are talking about. 

He learned that it's okay to have very limited electronics and still have lots of fun:). 

He got to experience our family routine like family dinners, day trips, evening prayers and scripture reading. 

And at the end he realized how much he missed his little brother! 

Part of it, I think, was missing the ability to always talk in his native tongue. 

Most importantly, he learned to adopt to this very new situation and life. 

I have to post all of these pictures just to illustrate how funny they think they were being. Apparently me saying, "Look at the camera" was just translated into "Let's make faces".

Katya...

Mark...

A couple of good ones.

Photobombing Mark...

And Katya...

Mika-11, Alex-10, Katya-12

Plus added bonus of Mark who is 6.

We hope this is not the last time that Mika comes to visit! Next time, we hope Petia, his brother can come too:).

Cliveden Palace Or Am I A Mean Mom?

Todays' story is not really about our visit to Cliveden Palace:). 

On August 8th, Robert was leaving on a trip to Texas (for two weeks). As his flight was leaving from Heathrow, I volunteered to drive him together with our kids and Mika so that we could stop by Cliveden property on the way back as it was very close to Heathrow. 

That morning we had to leave around 8:30 am which equates to 5:30 am of regular time when we are talking about summer holidays. We threw the kids in the car with their jackets and snacks and were on our way. Everything went smoothly at the airport, dropped off Robert, drove quickly to Cliveden and were among the first ten cars to park on property's closest parking lot (the parking situation gets VERY busy at this place on summer weekends). 

As we were getting ready to come out of the car, Alex inquired about his shoes. Apparently, this kid forgot to bring his shoes! He was wearing his pjs when we left and we reminded him at the door to grab his Sketchers, but he forgot. All he had was socks.

I had a few choices before me at that moment:

1. Get upset and leave.

2. Get upset (or laugh), drive 20 minutes to Sainsbury's we saw on the way here and buy new shoes.

3. Stay calm and leave.

4. Laugh ...and leave?

5. Ask around about extra shoes (ok, that wasn't really an option).

6. Laugh and be creative.

This last one is exactly what I did. Some might call me a mean mom BUT I was not about to drive 40 minutes roundtrip to the store to buy shoes that we wouldn't really need later. I found plastic grocery bags in the car and tied them around Alex's feet. I couldn't stop laughing. Katya and Mika couldn't stop laughing, but Alex was not very happy.

Katya snapped a picture of him here...I think he is in between being mad/laughing/crying and, of course, embarrassed a bit. 

The plan was to walk over to the gift shop next to the parking lot and see if they have ANYTHING, even wellies. I could barely stifle my laugh while explaining to the shop lady why we needed wellies, or any shoes really, on such a nice sunny day. But no, nothing was available. 

We decided to make our outing short, but we were not giving up just yet. We walked over to the maze that this place was famous for, with Alex getting quite a few stares, but whatever. 

This is the picture of the maze from above borrowed from the National Trust website (no, I didn't climb up a tall tree to take this picture).

It was actually a hard maze. It took me a while to figure it out (that fact alone, though, is not a good indicator of the difficulty of the maze).

After half an hour of "mazing", we sat down and had a picnic in a beautiful part of this vast green park. It was gorgeous! Quiet and so peaceful. 

Then we strolled over to the water garden, looked at the koi fish and walked around the fountains (Alex still wearing his grocery bags).

We did find a playground that was quite fun, but I had to let Katya, Mika and Mark go play on it alone as Alex's "shoes" were wearing out and he was not about to go play on hard equipment like that. So I sat down with him on a grassy lawn watching people go by and chatting with him for a while.

It was shortly after twelve and we headed back to our car. Alex was relieved. Was it really a mean thing to do to him? I don't believe so. But I do think he'll never forget to bring his shoes again on an outing again.  

Lyana.

Summer Day In London With Mika!

August 1st. 2015

London, UK

9:05-Got on the train Huntingdon-King's Cross. An hour ride is super easy, fun and convenient.

10:15--King's Cross is always a crazy busy station, but especially during summer months. Robert, Katya and Mika had to stay behind to queue at the ticket office to pick up their tube passes, while the boys and I headed towards Waterloo where THE EYE was waiting for us.

My cute men in hats for the day. 

11:00--Got to The Eye in hopes to get in line since the wait is always so long even if you prebook your timed tickets but it turned out there was no line at all! 

11:15--Alex, Mark, Mika and I started our thirty minute journey to the top of London. 

...with dozens of pictures, of course.

I am not really scared of heights or anything.

11:35--enjoying crystal clear skies and the never-getting-old view of the Parliament.

12:00-breaking our own moral code of not eating at fast food places, we went to McDonald's next door to the Eye and fed the kids and ourselves for a mere $30.

12:30-crossed the river Thames from The Eye side to the Big Ben side along with hundreds of other tourists!

12:40-there is always time for pictures with Big Ben.

1:30-took the tube to Baker Street hoping to go to the Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. We found the place, saw the line that, they said, would be a two hour wait, debated about what to do, and then gave up on the idea since no one wanted to wait for two hours just to be rushed through the museum as we had plans for the evening already. At least we got a picture with the Baker Street sign and we made plans to come back during the off-season.

2:00--took a double decker bus to somewhere towards Hyde Park. We still don't know that area of Kensington/Hyde Park very well, so we were hoping we'd be dropped off at a convenient place to go play at the Princess Diana Memorial Park....No such luck. We got dropped off at a far away place from the playground. But the bus ride was refreshing:)

2:30--arrived at Hyde Park corner area, thought about renting those bikes standing outside the park, but there would have been no way for Mark to be transported, so we decided to walk. 

It sounded like a great idea. 

For a while.

So we walked. And walked. Ice cream stop. And walked. Bathroom stop. Walked a bit more. 

3:30--finally got to the playground which turned out to be so busy that we literally had to wait in line to get in! I think we waited for about half an hour, which didn't leave the kids much time to play. 

4:45--the kids had a fun time running around and I am sure wished they could have run for longer. But we had to go as we had dinner reservations at Bella Italia in Covent Garden.

5:30-7:00--a free dinner at Bella Italia thanks to Tesco vouchers (converted points into gift certificates).

7:00--we parted ways. Robert took the big kids to see Lion King show, while I headed back to King's Cross with Mark to catch a train home.

10:45 pm--It is late after the show (which was FANTASTIC, by the way!). No queues of people to take pictures with Harry Potter's school cart. They have to take this opportunity.

11:40--almost home. Such a wonderful but exhausting day highlighted by such colorful memories.