Easter-2016

I really just wanted to save these pictures to record the fact that we, the Watsons, indeed do our own Easter Egg Hunts...sometimes:)

Bunnies and Easter stuff is just not our thing, but this year, since we weren't traveling, we had a small Easter Egg Hunt for the kids on Sunday after church. Ten plastic eggs plus one special egg each. Done! 

We don't even own any Easter baskets any more...

Robert tried to make it a bit challenging, but the kids were just too good.

Last Easter in England:(

Lyana.

Cambridge To Grandchester

"Grantchester..."

Say it with me,  "Grantchester..."

Is it just me, or does the name "Grantchester" just ooze this British poshness? I just love the way that name sounds:)

Anyway. One Saturday this March we had a free afternoon, so we drove towards Cambridge closer to the village of Grantchester. It is said that Grantchester has the highest concentration of Nobel prize winners in the world, attributing that to the nearby Cambridge University, of course. Grantchester has also become better known ever since the crime drama "Grantchester" started airing on ITV. We have never really watched it, but now that we have visited this place, maybe we should.

The main reason for our quick visit was to take a walk from Cambridge to Grantchester.  We parked in Cambridge and followed the public footpath (there are thousands of them on every corner) along the river towards Grantchester.

It's still incredible to me to see how much British people love these sorts of nature walks. Despite the fact that this is quite a popular route for a walk, it was quiet and peaceful most of the time (unless our kids started singing or fighting).

Cows...no matter where we go in England. Although in some places there are more sheep than cows:)

This is what our walk looked like--the river Cam on one side, and the meadow on the other side. It might sound boring, but simply because it's in England it's just impossible to say that it was boring. Never!

I think this is where we were worried that Mark or Alex would fall into the water by stepping on one of the weak branches of this old tree. 

But it was so adventurous;)

The walk ends at the Orchard Tearoom, a very nice looking place to sit down and relax for a snack. We had our packed snacks, so we just sat outside on some nice lawn chairs refueling before the grueling walk back;)

One of the views in the village.

We all loved this little walk. As usual, I wish we had more time. This village is definitely a must to visit if you happen to be in the area--tranquil and so peaceful. 

Lyana.

Behind The Iron Curtain (Guest Post by Katya)

This year, the seventh graders (and older) were able to participate in National History Day(NHD).

The topic that all projects had to follow was Exploration, Encounter, and Exchange in history. I chose to talk about how the Soviet Union people felt as they encountered the United States during the cold war. We spent about four months working on this, making sure citations and annotations were correct, the words were spelled right and, most importantly, the information was valid. Here are some pictures from the final presenting day:

                                                  Me standing next to my project :)

                                             
                           My forever supporting parents standing next to me as I present to the school

     My middle panel on my presentation board showing the main political Soviet Union  leaders

                                             

Why the two superpowers didn't get along

                                                     

Propaganda of the Soviet Union

                                                   

                  Me receiving the 1st place award for single exhibitions in the 7th and 8th grade category:)

I was so excited and happy because of this special moment. Thank you to all who helped me achieve          
                                                                       this goal.

Katya.

End Of An Era

This is a sad post. A very sad post.

When Katya turned six years old and we moved to Japan, she started taking piano lessons from Miss Bridget. In our minds, as parents, we never had a question whether or not our children would have piano lessons--learning to play the piano was equated with learning how to do math in our family. After Japan, when Katya was 9 years old, we found Misses Eldred who has been our family piano teacher for the last four years. It has not always been easy for Katya to stay motivated--lots of ups and downs depending on what pieces she was learning how to play. After a while it's become really clear that her heart is just not in it...at all. She didn't enjoy the process of learning each piece and not even the act of performing a finished piece. It was becoming more and more stressful to get her to practice and many times her stubbornness would win, unfortunately. She was just so unhappy doing it and would much rather be singing or reading.

Just for the record, our original deal for years was that Katya would have a choice at thirteen years old whether or not she would continue piano lessons--after all, that would mean she'd had seven years of lessons. By the time March of this year rolled around (Katya is still twelve and is not turning thirteen till July), she was so swamped with drama performance practices and homework that she was barely practicing. A long Easter break was coming up anyway and then we knew big adjustments would come during the pack out and move...so we made a decision to let her stop the lessons.

My heart hurts...especially because it's been almost two months since she quit lessons as I am writing this post, but I've hardly ever heard her sit down and play the piano since then.

SHE is happy though. And our only hope is that she'll still remember her piano lessons days with fondness and will be motivated to keep playing.



Lyana.

Bodiam Castle--A Proper Moat Castle

After Robert's race down by the Seven Sisters, we decided to stop by this beautiful Bodiam Castle on the way back home. Bodiam is part of the National Trust, so we were able to enter it free. 

Just to make things clear from the get go, these signs were posted by the car park.

Are you ready to open the lids?

Bodiam Castle is a 14th century castle, built by one of the former knights of Edward III under the permission of Richard II. 

It was meant to protect against the French in the Hundred Years' War. The moat across the pond is one of its most recognizable features. 

We were visiting during the last hour of the opening hours so the castle was not very busy by then. 

Selfie time on the castle grounds. 

It was just Katya and Mark with us (Alex was camping with the scouts). So these two had to improvise on how to play with just each other:).

Mark said he was pretending to have a sword and not to punch Katya.

The king, the queen and...I am supposed to be a poor maid or something.

Every time I look at this picture, I feel inside how incomplete it is without Alex:)

We climbed up one of the towers for a beautiful view of the cold countryside. It is middle of March. 

These ruins have stories to tell... and all we can do is imagine what went on here for centuries. 

Together on top of the castle tower. 

Katya loved jumping for me to get a new picture for her phone's profile picture.

Downstairs, one of the rooms was set up as a small movie theater where we could watch a documentary about the history of the castle. 

This is one of the halls inside the castle, or what is left of it. 

It was precisely 1700 by now and the castle staff had to "shoo" us out. 

Okay...just one more picture. 

One of my favorite pictures, taken outside across the moat. My little soprano girl:)

On a scale of one to five, Bodiam earns a five! We loved it, although our visit was short. It's a beautiful place with lots of green space to run around and explore. Glad we made the stop.

SaveSave

The Crazy Race At Seven Sisters

Back in March we ventured out to the North Pole

Just Kidding.

It was just so-so cold that day that I thought we were at the North Pole...that's how I am going to start this post.

A while ago, Robert and his friends had this brilliant idea to run an off-road half marathon down by the Seven Sisters on a cold March day. The race was part of the Endurance Race series that vary in their levels of difficulty with this one being "medium". They read something along the lines of the path--hard, the incline--horrendous, the views-splendid. And they were sold. 

The night before the race, Robert, Katya, Mark and I drove to Southern England (wait, I forgot Alex....oh yeah...he was camping with the Boy Scouts that weekend and chose not to come to this race) so we could spend the night at the hotel closer to the race course. In the morning, after filling ourselves up with hot chocolate and pastries (and Robert with something a little bit more healthy), we drove another 20 minutes to the Seven Sisters where the race was being held. The weather was miserable--super windy and COLD.

Our friends, registering for the race.

After almost an hour of waiting around in the cold, Robert was ready to start running to warm up. I was worried about him.

Katya, Mark and I walked back to where we parked and waited in a spot where the runners were supposed to pass us after their third mile or so. We spotted Robert, still cheery and full of energy.

That's right, three miles down, ten more to go.

And then more stairs.

Robert said that the course was non-stop up and down. There was no break and some hills were very steep. Besides, they had to "jump" over low fences meant for keeping sheep in place, so people had to queue for that "crossing" as well.

One thing for sure--the views were stunning as promised! 

In the meantime...

We knew we couldn't really follow Robert along the course, so we went down to the beach to see the white cliffs. 

Back in August, we explored this area as a family, but we were at the beach right behind us in the picture. 

The beach was still rocky but so chalky!

Pebble beaches are Mark's favorite for obvious rock throwing reasons.

Are you tired of our cold selfies yet? Man, it was so windy. 

It seriously looked like we were walking on snow, but it was chalk! Katya was taking pictures with her newly acquired phone that is not really phone since she can't text or call people on it.

Some more beautiful scenery.

After about an hour and a half after the race started, we went back up to the cliff top to cheer some more runners who were supposed to be passing the area. I had to watch out for Katya to not blow away, that's how insane the wind was. 

Finally, at around two-hour mark, we headed to the finish line where we waited. And waited. And waited. Mark stood a bit further up before the finish line so he could cheer the runners and give them high fives:). So cute! 

Finally, Robert appeared!! He survived and finished the whole race of 13.1 miles. Crazy hills, crazy trail running with no water stations or anything AND in brutally windy cold weather. 

Well done, team "Choose To Run"! The girls did a 10K (which turned out more like a 13K somehow according to their phones) and completed it at an excellent pace!

And that was Robert's last running race in England:)

Lyana.