Our new House

We dream big.  While we were in Wales, we drove past this house and saw a For Sale sign.  We had a back view and could only see the tops of the towers through the trees.  Dave took a picture of the sign, and looked up the details.  I think we can afford it, it was recently reduced 400,000 pounds.  Wouldn't you want to visit us if we lived here?

A day in Bristol

 Bath took us less time to completely explore than we thought, so we added Bristol to our agenda on a whim.  And we found the BEST possible thing to do with our kids, @Bristol.  It kept all three kids and their parents enthralled for hours.  There was a section on water and power, a section on flight, one on archaeology, another on air flight, some fun genetics games, and a bunch of other things on just the first level.  It was all open space, so there was no progression that everyone followed.  And that worked fantastically since we could go to wherever there was the least amount of people, and stay where the kids were the most interested, without affecting anyone else's experience.  It was brilliant.

 I had almost completely forgotten the upstairs, until Dave said that he was going to take Hilde up there.  I assumed it was going to be just a couple of things, but I was completely mistaken.  They had a "tornado", a green screen that Enoch begged to play with several times, a shadow camera, huge bubble makers, and on top of that about half the space was devoted to animation.  The animation was all sponsored by Aardman Animations - the makers of Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run.  Our kids are huge fans and it was fun for them to be able to draw things using templates on light tables, and they could have even animated something if we had the time and patience for that.  This place is high up on our list of perfect kid day's out. 

Beautiful Bath Part 3

 Enoch is growing up.  I know this because he is rapidly growing out of his clothes, he is thinner, stronger, and he has started to hate getting his picture taken. However, he is so darn cute I still force him to stand in the picture.  He gets used to it after a while.  The Circus and the Royal Crescent are famous streets of homes in Bath.  The circus is a circle and the Crescent....wait for it....is a crescent.  The houses are definitely priced well above our combined means (yours and ours).  But it was fun to walk around and see the area.  Here are some pictures of the Circus:

 And here are some pictures of the Royal Crescent:

 I love these guys.

 With all the great restaurants, you would think we ate somewhere fabulous.  Think again.  I picked the WORST place.  It was super slow and the food was terrible.  Bummer.

 After a fun filled day at Bath, it was time to let the kids run and play at a local playground.  It was very cold, so we got hot chocolate.  Don't worry, we also had ice cream. 

Beautiful Bath Part 2

 Bath had a lovely pedestrian shopping area, which we mostly breezed through. While looking for Jamie Oliver's Italian restaurant, we passed the ultimate store for Dave - tons of oils and vinegars.  It looked gorgeous and he bought a few varieties, which we have been enjoying at home. Just look at all the colors, aren't they beautiful?

 When we looked up activities in Bath, we discovered that there was a fashion museum.  Anyone who knows my little girl, knows she is a budding fashionista.  She loves fashion, and this was something she was looking forward to with complete glee.  Although it was small, she loved every minute of it.  And bonus, one of the plaques had her name on it, spelled the way she spells it.  Something she had never seen before, so it was pretty cool.

 We forced Enoch to dress up in this schoolboy costume.  It was the only costume for boys, and he was ecstatic to wear it, which you can tell by his awesome expression.

 Hilde wore several outfits, but the red one is my favorite.  She looks like such a little lady!

 And this dress in the middle, the big one, was one of Queen Victoria's dresses.  She wore it towards the end of her life, still in mourning after all those years.