Introducing.....

Meet our newest family members.....Magali and Amandine.  Named for Grace's gymnastic teachers.

The Flower Carpet

On our way back home from England, we made a detour down into the Grand Place to see the Flower Carpet.  We had heard about the flower carpet even before we moved to Brussels, and knew that it was something we definitely did not want to miss.  It only comes every other year, so we wanted to make sure we saw it this year......  but then the elbow incident happened.....  We had planned to go on the first day since it was a public holiday in Belgium.  But since we were already in England, we planned to go by on our way home.

And unfortunately.....when we did see it....... it was quite a mess.  This is the first time the Flower Carpet exhibit has ever been 5 days long.  And it was also the hottest days in Brussels.

For more information on the Flower Carpet, you can read up here:  Flower Carpet Website

To see how it looked the first day, you can go over to my friend Maureen's blog and see:  Henson's Trip to the Flower Carpet

If we're still here in 2014, I will be there on the first day!!

Jolly 'Ole England - Part Two

On Saturday, we went to Windsor Castle, which was a first for me.  I can't believe I've never been there before.....  it's really just a short train ride outside of London, and such a cute town.

And it was such a beautifully sunny day!  Although HOT!

Here is a picture of me and my little tourist.  It's hard to see, but she has headphones on for her very own audio tour.  They had a kids version, and she was walking around listening the whole time.  Well, except when Mommy wasn't quick enough to plug the next tour number into the guide......

We arrived just in time to watch the changing of the guard.  Equally as impressive as at Buckingham!

The family pic.  When will we learn to pull Grace's shirt down when we're taking pictures??

 

Cute Windsor all dolled up for the Queen's Jubilee.

Enjoying our ice lollies (popsicle).  Windsor was a two frozen treat type day!

Here is an album of all of our pictures from England this go around:  England August 2012

Jolly 'Ole England - Part One

This post is long overdue and past due...... but with all the elbow drama and working through the new school schedule, I let it slide....

So I'm back, again.... for a few updates.

When I broke my elbow, Katie sprang into action and came to our rescue.  She drove over from London, and took the girls and I home with her.

We got to hang out with Katie, Terry and India and live like real 'Londoners'.  We went with Katie and India to her music class.  The girls really enjoyed that!  We hung out in their garden and garden house, and fed the fish.  We went shopping.  Which was a blessing!  I needed to get Grace a few things for school, and the elbow threw a wrench into all my plans.  But luckily there is a Marks & Spencers and Mothercare just up the street, and we were able to get that all out of the way.  We also went to the Royal Botanical Gardens one day and took a picnic and played on the playground.

But on Wednesday, Matt got to town, and we played tourist.  We met him down by Borough Market, and walked through all the stalls and grabbed lunch.  Borough Market is a huge outdoor market in the middle of London, and they have EVERYTHING.  Afterwards we strolled down the Thames to see the sites.

Here is Matt & Audrey with Big Ben and Parliament across the River Thames.

Our lovely hostesses, Katie and India

The London Eye, Big Ben, Parliment and the River Thames.

A levitating street performer....we're still trying to figure out how they did it!!!

Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster Abbey in the background.

How many Caspermeyer's can you shove in one phone booth?

We also got to see the Olympic Rings over the Thames!!

We finished the day off with some Fish and Chips and then headed back to Casa de Rawlings for some much needed rest!

Next up....A Sunny (&hot) Day in Windsor!

Audrey's 15 month stats!

We padded her 15 month stats with an extra month..... so this really 16 months.....

Weight: 8.640 grams, roughly 19.04lbs.  25th percentile according to WHO charts; less then 5% according to CDC charts.
Height:  79cm.  31.1 inches.  50th percentile according to WHO charts; 75th percentile according to CDC charts. (This is up from 50th percentile at a year!)
Head: 46.5 cm. 50-75th percentile according to WHO charts; same for CDC - finally the charts agree on something!

Amazing to me that I have a 16 month old that is still less then 20 pounds!  Grace was almost 25 pounds at 15 months.  Audrey is only a little less then an inch shorter then Grace was at this age.  She's a skinny string bean, that's for sure.

Miss Audrey also got 2 shots; MMR and her last HIB.  She screamed bloody murder, but calmed down relatively quickly with a balloon.

Here's a picture of her this afternoon sitting with her sister watching TV.

She loves her sister, but is also loving her time just with Mama while Grace is at school.  And Grace is just LOVING school.  Another post on that to come.....