Caleb on video, and Belles riding photos

Make a Smilebox photobook

Kirkstone House Music Competition

Tonight was Caleb's music competition.  He has only been playing the piano for 1 year, whereas the rest of the competitors have been playing for many years.  Only two kids are picked from each "house" to perform.  Caleb was one of them from Truesdale, and the other student from Truesdale was a boy 2 years older than Caleb who plays piano also.  We had already given him the thumbs up for making the cut, so the outcome of tonight did not matter.  They award a first, second and third place trophy, and each award is for a different musical instrument.  So you may have 3 piano players and only one will be able to place.  It doesn't matter if all 3 are better than any of the other competitors.  Caleb did a great job and he played "Turkish March".    He did pause in the middle of the song, with an "ah, I messed up" and then continued playing on.  He did not hope to win, so he was not nervous (he says) He does read music, but likes to memorize the piece so he can play it anywhere.  He did not place but a young man (age 15) who has been playing for 7 years took first place with the piano, and he played an Italian piece of music.  It was very moving.   I just looked at him and thought, that will be Caleb in a couple of years!   Second place was a couple of teenagers, one played electric guitar and the other played the drums.  They co-wrote the piece of music they played and it was rockin wonderful!  Third place went to a young man who played two pieces of music with the trumpet.  I tried to load the video of Caleb, but I cannot get it to upload.  Sorry!  You will have to hear him in person some day! 

Yes, that is Bella, my little 6 year old.  Today was book day at school, and the kids can choose any character from a book and they get to come to school dressed as that character.  Well, as you all know, Bella is a huge Hannah Montana fan.  But instead of wearing a blonde wig all day, she opted to be Miley Cyrus.  Since I didn't have to far to go to make that happen, we had a pleasant morning and she looked stunning for school.  Some of the kids showed up as cats, there was a Snow Queen from Narnia (my favorite) there was a Hairy Hagus (won first place for best dressed)  not a favorite of mine, we had witches from the book, Winny the Witch (very popular here in England), we had cheerleaders, ponies, and cowboys.  Many more, but I can't remember them all in my old age!  lol 

Tomorrow night we will attend a music competition for Caleb.  Two children from each House is chosen to compete.   The other student is 2 years older than Caleb and has been playing for years.  But that is ok, because Caleb has been playing for 10 months and was chosen to be in this competition.  As far as I am concerned, he is already a winner!  I can't wait to see him perform in front of a crowd.  He has only done this once, at Calvary church when we were home at Christmas, and he was very nervous.  Today, the teacher had him play his "Turkish March" in front of one of the year 8 classes and he said that he just kept getting faster and faster.  Did I mention that Caleb memorizes all these classical pieces and jazz pieces and then plays them?  That is why during nerves, he can end up going faster and faster!  lol    He will get better.  This is all experience, I tell him.  Please pray for him for tomorrow night as he goes through another "growing" experience here in England!

Football Club

New this week, Belle has joined the football (soccer) club after school.  She is the fastest girl in her school and 2nd fastest in the whole school.  She takes great pride in this!  I can't wait to see how well she pushes a ball in front of her while running fast.   I believe there are 4 girls total with about 18 boys.  Should be interesting.  She has also added French club on Fridays at lunch, Computer Club after school on Mondays and on Fridays we have Pony Lessons.  That is one thing I can say about the English schools here, they keep the kids busy!

Mid Term Week

The Rodman girls are on the left of the picture, but the picture is too wide for the blog!  Sorry girls!

Since Dawn and Ben are coming over March 18 for our Malta trip, we stayed home for our mid-term break.  At least I think we stayed home!  On Sunday evening, my drier quit heating and Monday I spent the day trying to get a hold of someone to give me information or come out and look at it.  On Tuesday we got together with the Rodmans, Murphys and Zaks and took the kids bowling.  We had a great time visiting and getting to know each others kids better.   On Wednesday, we decided to jump down to London, eat lunch at the Original First Hard Rock Cafe (imagine my joy when they advertised "Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing" for my salad) !   Caleb claims that my face was priceless and I will have to trust him on that since a mirror was not available!  lol  After lunch we headed for the London Zoo.  For those of you that haven't been, it is a must for the kids.  Lots of stuff to see and do.  Easily a day trip all around.    On Thursday we then headed into Peterborough for a Movie.  BOLT it was, and it was great!  You know those Pixar people, they know how to do a great cartoon for the kids, with all the comments for the adults!  We were laughing all the way through.  On Thursday night Caleb had an English friend over to spend the night.  James has joined our family many nights for dinner and a sleep over and we enjoy his company and dry sense of humor.  Most times I have to look at him to see his face when he is making comments about something so I know whether to believe him or NOT!  I think he likes pulling my American leg!  On Friday I went bowling with the boys and Belle had a Pony Club Day.  I dropped off a clean girl in the morning and picked up a muddy, wet girl in the afternoon.  She took her first fall off her horse when the pony tripped and Belle lost her balance.  After her teacher checked her out, up on the horse she went again.  She absolutely loves riding and wants a dog and horse when we go home.  Thankfully we have 3 acres and can actually have a horse at the house if we want.  We just have to decide if Mom wants!  So between washing, and then hanging each load out in the conservatory under a heater and fan, and running every day with the kids, I need a vacation!  It was good to keep them busy, but I do feel like we have actually been gone for the week.    Until I blog again.............

Me, Belle and Emily on the train headed for London Zoo!

Noah, Anna, Emily, Belle, Me and Caleb in front of the gorilla house.  Lady on the left is......somebody that didn't move.  :)  Sarah Rodman is the woman behind the camera!  Thanks Sarah for all the great pictures of our day together!

SNOW AGAIN !

The above photos were taken this morning at 7:30 a.m.  The kids are off school for the day and Dan is home from work, at least this morning.  In the states, this wouldn't be such a problem, but here, there are only snowplows for the large cities.  We don't have one in Nassington nor for all the back roads that help us to reach the AI, our first major carriage way  to get us into Peterborough.  So, we have an extra Saturday in the middle of the week.  

Something that I saw the other day that we would never see in the states????  As the snow was falling, I walked down to school to pick up Bella.  It was snowing, we had about 3 inches on the playground, and when I walked in through the gate, I saw all these beautiful umbrellas everywhere.  The colors were wonderful against the snow.   They use umbrellas here in the snow, like they would the rain!  I thought it was hilarious.  An English friend asked, "wouldn't we use umbrellas in the states for snow"?  Uhhhhhh, NO.  We had a good laugh, but I wish I would have taken a picture.  Who knows, with the way the year is going, I will have another chance!

Snow in the UK

Today we got up to our largest snow yet in the UK!  We have been here almost two years and we have had a couple "brushes" of snow which are gone within 2 hours.   The snow today is the most they have had since 1991.  Isn't that great!  And it is not going away. Our high today is only 34 and it is 28 now.  The snow continues to fall.  The kids are both in school, much to Caleb's disappointment.  I think he is quite jealous of Ben's snow days that he has had this year.  Central Illinois had a bone chilling cold a couple of weeks ago with some snow, so Ben ended up with 3 snow days in a row!  Lucky him.   Hope all is well with everyone out there!  We will "tuck in" and enjoy our snow while it lasts!

Belle at the front of the house, February 2 -2009