February "tea" - Amy and Tina

Every first Tuesday of the month, the ISE (International Service Employees) wives living here with Perkins, get together for a "tea". Before I moved to England, these would rotate between different houses...that was before there were lots of little kids here. This "tea" was basically just a time to catch up, share information, and meet any new wives that have moved to the area. It was probably a lot more of a "proper" tea at some point, but now everyone drinks everything but tea and a lot of Diet Coke! The location for the tea has been moved all over the city of Peterborough. It moved from the houses, to a nice hotel in Oundle, a town about 30 mins from where we live. It was pretty difficult for me to get there since Max was only in school for about 2 hrs on Tues and I had Blake with me who wasn't too interested in being there. The next place was the Village Hall in our village just a short walk away. That was a perfect location for me, but there were starting to be more and more kids and there wasn't a lot for them to do in a big empty hall. Then came Holli!! She offered to have them at her house so that she could be there. Her little girl, Gwen, was taking naps in the early afternoon and just couldn't make it to the Village Hall without messing up the entire day from a missed nap! We all know how important those naps are! Holli has a great house to host...lives in a central location and has a great toy room filled with boy and girl toys! Most of us would never offer to have anywhere from 30-40 people (including loads of kids) at our house once a month, but Holli is just a little bit crazy like that! (I love her dearly!!) And to top it off, it has now switched from an hour or so gathering to an all afternoon affair with lunch!

These are just some of the people that attended the tea in February. Most of the kids were playing!

This last tea was not quite as much fun as the others because 2 of my closest friends are moving back to the states in the next week or so. We all went together and bought them a going away gift. We want them to remember us every time they use their gift and think about all of the great friends they have left behind! Tina is leaving next week to have a baby in April and her husband will be following a few weeks later. We got her a diaper bag she had been eyeing and filled it with some baby girl clothes, a Radley brolly (Radley is a brand name of bags, purses, etc that are made in England and a brolly is an umbrella, of course) and a Radley wallet. She was thrilled!!

Amy was working full-time at Cat before her husband was transferred to Perkins. She has been on spousal leave for over 2 yrs and has truly enjoyed her time home with her son and twin girls. She is not ready to go back to work, but might have to soon after they move back to Peoria. We were hoping to make that task a little less painful by buying her a sharp looking briefcase! We got her a Radley bag, wallet and brolly for her to be quite fashionable as she showed up to work...if in case that does happen! The pictures I took of her by herself were not good as she had bright red eyes from crying! She would have killed me! This one was taken after everyone had left and she had pulled herself back together! Love you, Amy!

Tina and Amy - We are hoping that everything goes well with the packing and moving this week. Please know that even though I might not cry a whole bunch (I'm just not much of a crier...Tina isn't either for that matter!), I will miss you terribly! I will see you soon for our home leave at least and see that new baby girl. You have made the last couple of years so much fun and created many wonderful memories for me. Thank you and love you!