Our last 2 weeks in England

I know I am WAY behind on updating this blog and many of you are very disappointed in me! I am so sorry and will do my very best to get this updated. Thanks for being patient and I know you will continue to be in the future. We have closed on our house (YEAH!) but are living in an apartment until our sea shipment arrives sometime in June. When we left the states, we had to put some things in storage. Those things are being delivered on Tuesday and I am NOT looking forward to it. We have lived without them for 3 1/2 yrs and probably don't need them now! Dan is really ready to get his tools and get started doing some home projects again, but other than that we aren't even sure what we have coming! Anyway, I need to get caught up and document our last couple weeks in England. We had so many things to do and people to see! We we able to spend time with many of the people that made our time there so wonderful. I just kept thinking, "Why did we wait until the last week to do this! We should have been doing this all along!" The day after we returned from the states, one of Max's classmates had a birthday party. There are several indoor play places in England...a great place to go when it is raining outside! Max and Blake loved it and worked up a good sweat!

Blake, Max and William after playing for a couple hours...so much fun!

That night, I was able to have dinner with about 15 of the mums from Max's class. A special thank you to Michelle for planning and for all of the mums that came to have dinner with me! I met some wonderful ladies from Copthill and only wish I had more time to spend with them. Time just goes by so quickly! Thanks for helping to make my time in England so great! Sonya and Michelle were 2 of the first mums that welcomed me at Copthill when Max started nursery at 3 yrs. It made all the difference in the world when I took him to school and actually knew the names of a couple people. Now I have to start that all over again in a few months! Can't you guy just move here??!! I have pictures of all the other mums that came to dinner, but I don't think some of them would really want them on the blog! Some of the pictures just weren't that flattering, but are great memories for me! The next morning, the packers arrived. There were 3 of them and they got after it!! I wasn't at all prepared for it. I figured they would start in the rooms we didn't use that much. Oh no..they started in the kitchen!!..as well as the toy room, dining room and Max's room. They asked if I wanted to hold a few kitchen things out and I had not even thought about it. I still needed to make cupcakes for the classes at school and cookies for the neighbors. It was complete madness!! I had to just leave the house for awhile. This is how it looked after the first day! This was Max's room. We slept on mattresses through the weekend and then moved to a little cottage for the last few nights. (Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of it). On Thursday night, Dan took his work team out for drinks and then on to his monthly poker game. Wow....what a night he had! Thanks to Ben for driving a drunk guy around all night and then picking him up for a meeting at 7:30am the next day! Dan really had a great experience at Perkins and became quite emotional thinking about saying good-bye and leaving such a wonderful group of people. His job in England really brought back his passion for product development and, from what people have told me, he helped bring that passion to each member of his team. (I'm not biased at all though!) While he was out with the guys, Max, Blake and I went over to Holli's for one more Papa John's pizza night. I can't even begin to tell you how much all of us love her and her family! They moved to England one year after we arrived and we became fast friends. Our kids loved being together and we loved it even more! We miss you all! Friday night, we were invited to Kelly's house for dinner. If you have read my blog, you know how special Kelly is to our family. Dan and I wouldn't have been able to do half the things we did in England without her. We can't wait for her to come visit...hopefully in September! Since she just lived down the street, her parents got to spend a lot of time with the boys also. They loved having the boys come over (at least that is what they told me!) when Dan and I were gone and were there to help Kelly if she needed them.

I'm not sure that Gary is really enjoying them at this point!!

Thanks Kelly for being the best "babysitter" we could ever have! We love you and miss you!

Saturday night was a fantastic "Good-bye for now!" dinner with many of the other American Caterpillar couples that are living in England. There were about 40 people that came to wish us well. We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant and then a few of us tried to stay out a little bit later and party in the city, but that didn't last too long. Talk about feeling really, really old!!

The ISE (International Service Employee) group in Peterborough changes continuously over the years as people move back to the states and others move to the UK. The people are a great source of knowledge and support when moving to this new country. Most of the families we did not know before moving and now consider them great friends! Now we are just waiting for all of them to move back! (I know Holli...you never want to come back!!)

Sunday was a beautiful day and we were invited over to the E. family's for the afternoon/evening. They live in a fantastic little village. We took a walk through the village, stopped at the pub for a drink and then enjoyed a wonderful bbq. This was the perfect "English" weekend day. We have really grown to appreciate the relaxing weekends in England. People really take the time to enjoy their families and the amazing country.

Their neighbors just had several baby lambs and this one black lamb decided that he didn't want to bond with his "sheep mom" but rather the "human mom". He is now one of their pets!

Our walk through the village church garden and cemetery.

This is why we miss England! Their home is just beautiful and the setting is even better. Thanks Dave, Jan, Eleanor and Jack for an amazing day! Please come visit us in America! The next night, Monday, William's mum invited us to their Chinese restaurant for dinner. She has invited us many times before, but we never got it planned. This was definitely one of those things we should have done 3 yrs ago! We were treated like the most special guests and were given enough food to feed us for the entire week!

Max and Blake filled up on prawn crackers and weren't too interested in the Chinese food. William's grandad is the chef and he made them some special chicken tenders for them for dinner. The boys were much more interested in playing with William than sitting down and eating. We had a 5 course meal which included crispy duck and lobster. Dan was loving it!!

Thanks William, Mai and grandad for an amazing meal, wonderful hospitality, and for the beautiful gifts you gave us. We miss you and miss seeing you everyday at school!

The next night, we were invited after to Jason, Natascha, and Jasmine's house for dinner. They let the kids make their own pizzas and then Jason made a couple for the adults.

They were a little bit worried what to make for a couple picky people in our family (not me of course!) and what the boys would play with as they just have those girly toys. Well, the meal was great and the boys loved playing with their dog, Basil, and then took over the X-box. Usually they want to just watch Drake play his at the K's house, but this night they actually played it!

Thanks guys for another great night with friends! You have a beautiful home.

I knew Thursday was going to be a rough day. It was the boys last day of school and Dan was giving a little "good-bye" talk at work. Dan went with us on the school run that morning at I was tearing up in the car park! I lost it as soon as I walked into Max's classroom and gave his teacher, Mrs. P, a hug. It continued on into to Blake's classroom and his 3 teachers. I cannot say enough great things about this school and their teachers. We have had the best experience at Copthill over the last 3 yrs and the boys have just learned and grown so much. They are so supportive and really got to know the boys and their different personalities. I picked the boys up a little early so that we could get to Perkins to support Dan. When I walked into the room, all of the pre-school and reception students were sitting on the floor circled around Max and Blake who were up on a chair. The kids were talking about how much they were going to miss Max and Blake and how much they loved them. Obviously, I shed a few more tears! The boys were given hugs by several of their classmates....Blake hugged his best friend, George, at least 4 times....I gave hugs to all of my friends and rushed to Perkins. Dan had a tough time getting through his talk, but thought it went better than expected. People were prepared and warned that he would get emotional and Dan had a couple of guys ready to throw in jokes when it got bad. I was glad that we were able to make it and give a little bit of support.

Our last night in England was spent at Holli and Andy's. We wouldn't have wanted to spend it anywhere else! The boys (and Gwen) just played and played and the weather was beautiful! Ahdonna, Jerome, Jerha and Jada also walked down to say good-bye. I was so glad because I didn't run into them at school as we were quickly saying good-bye.

Thanks to everyone for helping to make so many memories the last couple of weeks. We have made so many friends and had the most wonderful experiences! We hope to see you all soon!