Kiss

Alathea has become an expert kisser recently. When one person asks her for a kiss, she generally wants to do the rounds and kiss each member of the family.

 

Last Day of Preschool

Our whole family watched Sophia and her classmates perform several songs on the last day of preschool. The church where she attends gave her a book of prayers as a leaving gift.  She also got a folder compiling her achievements over the last year, as well as a DVD of herself and her classmates to remember her time by.  It's been a great year for her--I'm very grateful she had such a great preschool to attend.  Hopefully Alathea will follow in her footsteps in a year and a half!

Victory!

After a disappointing result last year, Wes was happy to bring home the gold in his male colleagues' 2nd Annual (Savory) Pie Competition.

 His "Champion Dad" shirt gave him extra confidence

 Wes' chicken and leek pie

 4 of the 5 entries

 2nd place: Dave's Italian take on a Cottage Pie

 Brian's take on a "Cowboy" Cornish Pasty

 Andy's lamb and mint pie

 Chris' fennel pastry encasing chorizo, inspired by a sandwich

The contestants (left to right): Brian, Andy, Wes, Dave, & Chris

Teddy Bears' Picnic

Facebookers, see http://wbsenglish.blogspot.com to view this video of Sophia:

Teddy Bears' Picnics seem to be a traditional end of the school year event at the children's groups we attend. We went to two this year--at our church's moms' and toddlers' group and Sophia's preschool.  I guess the inspiration comes from the children's song of the same name.  I'd never heard it before moving to the UK, but I think it may be sung in the US, as well. At any rate, taking your stuffed animal with you and eating picnic food is great fun for our girls.

Fruit of Our Labors

Facebookers see http://wbsenglish.blogspot.com to view this video of Sophia:

Obligatory Messy Baby Photo

Alathea's babyhood wouldn't be complete without at least one messy eating picture, so I thought we'd better document just how good that dark chocolate Hobnob was.

Extended Family

Sophia was inspired to draw this picture of Sleeping Beauty (with a couple of spare gowns) for her cousin, Abbi, after learning that although Abbi is 16, she still likes Disney princesses.

I drew these people's outlines. Sophia took it from there. She informs me this is Daddy, Mommy, Alathea, Sophia, her toy monkey, and her cousin Ben--who came to visit us via motorcycle, which is why he's wearing a helmet. She also said we don't see Abbi, Aunt Chelsey, or Uncle Richard in this picture because they're sitting somewhere in the lounge.

 

Celebrating America's Birthday

Sophia's preschool had a 4th of July party on Monday, including decorating American flag colored cupcakes, making American flags, and eating hotdogs in the garden for snack. Really nice of them considering it was just a normal day here and Sophia's the only American in the class.

 

 Still need to work on getting the details of the flag just right...

 Sporting their red, white, and blue.

Worst in Show?

Since my last, disappointing home-grown veg post, I've let the rest of our carrots grow for several weeks and was excited to see a decent sized carrot-top peeking out at me when watering. So Sophia and I decided to pull out a couple. We found we'd been growing mutant carrots. No clue what I've done wrong, but I think I'm officially hanging up my carrot growing hat.

Work in Progress

Facebookers, see http://wbsenglish.blogspot.com to view this video of Alathea:

We're teaching Alathea the names of her relatives via the pictures of them around our house. She still hasn't achieved 100% accuracy, but we'll keep working on it...

Passionate about Pies

Here's Wes' latest savory creation: chicken, mushroom, bacon, tarragon, leek, and cream pie. It tasted fantastic--even more so since I wasn't the one in the kitchen most of Sunday concocting it! It's a new recipe he's practicing for his male colleagues' annual pie competition coming up later this month. More details to follow...