A Halloween Creation

Sophie loves crafts! Her recent creation, with a little help from mom was this Halloween graveyard. With only one minor burn on my finger from the glue gun, we accomplished this in under an hour!

The View from my Front Office..

I am loving the house...now that we are getting settled in we are enjoying it...

This is my view until a house is built across the street...

We have wild turkeys, lots of bunnies, some big bucks, and even coyotes behind our house in the wooded area. The highlights of our day are seeing an animal, we don't have the usual London foot traffic walking by our house everyday so we are entertained by the animals. It is quite the change.

Sophie's Preschool

Sophie's first day of preschool went well in September, two weeks after we got back state side. She has bonded well with a few kids at school, her favorite a little girl named Madison. Since the preschool is a coop, each family is required to volunteer one week of each term. I volunteered the third week of school, which was fun. I like the teachers, the schedule, the other kids, and the facility. Overall, I am happy with our selection and Sophie is transitioning nicely.

The preschool had it's first fieldtrip of the year a week ago at a local farm. A hay ride, corn maze and scavenger hunt, stories, and animals. Sophie loved it!

Since I don't know any of the other parents I also initiated a parents coffee which was a success and we plan to meet bi-weekly. It is nice to start meeting people in get in a groove again...

A Taste of England

My mission was to get settled in September and spend October socializing...well I have socialized a little in October.

I had my first social at the new house by inviting a few women from my mom's club over to sample a bit of England. We started with English Cheddar and water tablet crackers to ease into the more serious stuff. Next, we moved onto a Lancashire melted on some bread and British ale. Then came the Cheshire with apples, more bread and ale. Finally, we moved onto the stilton served with port and toasted walnuts. I also attempted to make some Nottingham Coffee Biscuits which were okay, the Derbyshire Chocolate Cake was a disaster and unservable (tasted good, but stuck to the pan and was unable to be pried out!). We had a few other European goodies and some great conversation which I have been missing!