Have Goslings, must Travel: The Children's Museum

Saturday, 28 September 2013

A year in

So, we have been here a year. I can't quite believe it. I have spent most of this week looking through photos for our frames we got for Christmas, and rereading my blog. Wow, what a lot we have done.

I was going to give a big old speech, but the more i think about it, I would have too much to say. Instead, I have spent the past couple of nights putting together a little snapshot of out lives in the last 12 months. I hope y'all enjoy whats below. There are links below each picture relating to what is in the photo.

I am so proud of what we have achieved here this year. I don't want to brag, I just want everyone to enjoy what we have done. I have fun writing this blog, even if it does seem like a chore at times...

Happy reading, and I look forward to you all keeping up with us in our upcoming adventures:

NASCAR race

Trip back to the UK

Many birthdays

France next summer......

And plenty more in between

Free photo collage made with Smilebox

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Digital collage generated with Smilebox

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A free picture collage by Smilebox

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Free picture collage created with Smilebox

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Free digital collage created with Smilebox

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Collage personalized with Smilebox

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Personalize a collage

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This picture collage created with Smilebox

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NOTE ABOUT THE PHOTO COLLAGES

I originally began collaging these photos on my iPad, using my last 1000 photos. That took me back to Florida (can you believe we have taken 5000+ photos in the last year? the joys of iPhones). I used Smilebox to collage them. When I downloaded the same app to the Mac, it was a pain in the a**e to use, quite a hassle, though the choice is better. I just hope the slide show thingy-me-bobbies come out ok.

Oh, and I am becoming a bit intrigued as to who actually reads my blog. When I see my friends and ask them if they have, they normally have not! I don't mind that. At the end of the day, I do this for my own sanity as much as anyone else's. I am just intrigues, thats all.....

So if you are reading this, please comment/message on the source you found it, being Facebook, Twitter, Expat Blogs, BlogExpat, Pinterest, Google and anywhere else that shares this blog. Will help me to market it in the future.....

Monday, 17 June 2013

The In laws visit

Hiiii

Just a quick one.....

I am well and truly in the remit of school holidays now. Isaac has been off for a week, Oliver well over 2. Although, it doesn't feel like it quite yet, as we have had the in laws here...

Granddad and Isaac in the pool

It was nice to have Keith and Chris stay with us. Chris was not well when she arrived, so I took them to check out the standard of American health care (like me, they are well used to how the NHS works...). Fortunately, they were seen, given a prescription, charged under $180 (including prescription) in under an hour. Went well. I swapped cars with my friend (thanks Anna), so I was able to run them around, without the necessity of them hiring a car to start with. They saw Greenville, the mall, and went to the pool quite a lot with the boys. On Monday, they hired a car, and headed to Atlanta, to see Fleetwood Mac in concert. I think they enjoyed it. They then headed to some mountains above Atlanta, for a night ~~away from lots of noise,~~ for some rest and relaxation, before heading back here on the wednesday afternoon. We went for a nice meal on Thursday evening, and they headed back on Friday night. They are already being missed by the boys, and us.

The boy LOVES water

Flight simulator

While they were here, we took a trip to The Children's Museum in Greenville. The boys loved it, and it was nice for Nanny and Granddad to be able to do something new with the boys. We liked it too, as you can imagine my boys were completely taken with the Formula 1 bit, the supermarket and the building site area. It was a lot of fun. We went quite late in the day, so a lot of the areas were pretty messed up and some of the activities were not working at all. There were also some quite rude kids, but we wont dwell on that....

Upset boys

We were also able to experience the Farmers Market in Downtown Greenville for the first time. What enticed us out was 'Touch a Truck' day. It was billed as a great opportunity for kids to see large vehicles they normally see on the road, upfront, and have a play and touch them. Great, except it was heaving. We got there about 10am. Walked out of the multistory into the display area, and were completely taken aback by the formality of queueing. Every vehicle had a queue at least 10 people deep. We don't do queues. This should not have been strange to us, coming from the kingdom of queueing, but the formality and organization these people had put upon themselves was beyond me. We walked to the other end of the display, where there was a huge fire truck with a big crane, again queues either side to have your photo on the bottom of the crane, or sit in the seat. We turned around, and the boys were fortunate enough to be able to go in the back of the school bus. There was then a small baby sitting with parent in fire truck next to school bus. Baby liked the LOUD horn on the fire truck. So we had a very upset Isaac and Sebastian. Wasn't really worth it.....

So the holidays 'proper' begin for me tomorrow. This week we are meeting Liene at a local library for an event involving kazoo's, lets hope Isaac does not freak at the noise.... Having some friends round on Wednesday afternoon. Thats all so far, let hope more things appear. I imagine we will spend a bit of the time at the pool, it is so nice to have. I need to do a type of reward chart for Oliver and Isaac to entice them to do their school work, reading and help a bit more with the chores. The summer time rules are working ok so far, other than the above mentioned things......