'Not Just Jordan' Journeys to the UK and beyond: June 2012

Last summer we went to Abbey Gardens in Bury St. Edmunds with Tutu a few times, click here or here to see, but Daddy hadn't been yet. So we all went to Fia's riding, then headed to Bury for lunch and some fun in the garden.

Sophia's teacher had them try different things with their hands and feet while seated on their pony.

She had to reach down and touch her wellies, out of the stirrups.

She also turned around backwards and then frontwards again, but I wasn't ready with the camera when she was facing the wrong way!

Then she stretched her arms forward and her legs back.

Then she had to find her stirrups again.

Little Miss Cupcake watched, eager to have her own lesson now that she is five!

Sophia gave her pony a nice pat goodbye.

We found a nice restaurant in Bury and ordered a bread platter, an olive plate, hummous and other dips, salad, and a shrimp appetizer. It was all delicious and I was thankful that we could order stuff to share rather than just get the kids the typical selections from the kid's menu. My girls prefer real food!

Tessa waits for her food.

Sophia watches people pass by on the street below.

Sophia poses by the fireplace.

Silly girl.

After eating, we went to the park.....

Ariel, Tessa, and Sophia are in the rose garden.

Doing a dance move...

They each chose their favorite rose...bright pink for Tessa.

Sophia liked the yellow roses.

Then they climbed on the Abbey ruins.

The weather alternated between hot, sunny, cloudy, windy, and cold.

Sophia reminds me of a cat when she finds a high spot to relax. To me, that would be anything but relaxing!

The girls rolled down this hill every way imaginable!

They watched the ducks for awhile.

Sophia climbed the walls.

A river view

Daddy and his girls.

A nice little nook for naughty little girls!

This is the wall around the gardens.

We stopped at an ice cream vendor on our way out of the park.

Yum!

Union Jack flower box!

We took this photo for our friend Abbey because the girls liked finding her name!

We all like to take a photo with a little red door!

Ordering party things from the US is much cheaper than buying them in the UK, but shipping requires you to order things very far in advance. So I asked Tessa to choose a theme months ago and Under the Sea was her decision. For an almost five year old, sticking with a theme for several months is very difficult! Eventually, I told her the Under the Sea party was going to happen, with or without her. Luckily, she decided she would like to be a part of it and not to protest. The party turned out to be everything she wanted. Her friends came, she dressed up like a mermaid, they played fun games, they ate fun food, she opened wonderful presents (while the guests were still there!), and she had an amazing cake! Party success! There were streamers and balloons everywhere as well as an ocean scene setter to make the living room look like an ocean, an Ariel scene setter decoration on the sliding glass door, a map from Ariel's Grotto at Tokyo DisneySea, under the sea books everywhere, all of the girls' under the sea toys decorating the house, blue window paint to look like waves and fish on the windows, Hawaii scene setters and Hawaiian decorations in the dining room (so we could swim up for food!), and a sea shell with a pearl in front of the fireplace.

Tessa (in her Little Mermaid costume from Grandpa) with two of her good friends from school.

The party started with kids decorating a blue foam sheet with markers and ocean themed stickers. I asked them to leave the inside blank so that I could attach a photo later and give them out to the kids. Then we started some games. The weather was decent, so even though it was the one time I hadn't prepared to do the party outside (Aahh!), we ended up in the garden anyway. We played a Sea Monster game, where I was the sea monster and stood on one side of the garden and the kids asked if I was hungry from the other side. Everytime I said "no" they came closer until eventually I ran over and grabbed several of them.. All the children that were captured then became sea monsters with me for subsequent rounds.

After that, we played fish, fish, shark for awhile (same thing as duck, duck, goose). Then we played pass the parcel to music from The Little Mermaid. This is a VERY popular game here, and I believe we have played it at every party we have been to in England (which is a lot!). It was interesting to prepare it for the first time as you wrap a gift in wrapping paper, then add a sweetie (package of Finding Nemo gummy fish for this party) and again wrap in wrapping paper, add sweetie, wrap, add sweetie, wrap, and continue until you have enough layers for every child to unwrap at least once. A few of the kids didn't play, so some of them were able to unwrap a few layers, which meant I lost count of how many layers were left so Tessa was the one that unwrapped the last layer with the fish suncatcher prize! Luckily, she just passed it off to a friend.

Sophia and Ben being silly during fish, fish, shark!

Fish, fish...

Pick me, pick me!

Shark!

This is the kids playing Pass the parcel, while I was in the conservatory starting and stopping the music.

Several days before the party, I spent hours and hours drawing and cutting out sea creatures which the girls coloured and then we attached to a paper clip. Afterwards, I thought I could have printed some off the internet and saved a lot of work, but oh well, I was pleased that they resembled sea creatures and I had drawn them! I attached a bit of yarn to a stick with a magnet on the end and the kids went fishing! My mom had sent shell necklaces from Hawaii, so I allowed the kids to trade in their catch for the necklaces (and keep the catch, if they chose).

Then we played "Mouth of the sea cave," in which children crawled through a sea cave (cardboard box decorated by the girls and I) to more music. When the music stopped, whoever was in the cave was out and came to get a prize. After that, the kids played mermaid statues but I went to go check on the food and the game turned into wild playing in the sea cave instead.

Tessa and a friend played piano...

and then they played with the decorations too!

We steered all the kids into the dining room for some food, while Chuckolate was finishing off the veggie burgers and salmon burgers on the grill for the adults. The kids had fish shaped ham sandwiches, cheese sandwiches, and under the sea shaped fish sticks. I also made sea shell pasta salad and chuckolate made some delicious lomi lomi salmon! We had several ocean themed snacks, as well, including gold fish crackers and shrimp crisps. Then we had a fruit plate and shrimp cocktail! The adults also had the burgers and it was all delicious!

I bought Tessa this shirt with a mermaid before she got the mermaid costume, so she really wanted to wear both during her party! So just before the presents....wardrobe change!

After eating, Tessa just couldn't wait to open her presents anymore! Children do not often open their presents during the parties here, but I decided that the birthday girl couldn't be forced to wait any long without it being considered cruel and inhumane! The girls all helped her open her presents while the boys played. Tessa was so excited to have so many wonderful things and to open them with her friends.

After presents, we brought out the cake. A friend of ours decorates cakes beautifully and she did an unbelievable job creating sea creatures to decorate Tessa's cake! Plus, it was delicious! I had also made cookies shaped like seastars and whales and number 5s. Then we had more fruit and blue jello with gummy fish and worms "swimming" in it.