It's officially the lead up Christmas and Hyde Park's Winter Wonderland is in full swing. The modern family were guests on opening night and we all enjoyed getting into the festive spirit. There is so much to do: stroll through the Christmas market, ice skate, see the London lights on the Giant Wheel, have a German sausage and glass of mulled wine spiked with Amaretto, the list goes on. The girls had a blast and we are definitely going back next year.
I first came to the UK in 1990 for a study abroad programme in Bath. I was a journalism student and had never been outside the US except for a trip to Niagara Falls when I was a kid and the obligatory Tijuana bar hopping over the border in college. I thought living in the UK would be an adventure.
I was placed with a family with two girls; an 18-month-old named Marie and a four-year-old named Emma.
Immediately I was fascinated with the language differences. I was quickly comparing the American version of British words with Emma – jumpers are sweaters, trousers are pants, pants are knickers. Hee hee hee, isn't this fun.
At dinner, we continued the conversation, she thought it was hilarious. I was about to tell her about jello, which is jelly, and that Americans love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I thought she would find this particularly amusing.
First, there is the mud. I've never seen so much. On the pitch. In my car. On the carpet. This is a pic of the girls' football boots AFTER I cleaned them.
Second, there is Satrudays. They are no longer yours. Satrudays are spent driving from house to house picking up children to take to matches. And then to and from the matches (and sometimes back again if you forget a jacket at the football pitch.) Multiply car travel by the number of children particapting.
Third, Thursdays. Practice. In our case, it is 40 minutes away. Have you ever spent an hour in a car in at 6 pm on a November evening, drizzle on the windscreen, using an iPad as a light to try and read a book?
Fourth, the dedication. I found my daughter the morning before a match on the Internet researching the team she was about to face. I thought that was pretty thorough. (They won 4-0)
Fifth, the confidence. For my oldest, football has been the best extra ciricular activity she has done. Better than drama, French, art, dancing, Spanish, board games, piano, violin, swimming. She is a valuable part of The Team. The exercise turns her face red. She's learning about leadership.
It's book club time again! I'm always looking for suggestions on book that are interesting and entertaining yet gritty enough to spark heated discussion. I asked my mum blogger friends for some ideas and it resulted in a plethora of good reads.
1. One Day by David Nicholls. "It's about a couple who meet each other on 15th July (their graduation) and it follows their lives on the very same day until they are older. The ending is fab and totally unexpected. They're making it into a film and Anne Hathaway plays the main female character! x" (Jo Jo Kirtley)
2. The Help by Kathryn Stockett. "About the American deep south at the time when slavery was being abolished in the north. It's written from the perspective of one of the maids and is a really easy brilliant read." (Kate Takes Five)
3. Fingersmith By Sarah Waters. "By the same author as Tipping the Velvet. Victorian crime novel - lots of twist and turns in the plot and I haven't even reached the end yet..." (Kate Takes Five)
Many of you know I'm the founder of the BritMums community of parent bloggers,the UK’s largest and most influential network of parent bloggers. Our mission is to encourage and support our members and the high quality, ethical blogging they do. I started the network in 2008, and you could say I'm passionate about it.
Last month we started a Big Sis mentoring progarmme. I now have those three willing ears I always yearned for.
My latest lot of fish appeared from Delish Fish in Scotland. This time we opened the suprisingly not-so-smelly package to reveal wild haddock and wild cod fillets, all caught in the North Sea. I'm particpating in the Fish is the Dish campaign to help show that fish is easy to prepare (cue if I can do it, so can you).
The Legoland Hotel is coming! The park recently treated the modern family to a visit and gave us a quick peak at the building site. The Windsor hotel is conviently located at the edge of the park, and there are themed rooms (pirates, kingdom and adventure) and of course LOTS, and LOTS of Lego (including a pirate splash pool).
There's Arianna Huffington, Martha Lane Fox, Caterina Fake (of Flickr), Sheryl Sandberg (of Facebook) and at number 9...
Susanna Scott, Blogger and Founder of BritMums
Susanna Scott is a popular blogger at A Modern Mother and founded the hugely successful BritMums social network, which has more than 3,000 members and runs all kinds of blogger engagement programmes, events and a dedicated conference called BritMums LIve!.
I'm helping Seafish with their Fish is the Dish campaign to help demonstrate that cooking fish is easy.
My first challenge was to make fish cakes with wild and smoked haddock (thanks to DelishFish for sending it to me, I got a very nice phone call from the owner in Peterhead to check that I received it.)
I am working on a project with Kodak through BritMums to help promote their Big App, which allows you to blow up any image to wall size. It works by breaking the image into individual A4 sheets. It's very cool, and it only takes a few seconds.
There's a wall in our garden room I'd like to brighten up. The problem is I have loads of photos from recent years, and to be honest I can't decide which one to use!
There's this one of California poppies, taken at my parent's house last April. Tempting.
I had a great time speeding down the Thames yesterday, courtesy of iExplore. This newly launched travel company specialises in "thrillaxing" holidays, families included. My 50 minutes on the Thames was "thrilhausting" after all the screaming (watch the video and you'll understand).
