Antiquing

I found another new hobby, Antiquing.  There are a massive amount of Antique shops around here.  I went to a small village which was nothing but door to door Antique shops and Thrift shops.  It was so cool to see all the wonderful old "bits" and think of how much history they had.  Here are a few things I found on my first Antiquing experience.

Wizard of Oz Pantamime

After hearing all of our friends from over here say "You must go to a Pantamime while here", we finally took their advice and went.  Although I had to ask first "What is a Pantamime".  They said it's a play, usually a musical, where the actors get the audience to participate with lots of yelling/dancing/singing.  There is a club on the defence academy that put on a Wizard of Oz Pantamime and we went as a family to try it out.  There were a few surprises in the play.  One was that Aunt Em was played by a man and another was that Elvis was in the play with the other main characters.  Evidently at some point Elvis also got stuck in Oz before Dorothy arrived.  So he went along with Dorothy to try to find her way home.  There was a lot of English humor throughout.  The characters came out and ran through the audience and really interacted with the crowd.  At the end, the kids were asked to come on stage.  Unfortunately Aaron Michael started feeling sick part way through and Aaron had to take him home, but Elisabeth was able to go up on stage. 

Group Riding Lessons

Elisabeth is in a group riding lesson with a couple of her friends from school. 

Doves Assembly

Aaron Michael's class, Doves, had a school Assembly where they participated with other classes in a play about pirates.  It was absolutely adorable!  Aaron was so proud to be on stage and had 3 or 4 lines.  He was a pirate.

Our Friend

There is an abundance of rabbits here.  Our kids think they have a pet rabbit named Peter who comes to our backyard frequently via a small whole in our privacy fence.  It may have something to do with the carrots we fill our yard with to make sure he keeps coming back.  The rabbits here are not small either.  Aaron says to keep feeding it so we can eat it and the kids get mad at him.  I guess Daddy's not getting an Easter Basket this year. 

Gloucester Beatrix Potter Store

Elisabeth was doing a project for school where she had to create a scene from a Beatrix Potter tale inside a shoe box.  We found out there was a Beatrix Potter store and museum in Gloubcester, so we decided to take the kids there for Elisabeth to get a little inspiration for her book.  The store we went in was the actual store where Beatrix Potter got her inspiration to write The Tailor of Gloucester.  They had a small museum containing Beatrix Potter memorbillia from over the years.  The back room was set up just like the room where the Tailor of Gloucester lived. 

New Years Eve and New Years Day

Our friends/neighbors, Scott and Nicholle, invited us over to their house for a New Years Eve celebration.  There were drinks, food, kid makeovers, guitar hero, dancing, flying lanterns, and all kinds of fun.   Nicholle had bought some lanterns which the kids decorated by writing a wish on them and we let them fly up into the sky to deliver their wishes.  It was a fun night/early morning as we didn't leave there until 4AM.  The kids were even still going strong at 4AM.  Elisabeth even made a new friend, Meghan from Northern Ireland, and the next day Elisabeth, Amelia, and Meghan played dress up.