Half-term Halloweenies 2017

(Alternate title: Fashionably late)

Yes, yes, it's been forever since the last post.

I can explain.

Here in the UK, children get a one-week break, called half-term, at the end of October, which is horrifying enough. But -- BUT!!! -- children whose parents thought they were so smart by enrolling them in a school with a French curriculum get TWO WHOLE WEEKS OFF. Yes, my kindergartener, who has diligently been painting and learning her phonics in both languages, and probably eating a lot of paste (as one does), clearly deserves two weeks' rest from her travails.

Celebration dance due to arrival of care package from Grandma.

Luckily, every other child in England is off for the first week, so anything you'd want to do with the kids is packed to the gills with other kids and their parents', who look about as frazzled as I did. (Do.)

The first week was full of local-ish activities: the library, the parks, pubs with the dog, the Army Museum (2nd visit - it's super cool), and a 4-person production of the Jungle Book, which was fantastic. The 2nd week, we decided to branch out a bit more. Yes, we left London!

And it was great! We took the train to Oxford and explored Oxford Castle, an old prison. Our car was finally properly licensed, so we drove to Salisbury and Avebury to see A stonehenge and The Stonehenge (amaaaaazing).

A stonehenge at Avebury, with reference dog.

Stonehenge ... wait for it... ROCKS!

We went to the zoo for some spooky activities with other French-speaking children, and generally had a great time. On Halloween itself, we went to Ikea (everyone was happy about that!), then took Vaughn to his kickboxing class before trick-or-treating in the "Little America" section of our neighbourhood. It was chaotically busy and exhausting, but they came home happy with a respectable haul of loot, most of which has been ingested already.

"Abbey Road with Halloweenies"

Anyhoo, as I survived two more whole weeks with my children (kaff - nominate me for sainthood - kaff), I thus needed -- nay, deserved! -- two full weeks of recovery time, spent jogging with the dog, cleaning my flat, coordinating at least two different workmen's visits per week, and somehow getting nothing else done whatsoever (aside from a solo trip to Costco and Ikea in the car!) (I lived, and so did most of London, thankyouverymuch). Coming up, between now and the next two-week break (I ask you!): Tamsin's birthday. Then Christmas. And Vaughn's birthday. And several million social-ish events that require dressing up, sometimes in "Canadian casual" (jeans), sometimes in cocktail dress, and sometimes in "Lounge Suits", which I had to google. And I found this:

https://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/style_and_beauty/1032952-What-the-hell-kind-of-dress-code-is-quot-lounge.

Although the question looks, at first glance, to be written by a Canadian (did your eagle eyes spot the telltale "eh"?), I'm pretty sure the use of "lippy" and "squillion" mean that it was not. I had hope for a minute there.

So far, I am completely out of touch with London fashion, but am pretty sure it involves dark hose and booties. I went out and found some cute, cheap booties, and ordered a pair of sparkly high-top, high-heeled sneakers as well. The kids think they look "like teenager shoes." I'm ok with that, even though I'm still "completely out of touch with London fashion".