Halloween at Herstmonceux

Today was another gorgeous autumnal day so we packed a picnic and went to the Jubilee green while Rhods was out on his bike.

We relaxed a bit in the afternoon before the full evening of Halloween events kicked off!
This year for Halloween we did not go trick-or-treating, but we did watch the final match of the rugby World Cup (New Zealand vs Australia) while Rhiannon went to a birthday party, then we all went to the Herstmonceux observatory which is about 45 minutes away from us. I've been wanting to go here for awhile but tonight the big telescopes were available for an open evening AND for once we had clear skies!

Taken with my iPhone through the eyepiece of a small telescope

There were loads of science exhibits which could have taken our attention all night, but we pried ourselves away so that we could look into the amateur telescopes that were scattered around the lawn and also go into the BIG telescopes. The most impressive one was the Thompson 26-inch Refracting Telescope

Inside Dome E with the Thompson 26-inch Refracting Telescope which is 125 years old!
The floor moves up to the eyepiece for the telescope rather than the telescope moving. 

It was a beautiful night and also was so lovely to do something a bit different for Halloween and Grandma Debi's last night.

Autumnal times

It hasn't been that cold lately, and actually we have had some gorgeous autumnal days with that low golden light and leaves of all colors. We went for lunch today at the Gallipot in Hartfield and then the kids collected some beautiful leaves to start making craft projects.

Glyndebourne

Our favorite librarian Aven from Forest Row library told us that there is a really good opera on at Glyndebourne this week, so Rhodri and I took advantage of Mom's offer to babysit and we made an evening of it. The opera we saw was this: http://www.glyndebourne.com/tickets-and-whats-on/events/2015/mozarts-die-entfuehrung-aus-dem-serail/ and it was wonderful.

We had really good seats at only £29/ each overlooking the orchestra pit and quite close to the front.
Neither of us had ever been to this famous opera venue before and we were both really impressed. Thanks Mom for letting us go!

Hanging out with Grandma

We've been having a lovely time with Grandma Debi, and she even went out and bought us some board games to play during the dark and stormy days of autumn/ winter.

We won't be doing too much physical activity this half term though, since walking is not something that Mom is excited about and so prefers to sit around reading and playing games. It is very nice to have her here nonetheless.

The beginning of Christmas

Today we baked a Christmas cake using Rhodri's family's recipe. This is a cake that one must bake at least 6 weeks ahead of the intended serving event because one must then "feed" the cake over time. I've always been curious about this, so finally I got the recipe from Nain and we bought the ingredients and went to town!  Our idea is to bake this now, then when Grandma Bucky, Uncle Phil, Libby and kids come to town for Christmas, we can serve the cake and save some for them to take back to Mom/ Grandma Debi.

Here we are about to put the cake into the oven.

Grandma for a week or so

Grandma Debi arrived today to spend the October half term with us so she will have about 9 days here. This evening we all went to Tryfan's taekwondo grading event at 6pm, then we went out to dinner to La Casa in Nutley.  It was a great way to start the half term holiday!

Tryfan about to perform for Mr Simmons

Tryfan's 8th birthday party

Today was Tryfan's birthday and also his birthday party! This year we went to Blackland's Farm, which is fairly local to us, and arranged to do 2 activities and rent a hut to be able to have food and shelter. There were 8 kids: Rhiannon, Sophie, Tryfan, Bruno, Oscar, Rory, Caspar and Sam. First they did the Crate Challenge and then they did some outdoor climbing.

Tryfs and Rhiannon decorated the cake themselves

It was a good little party with good kids and a lot of laughter. Having a party straight from school until 7pm on a Monday afternoon was a bit ambitious, but everyone had a good time.

So, at a respectable 8 years of age, Tryfan...
... is very thoughtful and often asks good questions out of the blue
... loves animals of all kinds, but especially furry ones that he can stroke and cuddle
... is growing so fast vertically right now!
... loves playing sports like rugby, football/ soccer, and cricket
... is a voracious book reader (and also recently the Sports section of the newspaper)
... has a very infectious giggle
... enjoys learning things and isn't afraid of speaking up
... is a very sensitive and caring soul

We are so grateful to have Tryfan in our lives.

Concrete pendants - update

We took the concrete pendants out of their moulds today and installed them above the breakfast bar! This didn't go exactly to plan, but they work for now.

A Cozy Afternoon

I came home from work today and saw my two little sweeties diligently doing what they were supposed to be doing! Tryfan working on his homework and Rhiannon practicing guitar.

Concrete pendants

I've been wanting to make some concrete pendant lampshades ever since I saw this...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSNPJZ0y7MI
Finally I had a brainwave and thought of the perfect material with which to form the moulds! They are the plastic wrapping on the top of the Ora paper towels that we occasionally buy. My troops were excited to participate in this project, so we all got into our workclothes and sat outside on the steps to play with concrete.

Now we will leave the three pendants to sit and cure for a week before attempting to get them out of the plastic and onto a light fixture!

SB to Sussex

We had a happy reunion last night and then spent the morning leisurely packing up. It was another hot and sunny day here! Really wish we could have had more time, but we are grateful to have had the chance to come here at all. This week has worked out so, so well - far better than I could have dared hope! The kids really loved their time alone with Grandma for a few days while I was up north for Fizz.

Here we are, on the SB Airbus that left at noon to make it to LAX with no stress and plenty of time to get wiggles out before our flight at 7pm.

Familiar landmark at LAX

 We went in plenty of shops and treated ourselves to a nice Mexican feast in one of the little dining areas, then discovered this interactive digital display. The kids played here for about 30 minutes while I just sat back and observed.

We did have a good flight on Norwegian Air although the movies were the same even with today being the 1st of October (2nd Oct by the time we landed). Oh well. We all tried to sleep a bit on the plane, and actually the kids slept for about 4 hrs (Rhi) and 6 hrs (Tryfs) so although I myself didn't sleep much, I was happy that they did. Upon landing, we had a very speedy trip through immigration (no queue) and then walked to our car at my work carpark (so handy at Gatwick), and drove off! By the time we got back to the hood, it was about 2:45pm so we swung by the school to pick up the weekend homework and then went home to see Rhods. THEN we had the whole weekend to recover, and it was soooooooooooo nice.

FIZZ

I went to the Fizz Forum with work for the past few days. This was an inaugural sort of internal conference about digital innovation in my company. I had entered a sort of competition a few months ago with a colleague of mine from Madrid and our idea was selected to be presented at this forum in San Francisco! We were really surprised and excited - the primary reason for entering was to try and win a trip to California and we did it!

Laura and I answering tough questions at the end of our talk

An action shot with the whole scene during our presentation

Grand finale - all the 37 presenters + the 5 organizers

It was 2 full days of presentations, each one 20 minutes long + 10 minutes of questions, then a final day devoted to guest speakers from outside the company talking about interesting stuff! We had speakers from Google, Stanford, Frog Design and Palo Alto Security Systems (or something like that). Anyway, all really cool and it was very exciting to be part of this. I normally don't get excited about "work stuff", but this was something quite different. Plus it was fun to be so ad-hoc and spontaneous with the idea that we presented.

Tonight as soon as this last photo was taken, I said my goodbyes and raced off to the airport to fly back to SB and get the kids so we can fly back tomorrow.

Boy talk

During the family event, Tryfan really bonded with Dawson, who is his 2nd cousin (Holly's youngest son who is 14). Holly's boyfriend Craig also hung out as did Rhiannon. Craig and Dawson were totally taken with T & R's accents and tales of their lives in England, so kept them entertained for most of the gathering.

Dawson holding Savannah, and Tryfan

Dawson also brought his segway, which Tryfan and Rhiannon were both eager to try. Tryfs ended up getting to go on it a bit more than Rhiannon, probably mainly because of his persistence.

Playing on Dawson's segway

It was great to see my kids bonding with their cousins. I think cousins are absolutely wonderful in general, and I feel so lucky to have a whole bunch of great ones scattered around the planet!

Pinata party

After everyone left this afternoon, we had a little birthday party celebration for Ingrid (turning 1 on Oct 3rd), Jordan (turning 2 on Oct 4th), Rebecca (Sept 25th) and also a shout out to Rhodri (Sept 20th). We bought a sweet donkey pinata from Santa Cruz Market for the occasion. It took a lot of bats with the broom to get the candy out of it, but it was pretty fun!

John and Jordan with Tryfs, and Jackie & Carol in the background

Someone got a bubble blower gadget as a present!

Rhiannon and Luke

Rhiannon was just completely in her element this whole time looking after all these little people! She seemed to cherish every moment with her younger cousins and spread her time equally between all of them. Aunt Heidi ended up even paying Rhiannon $40 for her work, she was so grateful.

Family photos

We didn't take many photos during the day, but we did all stand for some photos on the front porch

Front: Tryfan, Grandpa Don, Carol, Rhiannon, Eric, Kristin.
Middle: Steve, Lisl, Kim, Jana, Michael, Holly, Dawnie, Mom, Phoebe, Ingrid and Rebecca
Back: Rebekka, Danny, Heidi, John, Dawson, Ben, and Will
Missing: Jordan, Luke, Billy and Jackie (all napping) + Rhodri, Ryan, Matt, Guiselle, Elisanne, Rachel

Jana, Mom, Kim and Dawn with Grandpa Don

Cousins with Grandpa Don: Will, Eric, Heidi, Danny, Holly and me

Tryfan photo-bombing us!

Cousins: Ingrid, Rhiannon with Luke, Jordan, Tryfan with Billy, and Phoebe

Looooooove our family!

Grandma Linda's memorial

Today was the big day, with relations arriving from about 10 am. It was a hot day but very, very special.

John, Jordan, Ingrid, Grandpa Don, Luke, Rhiannon, Phoebe, Will and Tryfan with Rebecca passing like a ghost behind

Tryfs and Rhiannon with Ingrid and the party scene in the background

 My cousin Holly brought her baby "mini pig" named Savannah, who seemed quite pleasant and funny and was wearing a tutu that had "I love Mommy" written on it. Classic Holly!

 We had lunch first, then gathered in the living room for the memorial service hosted by Mom.

Michael, Jana, Heidi, Rhiannon, Danny, Rebekka, Steve and Mom.

Ben, Carol, Dawnie, Kim and Holly

Grandpa Don and a classic family photo from the 1960's