Monthly Vallentines: November 2014

Family selfie - the first.

Ada's Halloween cookie decorating

Daily Arthur: 2 November 14

American Arthur

Arthur's "Consular Report of a Birth Abroad" (the official document that states that Arthur is an American citizen who was born on foreign soil - the closest thing he can get to a US birth certificate) and US Passport arrived today. So it's all official that Arthur has dual citizenship like Ada and me. 

And as Mark said, he looks like airport security, so he'll have no trouble with the TSA.

Mark's birthday: Wales

The other trip we made last week for Mark's birthday was to Wales, to visit Mark's Aunt Fran (Kate's sister). They have teepees and yurts on their farm for people to stay in. It was rainy, which is normal, and not too cold, so fine for camping, especially this kind of camping!

Ada made herself right at home:

Aunt Fran has three granddaughters, so the place is set up for kids. Ada had fun exploring the woods around the farm and playing with her cousins, who were able to stop by because they live around the corner (they're the daughters of Mark's cousin, so I guess they're still Ada's cousins?).

Arthur was just happy to be there:

Arthur and I stayed in one yurt and Mark and Ada stayed in the other (it was for Mark's birthday, after all, so he got to get some sleep!). In the morning Ada had a good time raiding her snack tray from the car.

We visited a beach that was about a half an hour away - it was lovely, with a waterfall landing on the rocks nearby.

A nice way to end Mark's birthday week!

London

As with Ada, we needed to make a trip to London to visit the US Embassy to report Arthur's birth (so he could "receive" US citizenship from me) and get his US passport. If you are a US citizen, you are not allowed to enter the country on any passport except your US one, so Arthur wouldn't be able to come with us at Christmas if we didn't get it!

Mark was taking the week off of work for his birthday, so we decided to take care of it then, making it into more of a "holiday" for Ada. I used some of our air miles to get a room in a really nice hotel well located in the center, and we went early on Monday to fit some museums in.

The hotel was really nice, and Ada loved it. She actually didn't want to leave to go see the museums. She particularly like the coffee cup and saucer, into which she poured her strawberry smoothie:

Ada and her strawberry coffee

But we finally got her out of the hotel and onto the tube on the way to museums:

Ada was great on the tube

Ada has a Maisy book, where Maisy and her friends visit the museum - which is a combination of the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum. They are next door to each other in London, so we decided to visit both:

Natural History Museum

Ada did not want to be in the picture with the triceratops

Ada wasn't overly impressed with the dinosaurs or the space stuff (she did show a tad more interest in the rockets than the skeletons, for those keeping track), but she was a fan of the chocolate cake during our pit stop.

Ada loves cake

Although the tube is usually the best way to travel, it was a bit difficult with a small stroller and the two kids, so we tried a bus on the way home. Unfortunately there were some people at the front, but we did get to ride up top, and it was a red double decker, so it worked for Ada. It turned out to be very slow because of traffic, so we ended up getting off and taking the tube the rest of the way home any way. Arthur went with the flow.

We got back to the hotel, and Ada took a shower (she loves taking showers, especially if it's in the hotel) and got her pjs on. We were right across from Warren Street station, which gets really busy with commuters (so much so they can't actually get in, so they line up outside), and Ada and Mark had a good time people watching.

The next day we got up very early (thanks, Arthur!) and made our way to the embassy. We didn't have any problems the first time, but this time was even smoother, probably because: we knew what to expect, they changed the system a little bit to move people through, they now allow mobile phones inside the building (so you don't notice the time as much) and since they knew we had already successfully applied for Ada, they knew that we had proved what we needed to prove. So we were out in about an hour and forty minutes (compared to two and a half hours last time, according to my notes). We didn't take a picture right outside, but this is in Grosvenor Square, in front of the embassy - you can just barely see the giant eagle that's atop the building above Ada's head:

At the US Embassy

Then we made a trip to Hamley's, the giant toy store on Regent Street. Ada focused on a fishing toy for the first ten minutes and then basically was most impressed with the array of chocolate they sell on the top floor. She picked out a puzzle for her special treat for being so good at the embassy and she had a good time relocating some stuffed animals from one shelf to another.

Ada meets the (Lego) queen

Candy candy candy

To celebrate our coming to London, Regent Street was full of American flags - something to do with the NFL...:

All in all a good trip, and a successful one!