Morgan Family Travels - 29

Well, Happy Easter, all! We are down to two weeks left, and we've had a good week.

Last weekend was quite low-key, allowing all of us to try to recuperate from our bugs. On Monday, Kaitlyn, Trevor and I went off to see Mary Poppins (Trevor having begged his mother's ticket off her at the last minute ... now there's sacrificial love for your son!) We had dinner at Garfunkle's restaurant, a two-minute walk from the theatre. We then went into Foyle's (our favourite London bookstore, and right next door) for twenty minutes before the show started. We had excellent seats - stalls, row R - and the show was amazing! The stagecraft was pushing boundaries we'd certainly never seen pushed before and it was all quite an amazing first exposure to professional theatre for Kaitlyn!

Tuesday we went down to Havant to spend the day with them and take the children for a few hours while Kim went to sing. We took them back to Undercroft (an indoor, nursury-school like place where you can go and play with your children - it is amazingly well-equipped, and gives the children lots of room to play), which they thoroughly enjoyed (and was about the only non-wet place in Havant that day, I think!)

Wednesday Trevor and I took the girls into London to see the Modernism exhibit at the V&A, and then for a couple hours in the Science Museum (including sighting a club foot brace from 1880 - not a lot has changed since then ...)

Thursday Helen and Robin took the girls and I to Silchester, the site of an old Roman town. You can still see a lot of the walls, and the ampitheatre, and there's also a medieval church there that is quite beautiful. Its quite impressive when you put your imagination into it, but not necessarily a walk to be done with a push chair!

Friday being Good Friday, the girls and I went down to church in the morning with Helen for what was supposed to be a stages of the cross for children. It did have worship stations set up around the church, which were appreciated, but there weren't any other children there, so it lacked the community element, which was a shame. After lunch Trevor took us out for a hike with the girls up Leith Hill to the tower, and up the tower to the highest point in Surrey. Hannah actually walked the whole way, which is definitely working towards a push-chair-free life.

Speaking of push-chairs, we have now given away our chariot and kid-carrying back-pack, so we are definitely growing towards a baby-accessory-free life all the way around.

Friday evening Trevor went down to Andover to spend a jolly 24 hours killing things with his brother. I believe much fun and relaxation was had by both of them.

Saturday the girls and I joined Helen and Robin in various 'ready-for-easter' activities in the morning and lounged around for the rest of the day.

Sunday Trevor and the girls and I went to Christ Church in Woking again for a very enjoyable Easter Morning all ages service, complete with a communion that involved the option of gluten-free wafers, which we were very pleased about. From church we came home long enough to change and then headed out again to Frenscham Pond where we met up with all of the UK family for a picnic lunch and hike. Having run some of the energy out and acquired a large collection of sand, we all returned for a family dinner of Easter lamb and chocolate eggs! Just before everyone left, Auntie Kimmy did the honours of removing Kaitlyn's first front tooth!!! (And, having been informed in front of Kaitlyn that the going tooth-fairy rate was 1 pound, and having told Kaitlyn there was a bonus for the first tooth, the tooth-fairy then produced 1.20 for exchange!)

Yesterday we joined a group of 20-30's for an Easter Monday pub walk, which was good fun. Hannah got carried around for most of it (because of speed, primarily) but did walk at least a mile or so at the end, and Kaitlyn walked all but about 500 meters, when she had a piggy-back ride. The pub lunch was nothing spectacular, and the service was appalling even by British standards, but the company was very enjoyable.

Currently we're back at our homeschool books, and Trevor's gone off with his mother to buy fence posts and rent fence post diggers to tackle some work in his parents' back garden before we go. Kim and Davita and I are planning a girls' day out for Saturday and leaving our husbands with our children! Apart from that I think at some point Trevor and I will try to get back up to London one last time, and I've got the obvious job of trying to repack all of our stuff back into our suitcases (hopefully!) to get us back home again.

Looking forward to seeing all of you in Canada again, and feeling sad to be leaving all of you in England...