photos from October

Some day to day fun....

Jonah and Ally's rock climbing class after school once a week

Proud band member

How boys wear off energy when living in tight quarters and no yard...head to your park (Primrose)

How girls might get their energy out when there are no trees to climb in your yard...yes, head to the park and find your own tree

Jonah's soccer team playing at Market Road

At Kensington Palace the real queen was crowned

Again at Kensington...Josh liked this room best (maybe Will comes here to play from time to time?)

Jonah's school team

tag in Regents after a zoo visit

Regents Park, my favorite running route

More Regents and good friends

We had a fantastic visit from our MN friends, the Homans, who moved to Switzerland a few months after we moved here....that post will need its own page so stay tuned!

FIRE!

Don't homes in London require fire alarms?

As a renter, I have never thought of looking for smoke detectors on our property.  The all-important devices are so common and expected, I've never actually searched for them.  I just assume they're there.  Problem is, they aren't!

Well, we sure could have used one yesterday.

We were going through the motions of our usual evening routines, getting kids cleaned up, house cleaned up, homework done, teeth brushed, etc.  I assumed the smoke that was winding through the house and tickling my nose was Dave lighting a candle downstairs or something.  But when the smell grew more persistent, I had to inquire "Why are you lighting candles down there?"....to which "I'm not lighting candles" set me into a serious panic. 

Frantic searching revealed that our bedspread was afire.  Seriously.  Smoke was bellowing from it and a large hole, about the size of a fist, had burned through the comforter/bedspread and the blanket underneath.  The thing was in the initial stages of going up in flames!  The source of the fire was a bedside lamp that our son had pushed aside to get to his ipod charger.  What he didn't realize is that when he moved the lamp, the bulb of the lamp was essentially pushed down onto the bedspread.  Those bulbs can be mighty hot, as this one was! 

We are fortunate.  We could have had a house fire.  Instead, I'm feeling lucky I'll just have to shop for some new bedding, and I had to have the windows open for the entire day.  But it has left me wondering - where are our smoke alarms?  Aren't they required in London homes? 

All I know is that I'm heading to the hardware store to pick up some fire alarms tomorrow, maybe even tonight.

Sending your 12 year old on a London city bus....

There are so many things that I have wanted to post about in the past few weeks.
But where has the time gone?
I'm hopeful that in the dark days of the late autumn and through the winter I'll catch up on this blog!  I've been keeping a list of all the things I want to post.


Well, here's the latest.
Dave is back in the US this week for work.  Running the household solo means coming up with creative ways to juggle the kids. Those creative ways might push my comfort zone, but after all, that is what happens in parenting.

Jonah had a soccer game at about the same time that Ally had swim team practice.  For his last soccer game, we took a city bus to the fields.  Two of his teammates were riding the bus to the game also - alone, on the city bus.  OK, I said, must be somewhat safe and possible for a 12 year old to ride the bus alone.  Many London children take public transport to and from school alone at age 11.  Was I going to be comfortable with Jonah doing so?  Time to find out.

I walked him to the bus stop and watched him get on the bus.

The Importance of a Mobile Phone.
We just picked up a reasonable phone for Jonah (and sometimes Ally) to use a few days ago.  This has become a necessity. There were a couple of unfortunate situations which could have been avoided because even I did not have a phone until a few weeks ago.  I'll have to write about those later.

Upon reaching the fields, Jonah was to call me, and he did!  He got there just fine.  When the game was done, he called me again to let me know he was getting on the bus to come home. 

He made it back to our house safe & sound. 
Another successful adventure for the Larsons in London.