A Day in the Life 2/1/17

This is the first time I have written a Day in the Life post- I wanted to capture what a typical day is like for me in London, so here we go!

Today I woke up a bit earlier than usual to head to my favorite Barre class by 7am. 

My Barre class is a 5 minute walk from my flat. And I totally forgot to take a picture, just imagine me working out for 45 minutes then rushing back to get the boys ready for school and eat breakfast. I always eat the same thing for breakfast everyday (give or take)- 2 eggs scrambled with cheese and a coffee. Sometimes I will add a side of oatmeal, pancakes or a delicious chocolate croissant if we have it. 

During breakfast, Badge and I always practice his spelling words- every week he has a test on Friday and has 8 words he has to spell. He writes out his words each week and we keep them on the door in our kitchen. We also have their Halls of Fame- where they post the house points and stickers they get at school. Rowe's class doesn't do as many stickers as Badge's.

I also forgot to take pictures of the kids in their uniforms (don't worry, I did way better the rest of the day!!) but I did make this fun video of us walking to school. School starts at 8:30am, and there is a 20 minute drop off period. We try to leave the flat no later than 8:40. I have to walk the boys into both of their classrooms. Rowe is on the first level but Badge is up on the 3rd floor. Most of the time I don't even wear a jacket when I take them because I am usually sweating from going down all of our stairs and then back up all the stairs at the school! For those new around here, it is a 2 minute walk to school from our building. Not a bad commute at all!

Once I got the boys settled at school, I had to tidy up our flat. It is always a disaster after the morning rush and I can't think straight until everything is back where it belongs! 

So my flat went from this.....

 ......to this!!!

 Now that I can breath calmly with a clean space, I sat down for awhile to work on the menu and respond to a few work emails. I have not always been the best at this, but I went an entire month planning out all of our meals. I order groceries to be delivered about every 4 days, and if I have a solid plan, I find that I don't have to visit any groceries stores in between. Shopping here is not easy, as you'll see in a minute. I get very burned out though on trying to come up with meal ideas all the time! We have a short list of meals that we love but sometimes we still get stuck in ruts. Please send all healthy and delicious recipes that you have!!

 Rowe's birthday is on Saturday (How can he be turning 4????) and I needed to find a few things for him. I am taking cupcakes to his school on Friday and he requested Paw Patrol themed cupcakes. There are 36 kids in his nursery (there is one teacher per every 6 kids) so I knew I would not be able to do my typical fondant decorations. Usually, I am the crazy cake decorating lady but I held back this year and decided to purchase the cupcake toppers. I found a neat cupcake kit online, but I wasn't able to order it without paying silly shipping fees, so I decided to take my chances and visit some local shops. 

Since I'm in central London, there are not a lot of large grocery stores. Most of them just have the basics and are not any larger than a convenience store. I visited the largest store (about a 15 minute walk) first and didn't find the cupcake toppers but did find the Paw Patrol character the boys have been wanting!

The next shop was a 5 minute walk away and I finally found the cupcake kit but there was only 2 boxes. I needed 4. I did a quick search on my phone and saw another store 1.5 miles away. I debated what to do- there wasn't a good way to get there other than walking and it was raining outside. 

 Finally, I decided to just push through and walk there. I had to stop by the post office anyway (to pick up a package) and a little walking couldn't hurt me! Here are some of the sites along the way...

 There are beautiful, old churches everywhere you look!

Not something you would see in America- school children playing outside in the rain. It wasn't just sprinkling either!

 One of my favorite spots in London and probably my most photographed location. 

Does your walk to the grocery store allow you to wave to the Queen??

Such a typical British rainy day!

 Finally arrived at Store #3 and got the rest of the pupcakes! 

At this point, I was tired of walking in the rain, so decided to hop on the tube to get back home. I was right next to Piccadilly Circus. It wasn't the most convenient tube ride since I had to change trains after one stop, but it was nice to be dry. 

 The screens (the curved black on the building) in Piccadilly Circus (like NYC's times square) have been turned off  temporarily for maintenance. 

 I enjoy riding the tube as long as its not rush hour. During rush hour you have to push your way into the train and it is not glamorous! I was ready to get back home after all these errands!!

I arrived back home by noon and made myself a chocolate protein smoothie since I was starving. I sat down to do a little work before I had to pick up Rowe. It makes me sad to see the picture of Lulu- I just miss her cute little face so much!

 I also unloaded my shopping bags and put everything away. This may not look like much, but its still a lot to carry around while you are out walking! I bought the boys those cute I love You chocolates for Valentines Day! 

Rowe gets out of school at 12:30, so I walk out of my flat at 12:30 to pick him up. :) There is always a long line to get in the school, so I know I will still be waiting even though I leave at 12:30. 

 Its only 12:30 and I have already walked 5.7 miles!!

I picked up Rowe and waved at Badge. I usually see Badge walking on the stairs as he is going to lunch at that time. I tried to take a pic of him but my darn camera wouldn't work fast enough! I'm really going to miss these days of getting to see my kids a few moments out of the day. I pass them on the streets as they are going to sports or park. I also see them from my kitchen window quite often too. My friend Mimi calls me the CCTV because I will send her pics of the kids throughout the day. :)

Most days, we head back to our flat and eat lunch. Today we had a special play date scheduled! I met my friend, D'one, and her daughter at the Purple Dragon. They have a membership to this adorable, swanky kids club. The club has a restaurant, tons of play areas, cooking and art classes, a music room and an indoor playground. It is so much fun for the kids (and parents)!

We ate lunch in the restaurant and then the kids ran around while we chatted. 

Rowe having fun and Paige giving her ready for the camera face!

Rowe always like to take the cooking classes but he never eats the food he makes- its a little too healthy for him! On the menu today was a Chinese New Year Cake- it had onions, radishes, flour and a tiny bit of sugar in it. Doesn't it sound yummy????

 Play time!

We ended up leaving a little late from the Purple Dragon and walked the 20 minutes back to our little street corner. I was a little late getting Badge from school, so he was the last one left in his class! Oops!

 After school snacks! 

Rowe wouldn't eat the Chinese New Year cake! :)

 Badge changes out of his uniform after school and picks out his clothes. I told him that he didn't match and he replied "I do match! Look! Dinosaurs (he points to his shirt) and dinosaurs (he points to his shorts)!!! He did have a good point! :)

 After school play time- Badge made the big red road at school so we all took turns driving on it. 

 Then it was time for homework- Badge gets a homework packet on Tuesday and it is due the following Monday. Usually it is only 3-4 pages of work. I try to at least have him do a worksheet a day, read a book and practice his spelling words. He is an extremely smart kid and super well behaved at school.....but at home during homework time....it is horrible. I could never home school. :(

 This is me during homework time. 

And everyone is happy when the homework is over!! 

 Now, this is the MOST exciting part to my day.....

I have been trying to get tickets to the Harry Potter Play for months. Most of my friends here bought their tickets a YEAR ago and they are just going to see it now. I could buy tickets for February 2018 but I have no idea if we will even be here then. So I have tried every Friday to get tickets- they release 40 tickets in an online lottery at 1pm on Fridays. That never worked out for me. 

Then I heard that if you checked the website throughout the week, there are occasionally tickets posted. I checked the website 3-4 times a day for months. I occasionally came across tickets, but there were just too expensive. They sell premium tickets for £199 that are available most of the time. I was willing to spend no more than £140 to see both shows. The show is actually in two parts, so you see Part 1 one night and Part 2 the next. 

If you don't know me, then you have no idea how much of Harry Potter fan I am. If there is anything Harry Potter, I'm there! I have read the books through at least twice, seen all the movies, been to Harry Potter World in Orlando, visited the Warner Bros Harry Potter Studios here in London and of course I have been to Platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross. I just had to see this play while we were here in London!

I even went to stand in line for Returns at the theatre the other day, but was turned away. I was ready to give up but I also still had hope that one day it might happen. 

So as per my usual routine, I checked the website around 5:00pm and I found tickets!! In my price range! And they are amazing seats! Probably the best part is that I don't have to wait to see it, I'm going on Thursday and Friday night!

I literally danced around our flat for a good hour. This is really a dream come true for me and I'm super excited. (2/3 Update: I dreamed about Harry Potter all night long last night! I'm obsessed!)

I cooked dinner for the boys. I didn't feel like really cooking tonight so I just made the boys some leftover chicken, peas and made them each a smoothie. Then I fixed a caesar salad with chicken for Normer and I to eat. 

After dinner, Rowe jumped in the bath tub and I sorted through our laundry. We have a laundry service that comes a few times a week. We have a washer and dryer combo and it just takes way too long to do laundry, so very thankful for this service. 

 Badge loves art so he used his London stamp set. He made the London Tower Bridge and his school building. 

 Another new thing I started in 2017 was laying out everyone's uniform the night before. It makes my life a million times easier the next day!

 I realized that Rowe's smock (he wears this over his uniform) had a stain so it looked like I would be using the washer/dryer tonight!

 I helped Rowe finish his bath and then checked to see where Normer was on his commute. 

 Almost home!

 Once Normer came home and ate dinner, we did out nightly tradition of playing games. Usually we play two games, but I was feeling tired and it was almost 8:00pm- getting late! 

Tonight we played Go Fish- some of our other favorites are Memory and Uno. The boys also like Chutes and Ladders but it is just so boring. Would love some suggestions for any games that involve a little bit of strategy! 

After we got the boys were down, I stayed up a little bit to see Normer but I was feeling very worn out from this long day! Plus, I knew that tomorrow was going to be a big day! I had a hotel site visit lined up, 40 cupcakes to make for Rowe's class and Harry Potter tickets!!

Before I went to sleep, I checked to see how I did with my fitness goals- a total of 8.7 miles and 21 floors climbed. No wonder I was tired when I did a Barre class on top of that!

Good night!

I hope you enjoyed reading about my day- it was a little stressful trying to remember to take pictures but maybe I will write about another day next month! Let me know if you liked this post! :)