Hampstead Heath

Today we went to Hampstead Heath. It is not one of the Royal Parks, but according to this book we have we read it was worth seeing. We probably won't be going there again as it wasn't our favourite, but at the same time we had so much fun being together and exploring.
The girls were completely content throwing rocks in the pond, having a picnic by the pond, walking/running all the windy paths, and playing at the cute mini playground in the sun.
It was a good day to me too.

"my different voice"

It didn't take very long for Marisa to catch on to the fact that people here speak differently. It didn't take long for her to understand either.
In fact, before she even started school she had already developed a slight British accent. It actually comes out very strongly every time she asks a question.

A few of my favourites, (please read in British accent)...

"Mummy, can I paint? Can't I?"

and

"Can I have this lovely toy?"

One time while Marisa was trying to talk to Tim and ask him a whole bunch of questions it was so strong and she spoke like that for a long time. Tim didn't even answer right away because he couldn't believe it and you could tell was trying to soak it all in. I looked at Tim and said, "Well...are you going to answer your British child?" haha
Well, tonight while we were reading books before bed, Natalie was reading this "search and find" princess book. She was having a hard time finding one of the items on page, but luckily, her big sister was ready to help her.

Marisa then suddenly says to Natalie, (read in British accent, again), "Natalie, it's somewhere over here."

After Marisa said that she took a long pause, turned around, and then quickly smiled at us and then laughingly said, "Ha! That was in my different voice."

We laughed so hard. She completely unintentionally spoke to Natalie in a British accent! And it even took Marisa by surprise!

The rest of the night she was able to turn on/off her accent so easily. Just like that! Like a light switch. It's amazing!

We wanted to record it on video and when we asked her, "Marisa, speak in your different voice." She at first replied, "In Spanish?"
hahahaha

Whoa, trilingual now are we! haha I love that girl.

Portobello Market

I love having a British friend, (well, actually, she is really American, but married an English man and has lived here for 6 years), who will let me drag her through my adventures in London. I have finally recently wrote out my bucket list and you bet I dragged Jana with me this morning to start crossing off my list.

First thing crossed off, Portobello Market.

I was on a search for my last and final tea cup to complete my set and I found it as this stall where they had rows and rows of vintage cameras!

Portobello is about a 2 mile long market with loads of antiques, fruit and vegetables, junk, jewelry, pastries, I mean seriously, name it it is sold there.

The food part of the market was by no surprise probably my favourite. I bought a huge, yummy perfectly baked bloomer for £1, a sausage roll for Tim for £1, and massive pink sprinkled doughnuts for £1 each for the girls.

I wish I could get my produce exclusively from there. Cheap, fresh, and de-lish.

NottingHill is a pastel colorful town with just some of the most darling homes. Imagine that, right??

Can I please live in these cute homes?? I mean, really.
I am so glad we arrived first thing in the morning because it was a nut house when we were trying to leave. Jana and I had a very lovely morning as we were able to enjoy our shopping and casually stroll down the mile long market. I can visit this place over and over again just for the food.
My cup of tea.

new seat

This morning I decided not to take the buggy to run a couple of shopping errands. Natalie was in heaven, as you can imagine, because she wasn't strapped in her buggy yelling, "Get me out!"

Marisa knows the drill of getting on the bus. Sometimes she even scans my oyster card for me and confidently and happily finds her own seat. Natalie was sure excited to so the same thing.

And this is where she sat.

Most of you are probably unfamiliar with this area of the bus, so let me explain. This is the area of the bus where people can place their belongings such as a heavy duffle bag or a load of groceries, or the like.
For Natalie, this was her seat the whole bus ride...

my name is...

The first word Marisa ever wrote on her own was "Tim". It was at church one day, a long while ago, and Marisa said, "Look, Dad!"
Both of our eyes went wide open in amazement.
We had never even taught her how to write, let alone Tim's name.
Same with the alphabet when she was just a year old. I never sat down and said, "This is A. This is B." I just read alphabet books to her all the time and that is it really. Then again, one day she suddenly just started pointing at the keys on Tim's computer and saying all the letters down the rows.
Again, Tim and I were both stunned.

Now with her name, I taught her how to write her name. We obviously taught her what her last name was, but never taught her how to write it. Until one day, sometime in the beginning of this year, she says, "Look, Mom! My name. Marisa Hart."

And this is what she wrote...

She has been writing her name this way ever since. I think it is so darling and clever that she sounded out her last name and came up with this way of spelling it out.

Yesterday after Primary at church as I was looking at her drawing from her class I flipped over the picture to find her name (the above picture) on the back of her artwork. I just smiled and remembered that I have forgotton to document it when she first did it. So now I am.

"one man's junk is another man's treasure"

This is the sign outside a cute little junk shop in town...

and I love it.

London is filled with the absolute most darling shops ever. It is officially my new favourite thing in life.
I've recently wanted a tea set and I thought how perfect would it be to find tea cups at various markets and shops in LONDON. I don't want them to match, I want them to be danty and chic, and I want them to have meaning versus a store bought matching set. Boring...

And this is what I have found so far!

I just need 3 more to complete my set. I'm going to another market in town tomorrow. Can't wait!

Watch Your Step

I've seen this video all over FB and blogs and I thought I would share it too.
It is a very powerful message.
It is a message I have vowed years ago I would personally make sure is shared as much as possible.
The wonderful thing about this message is that we all can apply it to any crossroads we may have in our lives as well.

Kew Palace

Yesterday we visited Kew Palace and Kew Botanical Gardens. It was a very simple, yet lovely weekend.

There were plenty of children's activities such as the "Treehouse Towers" and the "Climbers and Creepers".
I love these English style swings.

There was even a zipwire!

A few things we saw inside the gardens were bamboo, palm trees, the Rose Garden...

... and the Waterlily House, which contained lily pads that can grow up to two meters long!

As for the palace, King George III and his family lived here.

What's neat about this residence is that most of the rooms have been untouched for almost two centuries.
If you notice on the wall of this picture below it says, 15 ,which stands for 15 shilings. That was handwritten back in the day with the original price of the wall. Pretty cool!

Also interesting, on the door knobs of the second floor they have a C and P engraved on them which stands for Prince Charles. Apparently, he played a major part in restoring some of the palace so he had his name engraved on the door knob just like Prince Frederick, son of George III, did on the first floor knobs.

Tim kept saying, "This is awesome", as we had a picnic by the river Thames and spotted different cloud formations with the girls. So simple, yet so relaxing and enjoyable to enjoy this moment in our lives together as a family.

boo-ya!

YES!

We finally have iphones again.

Meet my new iphone 4 in blanco...

It is fully equipped with
-a password to get into my phone
-the locate my iphone app
-a bulletproof sleeve
-an alarm system

AND...
-I have attached an invisible bomb to it so if someone tries to steal it from me again ... KABOOM!

Ok, some of them are a little of an exaggeration, but you get my drift.

Wahoo!

And in other good news, today while playing at the park I noticed that there were people gathering around off to the side by a fence.
I fortunately live literally right next to one of London's royal parks which will host Olympic events next year. They have been doing lots of work to the park and blocking things off to prepare for all the trial runs lately, etc.
Anyways, we just walked over to the fence and realized that the trial runs were going on right then!

We basically had front row seats to see all of the equestrian contestants from around the world and their horses jumping in our little pond!
We always have a picnic at the park when we go so today we just sat down and ate our lunch while watching the horses go by! The ladies who were working for the event were so nice to tell us which country was coming up next. I hollered and raised the roof when the lady said, "U.S.A next". haha

Go U.S.A!!

Happy 4th of July!

I am so proud to be an American.

I always have been, but I have never felt it so strongly until now. We truly live in a blessed country where we enjoy so many freedoms and luxuries. To the many men and women who have fought for our country...Thank You!

GOD BLESS AMERICA! MY HOME SWEET HOME!

We celebrated yesterday by inviting our UK friends over for an All-American 4th of July meal.

Menu

Chicago hotdogs with Sweet Summer Corn and Avocado Relish and rootbeer floats. De-lish.

The American missionaries fist pounded each other when they heard me explaining to everyone what a rootbeer float was. haha! Like I said before, it is all in the little things.

I wanted this subway art printed and framed as decor in my home during our meal, but in proper London style, the printing shop don't do 1 hour photo printing! 3-4 day printing for one picture. Give me a BREAK people!!

It was a fun celebration, but we sure wish we were in Newport Beach for the 17th Annual Hart family beach house we have every 4th of July. We sure miss you guys!

Buckingham Palace {revisted}

Tim hasn't seen Buckingham Palace yet and I haven't seen the entirety of it yet so we decided to have a simple weekend and go and finally cross it off our list.

Long live the Queen!

all in the little things

Who knew??

 

Cilantro is called Coriander here.
And to go 3 months without knowing. I can't even begin to tell you how happy I am to have discovered this.
And they forgot to add the most important thing on the bag: "Absolutely perfect in Mexican dishes!"