It has been 3 months, to the day, since we arrived in London. I expected 3 months of Hell. I was right on target. This last week has been a bit better and I actually told Chad, “I like where we live” yesterday. Yesterday was the first time for me thinking, “We are really going to miss this house when we are gone.”

I started a weekly order of local organic produce. The contents change to whatever is in season. I have always loved going to farmers markets, now I have one delivering to my door! Along with a weekly delivery from the supermarket it is a pretty nice way to eat (and shop). For the Americans: imagine shopping bags delivered right to your kitchen, color-coded by what goes in the fridge or freezer or pantry.

We had a gardener come in and do an overhaul to get everything back to a maintainable level. What a difference! The garden is so much more inviting! I now have a bit more knowledge of what to do with the plantings to keep it looking nice. Also the doors all have handles and latches, so the kids can enter and leave the backyard. It’s the little things.

Wednesday was Alden’s 3rd birthday. I took the kids to an indoor soft play place in Alexandra Palace Park. They loved it. Although I think they enjoyed playing in the sandbox while the weather misted on them more than inside on the slides and climbing structures. He requested Macaroni and Cheese for dinner. I don’t think he minded too much that it didn’t come out of a box and wasn’t bright orange.

To help celebrate Alden, Chad and the kids made a countdown chain until his birthday. Chad also printed out at least a dozen pictures of Alden and taped them up around the house. I have loved seeing his infectious smiling face all over as I go about daily work. Last week Eden got in trouble for being mean to Alden, so I made her find something nice to do. She asked Alden whether he wanted her to make him a card or do a job for him. He said, “I just want you to play with me and with Jasher, OK? That will be fine.” So cute. Eden is his best friend. He gets discouraged when the big girl wants alone time. His communication skills have really blossomed recently.

Friday the kids and I spent a day in the park. My friend Lucy came with us for a bit and treated me to cake and her wonderful company. The kids did a messy craft session there. They were so proud of their fun artwork! After, we played in the sunshine and ate popsicles.

We had a party for Alden on Saturday. Our friends Ollie and Rebekah with their kids Aura and Jesse came over. Alden couldn’t wait for presents and just dove right into opening them without waiting for anyone. By the time Ollie and Rebekah got to our family room, Alden had already opened their gift. The nut even snuck off into another room and started opening his other presents without us. It was fine though because he tried to open a kite that was protected by really strong packaging for shipping. It would have taken him all night without our help. He loved his helicopter. We ate lots of strawberry cake and then the kids beat the colorful homemade elephant piñata to pieces. Our neighbor friends came over to help beat up the poor elephant as well. The time passed so quickly with the kids playing so well and the fun conversations with our friends. We ended uphaving them stay for an inpromptu dinner. I have decided that salad spinners are one of my favorite kitchen gadgets.

We had plans to celebrate Jasher’s birthday after church today, but it was just too HOT to make his giant cookie we had planned to celebrate with. (He still hasn’t been digesting milk very easily so we are playing it safe. We’ll try giving him ice cream in a month or two.) Instead we packed up a picnic dinner and went to the park to try out Alden’s new birthday kite. I do not think anyone could be unhappy watching that cute boy joyfully running about towing a flying colorful kite. Pure magic.