Over Half-Way There!

Hello All!

So our past 2 weeks have been a lot of fun...the weather has been getting nicer, the days longer, which makes it a lot easier to do things after work during the week.

Work-wise our 2 weeks haven't been too eventful.

First week Sam worked Wed-Fri last week:
Wednesday was high school (not the boys one she's usually at).
Thursday she had a nice break and got a reception class that I've had.  She had a nice day.
Friday she was back to high school...the one that made me cry!  It was not such a good day. When she got home she called our agency, to black list the school.

Last week she worked Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri all at the Boys Academy.
She's getting used to it and has had the same set of classes for this term so they're getting used to her too, which is good.  She's having a lot better time there now.

My weeks have been all over the place:
First week I worked Tues, Thurs, Fri (Wednesday I took off sick):
Tuesday was Reception for the morning then year 3/4 for the afternoon. Rec was great, 3/4s were crazy.
Thursday I was at my favourite primary school teaching PE cover. :)
Friday I was in a year 3 class in a really cool school and didn't start until 11:30. They didn't wear uniforms (first school I've seen that at) and all the teachers go by their first names.  I had a great afternoon with them and met a teacher who works there who happened to go to UVic and graduated the year before Sam and I so we had some mutual friends/acquaintances. It's a small world.

Last week I worked Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri (Wednesday I took off sick again. I've had trouble kicking this cold):
 Monday I taught reception. I was good.  We spent most of the day doing choice time. I learned that the number for 9-1-1 here is 9-9-9.  I think I knew, but had totally forgot.
The rest of the week I was in nursery.  I had a lot of fun.  All three were very different in how they're run and what the kids do, how long they're there, etc. But it was good.
Best part was Friday I was in another of my favourite schools and the kids in the reception and nursery classes remembered me...AND I got to play outside with them all day.  It was the best.  Got my first tan of the summer :)

So, to fill in the fun part of our 2 weeks:

A family friend (basically little sister) of mine came into London for a night, so we met her up in Victoria for a walk and then dinner before coming back to our place.  We took her up to see Buckingham Palace and the Wellington Arch.

Friday I ended up hanging out with her until I had to go to work and she had to catch the bus.  We headed up to visit Andrea at work for a bit, then ended up going to Primark for a quick shop (she had to see it) before parting ways.
Sam and I had an easy Friday night.  Saturday we met up with Brianne and Mary to go up to Camden Market.  We wandered for a bit, got some food, and got poured on for a while.
Sunday was Mother's Day back home so we decided to have a mother-less Mother's Day brunch.  We went to the girls' place and had Buck's Fizz (mimosas) and smoothie, hash browns, funny chocolate chip pancakes, fruit, and scrambled eggs.

Then we ended up just spending the rest of the day just chatting and hanging out.

This past week I wasn't feeling great so I didn't do much the first 3 days, on Wednesday when Sam didn't get called her and the girls went on a shopping trip.
Thursday we did an Underground Scavenger Hunt around central London with Brianne, Mary, and Alex.

We were the Crazy Canadian Supply Squad!

It was so much fun, even though we really sucked.  You had to read clues, figure out what station they were at and what exactly at each location you needed to find then take pictures.  We had a ton of fun, but really didn't do well on the big point ones. Oh well!

 
Friday we took it easy.
Saturday we did laundry then went to Primark in West Croyden. May have gotten some things including really awesome tanks with the union jack and CROYDON across the front.  Pretty sweet.
We came home after and then met up with Brianne and Mary to head up to the London Bridge area.  It was the perfect night.

It was so warm and sunny to start, we took tons of pictures, walked along the Thames, ended up getting some drinks and sitting out by the water (you can drink in public here).

Art made from old gum on the bridge

When it was starting to get dark (still warm!) we headed back towards the bridge to get some pictures with it lit up.

Again, tons of pictures, then headed home.
Today we grocery shopped in the morning then met the girls to go up to Hyde Park for a picnic.  It was so hot today!

We lay out in the sun, ate our lunch, chatted, played a paddle and ball game Sam and I got from the pound store, and got tanned/burnt, and finished with popsicles.  It was a great weekend.  Really starting to feel like summer...hope it stays like this.

We were really fortunate to meet these girls over here.  We've had so much fun with them and now have a couple of amazing friends in Ontario :)

 Oh, we also had mould in one of our bathrooms, so we got stuff and cleaned it up today.  Good times.

One week of teaching left until our week off and the Park Family arrives. Stay tuned for awesome adventures with the Parks!

Thanks for reading!

We out.
Lisa and Sam