The Riley Family

Kate had her first Reconciliation yesterday! One sacrament down, First communion coming up this spring.

Happy 4th birthday! Here are some more pictures from the party.

Well, we finally have snow. We got out the sleds and shovels this morning, and looks like we will need to go find he boots and snow pants too.

Tom seems to want to learn French too.

I am so sorry to write that our Jimmy lost his battle with FIV and CRF yesterday. He was the most friendly and affectionate cat we have ever known and he will be greatly missed. The house is so quiet without him here. We love you, Mimms.

Kate got a French CD for Christmas and is having a great time learning the new language. And she looks cute wearing the headset :).

Rock and roll Elmo!

London Vacation 2011 - Saturday 12/31 Happy New Year's Eve.  We are supposed to check out at 11, and need to be heading to the airport for our 5pm flight around 1:30 or 2.  But Kate is barely moving in the bathroom, I feel horrible but am not sure if I have what K has or just wiped out from helping her all night.  I call housekeeping and they come take away my contaminated bathrobes.  I am sure I am going to be charged hundreds of dollars for the lines, but it doesn't show up on the bill.  I call down to get a late checkout, and they let us keep one room until 1:30.  Great.  I go to Starbucks, try to pack, and try not to worry about the flight.  Luckily our pediatrician had given us a tip to bring 'puke clothes' in ziplocks for each kid.  Kate powered through a bunch of her clothes last night, so she is on to her puke bag. Jack and Daddy head out shopping and come back with some lunch.  No one is eating too much, but Tom do...

London Vacation 2011  - Friday 12/30 Today is our last full day in town.  We have another late morning starting with 9am Starbucks and reading the papers.  Today we are heading to the Museum of Natural History in Kensington.  Since it is holiday, and the museums are free, half of London (the half that isn't shopping) are in line at the museum.  Since it is time for second breakfast, we skip the line and head back to shopping.  On the way we pass the Victoria and Albert Museum and there is no line!  Since it is free and we are walking past, we vote to go and check it out.  The museum was very cool, with many artifacts hundreds of years old.  Lots of Catholic stuff too, which surprised me.   But, we are still hungry, so we head to a pub for lunch.  And we need some nappies at a drug store.  After lunch we head back to rest. It is raining again, and we are heading to a different part of town to go to the Bri...

London Vacation 2011  - Thursday 12/29 This morning we tried some new breakfast plans,  Anjie walks the 2 blocks over to Starbucks for coffee and croissants.  London is so very quiet in the morning.  9am and it is barren.  We are quickly adjusting to the later-day town, and are just starting our mornings at 9.  We aren't ready to actually leave our hotel room until 11am, and then are looking for breakfast!  In London sun rise is after 8am and sunset is around 4 something. It makes for a pretty short day. The weather was really fantastic while we were in town.  Near 50 most days, and only some rain.  Very comfortable for sight seeing. This morning (ok 11) we started at the Borough street market.   We bought Iberico ham, yummy cheese, jam donuts, fresh juice.   It was fun to walk around the venders.  But we were getting hungry, so headed over to a little diner for breakfast/lunch at noon.  After coffee, ...

London Vacation 2011 - Wednesday 12/28 We got up a little early and ordered pastry basket and coffee from room service.  I love chocolate croissants!  After we got cleaned up we went out on the town!  We ended up walking and walking in the morning all around Mayfair.  Too much walking, actually.  We stopped for second breakfast, then continued on walking to the Palace.  Then we walked through St. James park, past Big Ben, and over to Westminster Abbey .  We did the self guided tour which was actually pretty difficult with 4 cranky kids.  But we did learn a little about the Abbey.  The biggest thing we learned today is that we should take taxis! We took a taxi over to Harrods , and were greeted with amazing crowds.  We had not even thought about the after Christmas sales and how crazy the shopping would be!  We had planned to eat lunch there, but ended up finding a pub down the street.  Kate and I tried going ba...

London Vacation 2011 - Tuesday 12/27 Somewhere in the middle of the ocean the flight attendants decided it was breakfast time, and so started getting us used to the idea that we were going to land at 11:30am, instead of 5:30.  We let the kids sleep until the end, but again I was enjoying the food :). Hooray!  We made it to London!  It is a crazy long walk from the plane to baggage, but we made it.  Our bags were there, and we were off to go through customs.  Our plane tickets totally helped here, letting us bypass a HUGE line for a nice short line.  Very helpful. Since we knew we would be tired we booked the car transfer to the hotel.  A nice Englishmen held up a sign with our hotel name, and he took us to a beautiful Mercedes people mover.  A half hour or so later with J an W both asleep we get to Claridge 's.  We booked it because it is in a great shopping location of Mayfair, walking to both Regent St. and Oxford St. shop...

London Vacation 2011 - Monday 12/26  We have a 9:30pm flight to London, so we have all day to play with new Christmas toys and pack.  It also gives the kids plenty of opportunities to ask if we are leaving yet!  We plan to leave around 6.  There is no snow, good weather, and holiday traffic, so the drive should be easy. We get all packed up, 2 strollers, 2 suitcases, all the kids.  We are off!  A few blocks later I realize I forgot my diaper bag, whoops.  Ok, off again!  And of course accident traffic on 88.  Still have plenty of time.  And Megamind is entertaining the awake children. Tom fell asleep. Easy parking at the airport, and no one in line at our check-in lane!  Since the flight is 9+ hours, we booked our tickets in business class.  A little bit of a delay in security.  Kids under 12 can now leave on their shoes, which helps a little, but it is still quite a show to watch the 6 of us get throug...

Here are pictures from Turkey Day - Christmas. 

Here are the pictures from our trip to London last week.   I will try to write up our trip story tonight so you can hear all about it.  We had a really fantastic time, and everyone's behavior was good enough :).

Tom turned the big 1-8 this week!  He is now a 1 1/2 year old.  He is still such a sweet boy and so interested in people.  Very friendly this one is :).  But, like the rest of his siblings (ok, and parents) he is rather strong willed.  He is getting more demanding about doing things himself, and more confident in his abilities.  He has started taking down the baby gate to get upstairs by himself!  Maybe a few more months, and we will be able to take them down....

Wishing you all a fun and love filled 2012!