The end is near

Dear all of you readers of our blog.

Guy and I have now decided it is nearly time to bring this blog of ours to an end. 

We left the UK on the 12th September a year ago and you have been with us for many of our adventures. We will still continue to have these adventures although they will be a little more low key.

We are now settling into our daily life in Oxford, and if any of you would like to stay in touch with us there are still ways.

I am on Facebook under 'sarah stranks' and I will continue to post some things on there.

You have been a great audience (especially the lady from Oz! )

You can also follow the blog again from a desktop machine and read it all one year after the event. A few clicks on www.travellingwithtwins.blogspot.com from a pc or laptop and after you have found 2013 September on the right side of the page you can find the posts from one year ago.

This possible from a browser on a smart phone but a little more fiddly..

We will finish on the 12th. .

Much love as always xx

Beauty spots around Oxford

I thought you might like to see some beautiful cottages around Oxford as I realise some of you have never been to England.

A day in the life. .

A birthday party for Marcos. .

And then a night out with my most precious sisters. .

First day at school

First day nerves had Rowan in a fierce grip as we left for their first day of school. He was determined to ride his bike all the way (he is a very determined little boy when he chooses to be! ) and even though it is only a 15 minute walk, that's a lot of pedalling for little legs and we had to stop once or twice so he could make it. Esme serenely came along on her scooter, very enthusiastically doing a 'nature spot' the whole way. We came across a few squashed snails which were met with many 'yeuch's! !'  And lots of questions about what was actually inside snails.  

This morning we had a curfufal of parking a bike and a scooter and u had to go and buy a little padlock for each of them. All done and their various modes of transport were parked to their liking and into school they went.

This is their school:

This week I am oi cking them up at 11.40 for the first few day and the day is gradually getting longer with them finishing at 1pm for the first half of next week and then a whole day til 3.30 on Thursday and Friday.  After that it will be full time forever.  

So now I am at home (without that much time to do much yet!) and Guy had gone back to work, which he loves and describes as being like a comfortable old pair of shoes. . And I've got a job interview lined up as a medical secretary at the local hospital.  It isn't very much pay; but it would offer me a good work life balance, and that is really what it us about to us. Quality of life, not quantity of hours spent stressing out. 

Here are the children on their first day.. 

Friends reunited!

The trio have been reunited!

This is Marcos who missed Rowan and Esme very much while they were away.

Today we went for lunch at his house and then up to the local fruit farm where the children played on a bouncy castle and Rowan got into his first scrap with another boy.  I turned around to see around wild flurry of little fists and suddenly there were tears everywhere.

It transpires that another boy about Rowan ' age was trying to pull the bouncy castle down with his brothers and sisters and Rowan didn't like it and tried to take matters into his own hands. Poor little thing was very upset.

Food combining - girl style

You may remember that when we were in Australia Rowan went through a food combining fad. He would eat pesto and vegmite sandwiches and brown sauce, mayonnaise and tomato sauce striped sandwiches.

Now its Esme's turn who today requested a banana and raspberry sandwich. 

Esme's pretty face paint