Winter Musical 2010

These are some videos from the Winter Musical at Meridian and Cambria's school. Posted mostly for the grandparents. :)  I have a new camera, so I'm still working with fixing the flash settings and whatnot.

First, a photo of the girls at the event:

And, no, this isn't the class... this is the WHOLE SCHOOL.  Yes, it's small. :) 

Meridian and her friends Sophie and Macie, after the show.    

Cambria's class performed 4 short songs:














Meridian's class started with the tear jerker "Thinking of You". 

When I say "that's us", I had just noticed our pictures were up on the slideshow... I missed video of a picture of Jen & Eric and a picture of the Pierce boys.






Merry Christmas everyone!!

A Brief Trip to Waddesdon Manor

My neighbor has been telling us for months that we should go to Waddesdon Manor near Aylesbury.  It's only about 20 minutes from our house, and she's raved about the Woodland Playground and the beautiful grounds.  The house has been used in films like The Queen (with Helen Mirren).  We finally chose Waddesdon today over everywhere else we could go, because they were hosting a Christmas Food Market.  

Yum.  Ok, we're in. 

 The girls and I in front of the manor. They were sold out of tickets into the house for the day, but it wasn't really in our plan for the day anyway, so no big.

 There was a bright yellow caution sign in the doorway, I took it out. :)

Me in front of the manor. :) 

 Cool espalier vines. 

Meridian on the back side of the house

 Cambria and some cool trees

 The view from this side put me in mind of a horror movie scene...  

Mince pies and mulled wine are for sale everywhere here this time of year.  Yum. 

Instead of hot chocolate, Cambria chose ice cream.  She wanted a Calippo, but they were out, so she got a Cornetto.  I know my U.S. friends don't know the difference between those and a Magnum!!  LOL  Neither did we until this year!  (FYI, they are similar to a Push-Up, a Drumstick and a Dove Bar, respectively)  Oh, the learning curve!!

 So remember I said my neighbors really liked this place?  Ha, we ran into them there!  

The kids played in the Woodland Playground area for awhile while we adults had a chat. 

Once we made it to the Christmas Food Market, one of our first stops was a sweets shop.  Cambria got a solid chocolate kitten, Meridian got a puppy.  I had fun teasing them about the way they treat animals, later as they ate them.  Meridian went straight from the ears to the snout! *shudder*

 I thought this was cool, an espresso shop out the back of a VW van.  :) 

I'm realizing I didn't take many pictures inside the market - whoops.  My hands were busy sampling and buying!

 This was a trip... the pathways were often gravel, but they were partially iced over.  It made an interesting crunchy sound as you walked on it.

Scott and Cambria check out the birds in the aviary

Meridian (with Scott's hat) looking at the aviary

When the fog rolled back in and we lost the sun, it got even colder.  Stinging toes, stinging fingers.  I see why people perish in this weather.  We headed back to the car. 

 Cambria shows off her cupcake.  I was going to do a "loot" photo, but they wanted to eat their cupcakes in the car. 

Meridian's cupcake got a little squished in the bag, but it was still very good.  Chocolate with a Flake on top.

Here's most of our loot: Sausages, Steak & Stilton Pie,  4 cheeses, Munchy Seeds (roasted seed mix, yum!), Garlic Pachadi, chocolate animals, Turkish Delight, Chocolate covered Ginger, 3 kinds of fish cakes and Caramel Vodka!

Ginger Cheddar, Traditional Apple Smoked Cheddar, Lymn Bank Strongest, Oxford Blue

This is what happens when I say, yeah, go ahead and get some sausages.  They had a special.  :) 

 Dinner tonight... it was REALLY good. 

Caramel Vodka.  Nuf said. 

So we had a very nice, very cold day.  I'm looking forward to touring the inside of the manor house, but the grounds alone are spectacular.   It's a National Trust Property, so we can go for free anytime.  Unless they have a food market with samples.  Then it's very expensive.  :)

In search of the Harry Potter Tree at Blenheim Palace

Our annual pass to Blenheim Palace was expiring, and we still hadn't found the Harry Potter Tree.  So we roused up the kids on Sunday November 7th and went in search of the tree.  This is not the Whomping Willow, this is the tree by the lake where Snape gets bullied by James Potter and his pack of hooligans.

Here's a shot of the film crew surrounding Harry and Young Severus for the scene:

Then I found this angle of Severus reading by the tree:

 

And the film clip that resulted (it seems to me there was more, where Lily rushes up to stop them, but it's been awhile since I saw the whole movie):

Armed with these photos and this film clip in our minds, we drove over to the Palace grounds and started hiking counter clockwise around the lake.  This was our last chance to find it, unless we paid for another year!

 Our first big tree find - by the lake, but not quite right.  

Scott and Cambria walking along the lake - Cambria's jeans legs were soaked up about 4 inches by the end of the day!

We took a detour through a sheep filled field, to a monument that we had seen from afar, but never up close.

 Top of the monument

Inscription - "f" was sometimes used for "s" back then.  Nifty.

 See, sheep filled field.  :)

 The actual palace, across the lake behind the girls.

WE FOUND IT!!  For anyone else looking for it, it's a lot easier to find if you start from the Palace and walk toward the monument.  It's just across the bridge on the left.

 Scott and the girls in the tree.  Irreverent, I know.   :)

 Meridian imitating Snape, at my request.  

 Scott and Cambria, in the tree

 Meridian climbing into the tree

 All of us, in the tree!

 Meridian, standing where Harry was. 

 Meridian hanging upside down near the tree, like Snape.  LOL

 Back closer to the Palace, Cambria posed on a high wall in the garden.  

We had stopped for a snack and some hot chocolate and wine in the Palace cafe, but we still had one more goal for the day.  Scott hadn't yet seen the Cascades, so we set off to show him after our break.

 There are many statues in the garden, I found this one striking.  There is no inscription, so I don't know whom it depicts.  But I think his face is really striking.

 Cambria digs finding "forts" in natural places. 

 Scott at the Cascades, finally!  The water feature was designed by Capability Brown, who was a famous landscape architect. 

 The view downriver from the Cascades.  

Cambria back at the Palace garden, with her second bamboo stick from the Blenheim property. 

 OK, so Meridian had my camera in the car, and I found this when I downloaded the pictures.  Ha!

 We finished our afternoon with dinner at the Crown and Tuns in Deddington.  Yum!

The kids had been tired from Bonfire Night the night before this excursion, so they weren't as amiable as they could have been.  But we saw the last few things we needed to before our passes expired, and we had a lovely dinner too.  All in all a pleasant, productive day!