Valentines Day In America

I found out this week Austin does celebrate valentines day, I did find it unusual that both children had Valentine Day parties at school and were both asked to bring in cards and/or gifts for every child in their class, there is some history behind Valentines Day but I decided to not take it too seriously and just looked at it as the kids having some fun on a Friday afternoon!

Winston is doing great, he enjoys playing with the children and is learning that you don't mess with our cats, they have both given him a few swipes to the head for getting too close and comically Winston has also managed to fall in the pool, he doggy paddled to the side and E scooped him out unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the incident. 

In the last few months I have found some great expat publications and blogs that have been priceless to me with their information, advice and contacts plus I have begun to have future expats contact me via my blog looking for advise which I am more than happy to help with as best I can. Hence why I decided to give an interview to expatchild.com: 
http://expatchild.com/expat-chat-interview-british-expat-texas/

New Family Member and a Fry-Up!

Just before Christmas we finally decided to get a puppy and after some research we chose to go for an English Springer Spaniel, we found a breeder only 75 minutes drive away and on our first visit we met the six one week old puppies, you couldn't even tell whether they were puppies or kittens at that stage! 

When the puppies were four weeks old we were invited back to make our decision on which little pup was going to be ours, by this point there were four puppies left to chose. All four of us took it in turns to sit with each puppy and see which one we bonded with, luckily my husband and I chose the same one and the girls just loved them all so the decision was made we reserved a tri coloured little boy and my husband already had a name for him, Winston.

At eight weeks old the puppies were ready to go home, they had been weaned off their mothers milk eating solid food and had a great start in life amongst a family filled with four children, five adult springers and a ranch to run around in. We drove to the ranch when the children were at school, the breeder was sad to see him go you could tell her heart really was in it for these springers, I held Winston on my lap and he slept the whole way home.

The girls arrived back from school to find Winston here, watching them all interact and their excitement was priceless, I have to say the first night was a nightmare Winston howled every two hours through the whole night I was not impressed especially as it was mainly my husbands idea to get a puppy, luckily the next two nights he howled once or twice and since then we haven't heard a peep out of him.

Winston's first week in pictures:

This Sunday morning we visited a great place called Full English cafe the café opened at 10am and there were people already parked up waiting for it to open. Inside had a very eclectic and diverse décor, with mix and match chairs, tables and placemats and an added bonus for us was a children's area with sofas and toys. 

We all ordered the full English breakfast, egg, back bacon, pork sausage, Heinz baked beans, mushrooms, tomato, toast and cup of tea, even though there were eight of us the plates all came out together plus it was piping hot. The food was cooked to English perfection and we were all very happy.

The young lady at the till was from Somerset and it was her mothers cafe, she said it was great to have compliments from people who really know what a full English breakfast should taste like!