Back to School, Birthdays & a Trip to Dallas

Last night I was excited to see on the US Netflix Very British Problems was now available, I had watched the odd episode on my UKTVEverywhere box but was always left wishing I could watch more and now we can. Husband and I were literally laughing out loud all night!

Since the Dominican Republic trip, both children are back at school, we've had two birthdays in the family and husband and I have been on a 24 hour visit to Dallas. After the busy summer with plenty of lazy mornings, days out, camps, flights and late nights I think everyone concerned was ready for the familiarity of a regular routine again.

So it was my birthday recently and our youngest 7th birthday, for my birthday as it was midweek I spent the majority of the day at the Woodhouse Spa and in the evening the four of us went out for dinner at one of our favourite restaurants Siena. Our seven year old wanted a quieter party this year with just a handful of friends and a morning at the Moviehouse & Eatery a cinema in which you can eat lunch whilst watching a film.

Recently some great friends of ours from England were doing their annual kid free, first class trip to New York and this year they decided to fly to Dallas so the husband could fulfill a lifelong dream and go on a private JFK tour. We of course decided to meet up with them, it took us just three hours to drive to Dallas but that had to be the longest straight road I've ever been on, we actually saw a sign which said 'Dallas 120miles'.

We met our friends at this rather dubious hotel (it was near the airport for their early flight back the next morning) and after a quick drink in the bar where the barman wasn't even sure if they served wine and a lone man with a teardrop tattoo kept staring at us, we decided to swiftly drink up and get a taxi further into the city!

We proceeded to have a fun filled evening with plenty of wine, an amazing steak dinner and lots of laughs along the way. It felt rather strange to meet our UK friends over here as I'm so used to seeing everyone in England, that it made the eventual goodbye extra difficult for me...

The next day we didn't have time to do the JFK tour ourselves but we did drive to the Dealey Plaza park where JFK was assassinated and just spent a few minutes taking in the history of it all, there is even an X on the road where JFK was actually shot...

Texas School Book Depository now known as Dallas County Administration Building

The Grassy Knoll 

Elm Street

Even though daily temperatures are still about 88-93f (about 30c), leaves have started to fall from the trees and the shops are full of Halloween paraphernalia. I'm planning not to make the same mistake in previous years of leaving the girls Halloween costumes to the last minute, when theres barely anything left but a witches hat! 

Oh no, you know what this means...its only a matter of days now before everyone starts putting up their hideous, too realistic Halloween decorations I'll get my camera ready!