Day 56 - Thumbs up, Its Thursday Part 2

We decided to participate in Thumbs-up, It’s Thursday again. It was raining, but very lightly so we took the ferry to Hampton Court Palace. We did some school work to start getting into the school mode which is quickly coming up. A mother came up and asked if I homeschooled the girls because she was quite surprised that the kids were learning while of the ferry. After the ferry ride, we went to an outside Café across the bridge from the ferry. We were all set outside and then it began to rain harder. So we went inside, not as picturesque.

Once we were finished with lunch, we headed to a different ferry return for return to Kingston. First on our agenda was face painting , which we had arrived for too late two weeks ago. This week was even worse. I got in the queue around 2:30. Maybe 15 minutes later, the woman doing the face painting closed the line (Face painting ended at 4! At least this time, she gave the sign to the last person in line.) While I waited in the queue, the girls drew on the mural in the store. I was quite surprised at all of the pregnant women in the store. As a mother, I was definitely in the minority. I waited for almost 45 minutes, but finally it was our turn. After they got their butterflies painted on their faces, we went to the mall to see the live snakes. And head to the Apple store so we could get a Vat refund. This is something we learned abut that in previous trips had never known. VAT tax is 20% here. On some things,

Next, we headed to get our nails done in anticipation of our next holiday – Austria & Hungary on Saturday. While I got a pedicure, the girls waited very patiently. The women who worked at this salon could not believe how good they were. The hairstylist had no customers, so she french braided Emily’s hair. The hairstylist tried to do the same thing to Ainsley’s hair but it was too short so Ainsley got two braids instead. After our 2 hour nail excursion, we went to the Sainsbury for some cereal. Then we went to the Kingston Library to return one book that we had failed to return 2 weeks ago. I was waiting for the librarian to tell me some huge fine but he said I didn’t owe anything. If books are checked out by kids, there is no fine even if they are returned a week late. Man do I wish the Oakton library did that!

Finally we headed home. It was a long day – almost 8 hours out of the house.