celebrating the start of life and the end of tests!

  

on august twentieth, the boy turned thirty one years old! his birthday fell right in the middle of the madness of studying for his regulatory exams (he had to pass three of them within his first month of work in order to be certified to work with clients, and that required a lot of brain work and time preparing!). due to this, we didn’t have much room to celebrate one of the best events to ever happen in the history of the world, the birth of ian j wright. the evening of august twentieth, i bought ian a slice of chocolate cake from the bakery around the corner from our flat, and stuffed it with thirty one colorful candles. when he got home from work, we lit the candles, i sang the song, he blew out the flame, and we traded off eating bites. and then, back to studying :)

indeed, the birth of the boy deserves more celebration than that! so a gift from me to him (one in my traditional stack of birthday coupons) was tickets to see the lion king musical, which is presented every night at a fabulous theater just down the road from our home. after the tests were over, we had such a fun night at the theater.

we were so excited and the musical was spectacular. hopefully the first of many west end shows for us!

and yes, he passed all the exams. phew! it was pretty much almost non-stop studying, and it was grueling! but it paid off after all. to celebrate the end of tests, i requested that ian meet me at westminster tube station the evening of his last test for a surprise. i knew he had been wanting to ride the london eye ever since before we came to london for interviews in january, so i reserved us a spot in one of the pods! when we met at westminster station, the sky was bidding a spectacular good night after a day of rain with gorgeous sunsetty clouds over the houses of parliament. ian was delighted at my surprise and we got on the eye at the most perfect time to see the city gradually light up during our ride around the wheel. 

 
^^ take note of those swings rotating around that tall blue pole. they may make another appearance on this blog… ^^

we were lucky to only have a couple of other people in our pod with us, so our ride was quiet and just lovely. i think we both felt the exact same brand of happiness that night, looking over our city, feeling like we belong here, feeling at home. it was fun to reflect on all the adventures we’ll have together here and how this place will continue to weave a beautiful pattern into our family tapestry. we walked home across the golden jubilee bridge feeling really peacefully in love with each other and with london, our city, our home.

 

a happy birthday! a happy end of tests day! life in london is good.