Bournemouth Beach and the Move

Wednesday morning we we got all of our suitcases and other things gathered and ready to move and then headed to Bournemouth Beach. It was just two train stops away and then it's a 20min. walk to the beach. Ethan was SO excited to use his new sand castle pail. He and Hailey plopped down at the beach entrance right when they saw the nice white sand:

It was sunny but once we got there it was pretty windy and transitioned to overcast. Ethan was thrilled with his partial sand castle and Hailey just wanted to step on it (which she did):

They have an Oceanarium and are constructing a new Penguin habitat wing, set to open this summer. We'll wait until that is open to go. After watching "Happy Feet" the other day, I do feel a little guilty though...

Bournemouth is kind of like Poole's sister city but personally I like Poole a lot better. Bournemouth is a bigger city and seemed to have a lot of litter on our walk there, anyways. In the summer, I guess Bournemouth beach is the place to go on holiday. Supposedly, there are tons of wild hen and stag parties (bachelorette and bachelor parties) and lots of "fancy dress" (costume) parties. People rent out a brightly colored bach right on the beach:

Once the rain droplets started it was time to go (Hailey was cold too). Ethan loves the beach and would be happy there, even in the rain, so we had to drag him away. Then we stumbled upon the long park/gardens which led to the pedestrian shopping area which was very nice! 

The stores Monsoon, House of Fraser and Oasis were my favorites. Everything seems to be a butterfly print this season! The kids clothes here are super cute too, they just have the cutest prints. I got this rain jacket for Hailey at Next:

Hailey took a snooze in the stroller and Ethan I had to bribe with snacks. 

Then we made two car loads to the new townhouse and the shippers delivered the rest of our things on Thursday morning. The owners left out a big Chocoate Cadbury egg (one with mini eggs for Hailey and Creme eggs for Ethan) and left out flowers and apples and soap, dishwasher detergent, all sorts of supplies-everything one would need. 

I was unpacking non-stop all day Thursday (I am so OCD about just wanting to find a place for everything and have everything put away) and we are mostly done. It is like a built in stair workout going up and down all these stairs. We are loving the new townhouse! It feels so good to be settled and have more room! The kids now have some more toys and have space to play in the living room. (Although Hailey is currently just obsessed with taking the DVDs out of the dvd cases and walking around with them.) I can't for the life of me figure out how to turn on the tv or just watch a dvd so Ethan watched one on the mini player. Ethan said "I like this place, it's beautiful here." And now that they are in separate bedrooms again, they are sleeping better and longer (hallelujah!). We brought way too much stuff (wish we had known we would be in a furnished place) but what can ya do? And I have no excuse for the excess in clothes. :)

Thankfully, the washer/dryer is like 1.5times the size of the one at the last place but laundry still seems to be a daily thing. It seriously takes forever to do laundry here. 1.5hrs to wash and then if you put it on the cotton dry cycle it is an additional 3.5-4hrs. I just don't understand why these small dryers take so long to dry things. And I couldn't figure out how to stop it midway. It had a pause button that didn't seem to work and I finally just had to turn it off altogether. Between that and things shrinking, now I get why people dry things on the line here and will switch to that if it is sunny. Check out these little flour and sugar packages (everything is mini here). Aren't they cute?

Our jar of peanut butter came so we had PB&J for lunch. The shippers were laughing at me and I said, "We had to bring ours since yours tastes different and it is not big here." He said that was because it was unhealthy (which I thought was kind of funny in a country where everything seems to be fried.) :) 

Oh, check out this super old map from 1587 that is hanging in the staircase. I didn't really notice it until the shippers pointed it out:

The house is all yellow and blue with a nautical theme. My mom would love it. :) 

I thought these were cool too:

Porthole on 2nd level staircase:

Here is a picture looking down on 2/3 of the courtyard (it's pretty decent sized and will be fun to BBQ and eat outside and for the kids to ride their trike or draw with chalk):

From the 3rd floor, we can also see a corner of this public garden and the back outdoor area of this pub next door. The other direction is the Poole Museum (our garage opens out next to it). It is this weird little maze walkway to get to our front door which is cool because it is a private courtyard area but yet you are right next to things. 

Ethan cracks me up. When I was just taking this picture of the courtyard he said, "looks like a great place to have coffee and a snack". Why yes it does. :)