Playground closed

We went to the Princess Diana Memorial Playground this morning, and it was CLOSED. I was a little bummed, because it's no small feat to get 2 kids on the tube to get there. Instead, we went to the other playground at Kensington Gardens, which is certainly a fine playground, but nothing to get on the tube for. There is a pretty fountain at Kensington Gardens that we looked at, but I could not really get a good photo of the girls there because I was afraid that Josephine would try to jump in and I had to prevent that. It was fairly cold today, and the water was a little green. I did not want her swimming.

Lingerie Model

Josephine has been sleeping in footed sleepers for pretty much her whole life, but lately she has been grabbing Pascale's pajamas at night and trying to put them on instead of her sleeper. I asked her if she would want pajamas of her own, and got an emphatic nod of the head. She went out yesterday with Pascale and Bernie, and Bernie got her some pajamas, which made her so happy. Here she is modeling them:

Pascale and I went to the Victoria and Albert Museum this morning, and I got a photo of her with her favorite silver lions. We have to see them every time we go there.

A Play Date

A friend of Pascale's from New Jersey is in the UK this week, so yesterday we went to Oxford to meet her. It was so nice for Pascale to have a play date! We do all kinds of cool things, but running around a house with another 3-year-old is something that Pascale does not get to do here yet. When she starts school, that will certainly change, but for now she's a little lonely. Here's a pic of the girls with Pascale's friend in the train station:

Today we went to the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Playground in the morning. It started raining around noon, so we got a good amount of time there before the weather turned bad.

2 Words Together

Josephine said 2 words together yesterday! She came up to me, handed me a scarf, and said, "Mommy, tie." She's such a little person!

Trip to Krakow

I've wanted to see Krakow for ages, so we went earlier this week. It is really lovely, with lots of medieval architecture and a refreshingly car-free city center. We mostly just walked around the curvy streets and looked at statues and buildings and things. We did all the usual touristy stuff, like looking at churches, visiting the castle, going on a horse and carriage ride. The kids liked the horse and carriage ride, but they really enjoyed it when the carriages went by us when we were walking. The first few times she saw the horses, Josephine wanted to run up to them.

We stayed at the Hotel Stary, which is a nice hotel right off the main square. One night when Pascale was in the tub, the maid came in and changed our towels. Pascale asked why we don't have the maid come and change the towels at home. Pascale was very interested in people parking their cars on the sidewalk. She thought they must be incredibly skilled drivers to accomplish this feat.

Our hotel had a pool in the basement in this cool room with vaulted ceilings. Pascale really enoyed swimming, especially since she has not gotten to go swimming since we moved here. Josephine was not sure about the whole pool thing at first, but she got used to it and even started to like it.

I had the impression from some articles I've read that Krakow is a big weekend destination. I guess it must be, because outside the main square, all the restaurants and bars were completely deserted. At one restaurant, there was only one other table occupied in the courtyard. The waiter brought out a whole mess of toys, including a rocking horse, for the kids to play with while we ate. It was great.

Bernie and I got a babysitter one night and went out for dinner at the restaurant in the Grand Hotel. It was listed in a guidebook as being a good restaurant in a nice setting. The room was really cool, with a stained glass ceiling and massive flower arrangement, but we were the only people there. It felt a little eerie.

The weather was unbelievably hot. Being in London, I've sort of forgotten what summer feels like, and it was fairly unpleasant to walk around in 90-plus degree heat. It was nice to get back to London weather with highs in the 60's.

A Pink Sparkly Tutu kind of day

This morning, we checked out the Violet Menchett Family Center which is sort of like a YMCA, but it's free. They have free play on Tuesday and Friday mornings where they have an outdoor area with slides and tricycles, and an indoor area with books, paint, play-doh, etc. It's really fabulous, and I think we'll be going there a lot. The director there is very chatty and helpful with advice about what to do with kids around here.

We went to the Victoria and Albert museum this afternoon so the kids could play in the water feature (don't you dare call it a fountain). Pascale had a great time splashing around, but Josephine took a while to warm up to the concept of taking a bath outdoors with scores of other people. I guess I can understand that. By the time we were there for an hour or so, though, she was walking around in the water like an old pro.

Pascale, who always dresses herself, chose her ballet recital outfit today. Oh, and over her left shoulder in the photo is our building.

Tour Bus

Pascale has been begging for weeks to go on one of those double-decker open top tour buses. I keep hoping she'll forget about wanting to do it, but every time she sees one when we're walking around, she reminds me that I've promised her a ride in one. We finally got around to it today. It was actually kind of nice. The route is a big circle, and originally I thought we'd ust stay on until we got back to our original stop. When I asked the driver about that, he told me that it would be 19 pounds to do the whole circuit, which is kind of a lot of money. But I could go to Picadilly Circus for 1.60 pounds. So that's what we did. Pascale just loved the ride, and Josephine seemed to like it as well. We'll probably end up doing this again some time.

There's also a pic of the kids by this neat horse fountain at Picadilly Circus.

Nice Weather

The weather has been fabulous lately. Sunny all last week, and for the past couple of days, it's actually been warm. Friday we went to the London Eye. The queue was astronomical, but the kids behaved and we had a good time on the ride. They also had a carousel there that we went on afterward.

Yesterday I took Pascale to the Victoria and Albert Museum because they have crafts there on Sundays. The craft cart was in the courtyard, where they also have this big fountain. There were all these kids cavorting in the water! Next to the fountain there was a little sign requesting that you dry your feet before re-entering the museum. So I let Pascale run around in the fountain, and we did not get our craft done. Then we all went out to my current favorite London restaurant, Oriel. It's this French bistro at Sloane Square. It's about a 10-minute walk from our flat, which does not seem like a long way unless you consider that there are at least 900 restaurants that are closer to us than that. But it seems like the only restaurant where the kids reliably behave. Well, actually, they also behave at McDonalds, but they does not count. So Oriel it was. Then the kids played in the fountains at Duke of York Square, where we also went today. Today I actually thought to put swimsuits on the kids.