Nipping off to Beijing

Our local playground STILL is not open. They said the project would take 6 weeks, but it's been eight and a half weeks. They say it will open this week, but I don't believe it. We've just been hanging out in the local park, which is OK, but not as good as a playground with slides and climbing frames. To get their playground fix, we played hooky on Tuesday and we went to the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Playground.

Diana Playground


Diana Playground. I think I may have a sheep photo from every trip we've made to this playground. I'll add a sheep collage to my to-do list at some point.


Holland Park with Bernie


The One O'Clock Center at Battersea Park.


Playing outside the construction site that is our local playground.

School Uniform

Last week, Pascale had her orientation day at her new school where she will be starting in the fall. I was thinking about what she should wear to this event, and I figured that, since we would need to buy the uniform anyway, I'd just go out and buy it now. Our local department store, Peter Jones, has a whole department selling school uniforms, so I naively went there and asked for the Hill House uniform. They informed me that I must go to Harrods for that particular uniform. What kind of a lunatic would go to Harrods to buy school clothes for her kids? Me, apparently. But we ended up having a really good time checking out the outrageous toy department there after we bought the uniform, pictured above.

Pascale's orientation went well, but she was completely exhausted after. 3 hours in a strange place meeting new people did her in. I think having been there before will end up making her first day of school a lot easier, though.

Here's a good story of something that would NEVER happen in the US. We were planning the trip to Ireland, so we were putting a lot of charges on our credit cards. The bank, seeing what may have been suspicious activity, turned the cards off. No warning, no asking, just all of a sudden the cards did not work. It was up to Bernie to call and get them turned back on. Can you imagine a US bank acting like that?

Pics from this week:

Pascale made a new friend at the playground who clued her in to the fact that this thing that all the kids climb on and jump off is a tomb. Now, she's always pointing to it and saying, "There are dead people in there."


The back garden



Pascale really bonded with Peter, who is shown here cutting her hair.


On the tomb again


In the park.


In the park.

An Action-Packed Video

This will have you on the edge of your seat.

Trip to Ireland

Last weekend, we took a few days of vacation and went to Ireland for the wedding of some friends from New York. The wedding was in Cork, so we flew into Cork and spent the whole time in the Cork area. The hotel we were staying at had some really amazing gardens. They were heavily planted with many flowering shrubs, arranged so there were woodland-style paths among them. All the paths led back to the hotel, so the kids couldn't really get lost. The shrubs were amazing. They had azalias that were 20 feet high. I've never seen them so big. They also had a grass tennis court which was really cool. If I ever have a lot of land (which probably won't happen, considering my views on suburbia), I'll set up a garden just like this.

Let's start with the pictures from Ireland:
The beautiful bride and handsome groom


The groom is a friend of Bernie's that he used to work with. Here's the crew of Bernie's friends from work.


Cork City


Pascale made a friend and ran around with her for a whole day. Unfortunately, she lives in Singapore. The bride and groom have lived all over the world, so loads of guests came from places like Japan, Dubai, and New York. Pretty neat.


Pascale and me in the garden


Since we were on vacation, every time we saw a ride like this, we let them go on it.

Pascale running in the garden at the hotel


A typical pose for Josephine


Pascale in the garden


Josephine burying her toy in the gravel


Walking in the woods


Playing with gravel


The view from the hotel room. We looked out onto the hotel spa in the middle ground, and a community of Irish mcmansions in the background.


Back in London


Josephine has improved her scooting by leaps and bounds. She did many laps around the local park.


Suitcases are an irresistible toy


Another amazing face painting at a birthday party. Imagine that.


Josephine jumping off the furniture in her pajamas


Pascale did this painting. It's Uncle Vince, obviously.


Today when we got back, we celebrated Fathers' Day! This is the card Pascale made.


I asked Pascale what she wanted to get her dad for Fathers Day. I suggested a tie or cuff links. She said she wanted to get him a shirt from a store that we walk by on the way to school. Apparently, she's been thinking about this for a while.

Early Summer

It was a fairly relaxed week. Pascale had a boy from her class over for a play date on Friday. He was a really good sport about playing all her overly complicated pretend games. Pascale and Josephine have imaginary friends named Nanni and Patty. It's sort of amazing that Pascale's friend just accepted this whole imaginary friend thing, and included them in all the games. At one point during the play date, Pascale got frustrated because her friend was kicking a ball, and she did not know how to kick. We'll have to work on her kicking skills.

Josephine has started going to school at the same preschool that Pascale goes to. She goes for an hour and a half a week. She looked really shell-shocked when I dropped her off, but she lived through it and seems willing to go again this week.

Our local playground is under construction, and they are supposed to be done with it this week. I'm SO EXCITED for it to reopen. It was pretty much a death trap before, so it was really in need of some updating. I hope the construction is not too delayed. Soon, there will be more playground pictures to enjoy.


Sunday morning reading


The fountain at the Victoria and Albert Museum


We went to a church fair. They call this candy floss here.


The teacup ride at the fair


The girls love this Playskool toy. You need to put it together yourself, which I think is a plot by Ikea to train future customers to put together their furniture.


Josephine in the rain


We went to yet another over-the-top birthday party. Pascale got the Rainbow Cat face paint.


Playing in the park


Pascale drew a picture of herself and Josephine


A cat on the magna-doodle

Happy Anniversary To Us

We arrived in London one year ago today.

A Week Without a Camera

scooting in the back garden



It seems as if there are almost no photos this week. We did fun stuff, too. We went to Kew Gardens with Aunt Carin. The kids had a wonderful time running up and down a little grassy hill there. We also went to the Victoria and Albert museum to do crafts today. Bernie took the girls to Gambado. Then there were the endless trips to the local park. But, alas, I never seemed to have my camera with me. I even managed to let Aunt Carin leave without taking ONE photo of her with the kids.

I'm so used to not knowing anyone here that I'm a little startled when I run into someone I know on the street. Today, we were walking by a restaurant and the chef came out and started talking to us. It took me an insanely long time to realize that he's the father of one of Pascale's school friends. We decided to eat lunch there, and will probably go back, since the food was good and the restaurant is right outside our door.

Pascale made an attractive arrangement of cereal and magnets.

Josephine is very skilled at blowing bubbles


Josephine taking a photo of herself with ponytails