Tate Modern

We went to the Tate Modern yesterday. It has to be one of the world's best museums for kids. Currently, there's this bleak and fun installation that supposed to resemble a shelter for people and art in a post-apocalyptic world. It includes bunk beds that the kids can climb on and big sculptures for them to run around. They had a blast.

Every day when I pick up Josephine from school, she has a story about another kid misbehaving. I remember when Pascale was almost 3, she did the same thing. It's like they're just starting to see the difference between good and bad behavior, and are very quick to point out the bad. Josephine's stories are all about who did not listen that day. Not listening must be the cardinal sin in her preschool. One little girl even got kicked out of ballet class for not listening. It's a tough preschool world.



Pascale made a giraffe out of boxes at school.


Bath time


Josephine made a crown and magic wand at school, then Pascale made some for herself when we got home.


at the Tate Modern

Dancing at the Tate Modern

We went to the Tate Modern today, and Pascale was totally into one of the video installations. Here she is dancing like a dervish, while Josephine dances a bit more reservedly.

Venturing out of the house

It was much warmer this week, thankfully. We even managed to hit the playground yesterday, as evidenced by the pic above. It was a nice day for January in London, and the playground was suitably crowded.

Pascale has learned to add at school! She was saying, "5+5=10, 5+4=9," etc, and I thought she had just memorizing some sums, so I asked her one out of the blue. She thought about it for maybe 15 seconds, then came up with the right answer! You could have knocked me over with a feather. At this point, she can only add single-digit numbers, but she definitely gets the concept.

We went out for lunch at a new restaurant today. It's an Italian place, and they had chicken livers on toast for an appetizer. I'm always impressed with a restaurant that has chicken livers on the menu, and these were quite tasty.

All of us have been struck with a nagging cold. Sometimes at this time of year it occurs to me that hibernation might be the best thing to do. The holidays are over, as are the couple of weeks spent recovering from the holidays. Now there's just the long wait until spring. Every day, I notice that the days are getting longer. It is no longer dark at 4 PM, for which I am grateful. There are not many pictures this week.


Josephine playing with her dollhouse. We got the girls new dresses at the January sales. Josephine is wearing hers.

A cold week

It was COLD this week. It even snowed on Monday, but did not stick. Last winter, it hardly dipped below freezing, so this is a rude awakening.

The girls went back to school this week. Pascale started on Tuesday, Josephine on Wednesday. I'm glad to have somewhere to bring them so I'm not tempted to sit at home with them all day because it's too cold to go out.

This passes for activity when it's snowing out. I was trying to get a pic with the falling snow out the window, but it did not quite work.


I took Josephine to the Violet Melchett Centre, where they have Open Play. There's an indoor section and an outdoor section. For some reason, Josephine had not interest in indoor play. Boy, was it cold.


It was Bernie's birthday on Friday. Pascale made him this card.


Pascale did lots of craft projects, including this lovely paper chain.


We decorated cookies.

Getting Back to Normal

The Christmas tree is gone. The kids go back to school in a couple of days. The gifts have been assimilated into the general havoc of toys and clothes. Josephine asked me today when we're going back to Switzerland. The unfortunate answer was, "Not soon."


The Army Museum. It's been so cold lately that I don't know what I would do without indoor playspaces.



Salami cat sandwich



Pascale with a skirt on her head



Pascale modeling the outfit Aunt Carin got her for Christmas


Josephine upside down