Primordial Cuteness

The weather has been really nice this week, and no school, so we've been running around having fun. We went to the Whipsnade Zoo on Thursday. It's kind of a lot of trouble to get there, but it was totally worth it. The highlight, for me, was the mommy and baby rhinos, pictured above. They were running around in the mud and they were so primordial and cute! They also have elephants, many kinds of deer and lots of smaller animals that run free, like wallabies and large rodents. All in all, a wonderful trip.

We also found a new playground (Westfield Park) that's not too far from our house. Our local playground lacks a sandbox but the new playground has a really nice one. I think we'll be going there a lot. Josephine is a little timid about walking on sand, but she'll get used to it.


Picking flowers from the grass in the park


They sat on the clean laundry that I was folding. They found it hilarious.


It's snowing today. They both wanted to go out, but Josephine wanted to go back in immediately.


Josephine climbing on the bed just so I'll have a heart attack.


Riding the carousel at the zoo.

Antelopes

Cousins! Cousins!

We had a wonderful week with family visiting from the States! Uma, Aunt Beverly, Uncle Ed, Ethan and Simon were here for the week. Since I'm a leading authority on London playgrounds, I took them around to all the good ones. We had bad weather last week, but I think they had a good time anyway. Here are some of the highlights.

Pascale with Aunt Beverly


Ethan on the big jungle gym at Corams Fields.


Josephine and Uncle Ed at Corams Fields


Josephine and a goat at Corams Fields


On the London Eye


On the London Eye


Josephine with Uma

At the Princess Diana Memorial Playground


At the Princess Diana Memorial Playground


Riding the Tube


Ethan being silly


Pascale at Corams Fields


Josephine with Aunt Beverly


Josephine with Uncle Ed

Riding scooters in the back garden.

White Easter

It snowed for the first time this winter on Easter Sunday! We were watching it from the window, and the girls really wanted to go out, so I got everyone bundled up and outside. Josephine wanted to go in immediately. It was just too strange to have this white stuff falling from the sky. Pascale actually played in it for a few minutes until she got cold and we went in.


We had some rain earlier in the week, so the girls took their umbrellas out for a spin.

Pascale put this puzzle together all by herself!

This is a good pic of Josephine eating a pain au chocolate. That brown thing she's holding is the chocolate that she surgically removed from the inside.

We went to the Science Museum. We'll probably be going there a lot, since Pascale has a month off between school terms.

Here they are walking to the playground.

Their cousins are visiting this week! Here's Josephine with Simon.

Josephine with her easter basket

Here are the easter baskets before the kids get ahold of them.

Bernie took them to Gambado on Saturday.

My Baby is TWO!

Josephine is such a big girl now! She had her second birthday on Saturday. Now every day she asks if it's still her birthday.



Opening Presents. I managed to buy this strange wrapping paper that does not tear. Even I could not tear it, but Josephine somehow managed to persevere and open her gifts anyway.


She found her cake on the kitchen counter


She likes her doll stroller


Josephine got an umbrella for her birthday, which came in handy right away.

I made dresses for the girls, and matching ones for their favorite stuffed animals.


The girls like to play in the spice drawer


Bernie got me these chocolates for my birthday. Aren't they lovely?


Pascale made this very impressive train out of napkins.

In other news, we've all had the flu lately. I'm the last one to get it, and have been in bed with a fever all weekend. In previous years, we have all gotten it at the same time, which is truly awful. This year, we're getting it one at a time, which is much better. It's good to have someone who's well to keep the house running and care for the sick.

Josie's First Haircut

Here's Josephine getting her first haircut. She was so proud of herself!

Pascale got her hair cut too.


Pascale was sick with the flu for most of last week, so we spent a lot of time in the house. Here's Pascale pretending to put a diaper on Josephine.




It was my birthday on Saturday.




We went to an Easter party where they had face painting



This is the window of my favorite upholstery shop on King's Road. They have upholstered birdhouses with fake birds in them.



Of course, no blog entry would be complete without a pic of the kids at the playground.