Oh the excitement...

Well, last weekend we did a lot, but not a lot that is very blogworthy. On Friday night, Jim and I, big party people that we are, watched the Alfred Hitchcock movie Frenzy. Well...we didn't quite finish it because some of us can't stay up that late these days. So we watched most of it.

Saturday was a movie night for us, again..but this time we left the house! We saw Bruno, which was funny, but not as funny as Borat and we experienced Gourmet Burger Kitchen for the first time. I liked it! Plus our friends Julie and Simon had coupons, so it was a relatively cheap night out. The babysitting cost more than the actual going out part...sigh.

Since this is likely the most boring blog I've ever written (unless you consider Evie pictures and videos to be boring...in which case this is going to be a doubly boring blog), I give you EVIE!

There is no envy like the envy of Finchley when he discovered that he does not have first dibs to empty boxes in the house anymore. This box doubles as a spaceship, car and now, since we caught Evie trying to eat the straw laundry basket we put her toys in, a toy box.


On Sunday we went to Covent Garden and Evie was really excited about it:


Julie T (confusing now that we have two friends named Julie) made Evie a beautiful quilt. She looks pretty posh playing on it with her silver rattle.


And, of course, more videos for your viewing pleasure.

She has a great driver.


Is plotting her next move:


And knows how to control her mom...just take her by the lip and pull!

What to do with supper

Chicken with spinach is more fun to play with than to eat.

Just Evie

Evie shows off her many talents:

She can sit up, make rude noises and pet Finchley. What a girl!

Bath time

Bath time for Evie is a really great experience now that she can sit up!

And yes, she did kind of fall over at the end of that video, but she got right back up and did some more splashing!

Wimbledon

Last year we actually saw Roddick playing at Wimbledon on Court 2 (he lost), but this year, as 'babes in arms' are specifically not invited to Wimbledon, we watched from our living room. Again, he lost. Evie seemed to enjoy it, although she was a little alarmed when we yelled:



More interesting, though, was her pacifier.

Fourth of July

Well, we're not patriotic and we live in England, but we are American and this year Fourth of July fell on a Saturday, so we decided to DO SOMETHING (in the form of a BBQ).

Julie helped Evie enjoy her first piece of watermelon:


And Phil was our first guest to arrive! Joe came, too, but I had forgotten to take
pictures by then.

There was much frantic rolling:


And couple of other lapsed/partial Americans (Julie 2, in the red dress and Jackie, who isn't actually American, but pretty much has been in Houston her whole life...plus their boyfriends Simon and Piotrek):


Jackie and Evie tried again. This is what they looked like the first time they met:

And this is what they looked like on Saturday. Jackie still isn't quite sure....


But Piotrek was totally at ease:


And Finchley...well, he just got drunk.

Happy Fourth of July from London!

Goodbye to Jack and a visit from Meg and Dan

Meg and Dan and future Baby Boy Gotvald swung through to visit a few weeks ago. It was great to see them but unfortunately Jim and Evie were sick, so they got a good dose of what it's like to have a screaming baby around. It was good practice, I think!

They also had a chance to practice strolling (with a screaming baby):

They looked good!

It was sad to see Meg and Dan go and extra sad because they took Jack with them! Although, I have to say that Finchley seems REALLY happy to be the only one and I suspect that Jack feels the same now that he has all the attention of his parents. Plus, he's been broken in with a baby for them!


We do miss our friends and their furry companion, but we will hopefully see them all again soon!

Father's Day, By Evie

Not very many people have a dad as awesome as mine, and no one loves my Dad as much as I do, so Mom said that I could write the blog about his first Father's Day.

Usually Dad is in charge of making breakfast on special occasions, but because it was HIS special occasion, my mom decided to get all adventurous and make pancakes. Unfortunately, she kept burning them, so Dad took over.


I got all dressed up for the occasion:
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Dad wanted to go to the National Portrait Gallery and to Trafalgar Square so that we would have lots of pictures of me with London Landmarks. So we headed to the tube. At this point, Dad said he was the happiest Dad in the whole world. I have that effect on him.


I have this trick I like to play on my parents where I fall asleep as soon as we get to the place where they want to take my picture (or whatever the plan is). So I made sure to sleep through the National Portrait Gallery and all the other landmarks. Here we are in front of The National Portrait Gallery (I hear the National Portrait Gallery Awards were up and that they were pretty cool...some even looked like photographs, but were really paintings):

And here we are in Trafalgar Square in front of the fountains...

and in front of the lions


The real fun started outside of Buckingham Palace when I suddenly woke up!

I was thrilled beyond belief to be in the middle of London.

Fortunately, we found ourselves at the changing of the guard by accident, which distracted me from my distress. If it looks like we are in the middle of it...we are. My dad is the ultimate tourist.


Our next stop was Green Park, where my Dad gazed at trees and I gazed at something else more interesting. Then, since it was Father's Day, Mom let Dad change my diaper. Things were far too interesting just to lie there, so I made sure to turn over several times while Dad was changing me. It's always good to keep them on their toes.



No sunny day is complete without a ride on Dad's shoulders.

After my ride, I decided to chill with my homie/daddy...

but mom said I was too young for sunbathing and made us leave before the guy who charges 2GBP per stripey chair showed up.

It was a fun day! Happy Father's Day, Daddy!