Rainy day activities

Last week was really rainy, but it's horrible being stuck in the house, so Evie and I braved the weather and did some rainy day activities.

First stop was the park, with all of it's tempting and satisfying puddles. Evie rarely misses an opportunity to jump in a puddle, so I dressed her in her stylish pink rain gear to help her stay as dry as possible. Here she contemplates a puddle that I decided was a little too muddy and gross looking. You can see the joy in her face at the possibility of getting her boots into that puddle, but I ruined it for her.
The next puddle was much cleaner AND had a slight waterfall feature. It passed my inspection and Evie spent a glorious 10 minutes splashing around and sitting in it. Unfortunately, her stylish pink rain gear is not as waterproof as one would hope, so despite my efforts she still got a little damp.

On our way to the next puddle, we stumbled across a dog who was very focused on something in a ditch.

Upon closer inspection, we discovered that the thing in the ditch was not one, but two rather large crawfish (or crayfish as they call them here). Despite her Louisiana heritage, Evie was absolutely not interested in getting anywhere near the crawfish. She was very careful to keep her distance and when one of the crawfish started moving with its angry little claws in the air, she said "Nooooooooo!" and backed off. I can't wait to see what she does when she encounters the mammoth sized roaches that we have in Louisiana. She is not a lover of nature at this point, especially if nature is of the bug or creepy crawly variety. She's even a little wary of butterflies.

After a successful morning of puddle jumping, the rain moved in so we headed home for some arts and crafts. I underestimated the effect that arts and crafts would have on my sanity. I had this great plan that Evie would sit quietly and paint a card for Jim, who had just passed his driving test in England (yay Jim!) and that she would keep all artwork and art mess on her art table. About five minutes later, there was art stuff scattered all over the room and I was desperately trying to keep things under control. Silly me. But Evie was having a blast.
I hung the final product, along with everything else she did that day, up on a makeshift clothes/art line in our sunroom and every morning when she goes in to eat her breakfast, she points proudly at her art and says "WOW!!!" Now I just have to accept the mess and let her do it again.
The next day was another rainy day, but Evie has a rainy day friend named Rufus, so we met Rufus and his mom at a cafe in an alley and Evie and Rufus splashed around in the rain and puddles, while we ate carrot cake under the cafe awning. Evie was NOT dressed in her pretty pink rain gear and thus got pretty soggy, but she and Rufus were having the time of their lives. Sitting on the steps of local businesses and kissing the lady on the poster outside of the hair salon were two very entertaining activities.

Another fun game to play was "take off my rain hood and stand under a stream of water coming off of the awning." When I told Evie that she had to wear her hood and pointed out that Rufus was also wearing his, she went up to Rufus and took his hood off, too. Very cheeky (to put it Englishly)!

Back at home, it finally was the weekend and the rain stopped and there were ample opportunities to play outside in the garden without getting wet. Not satisfied with the lack of puddles, Evie decided to create her own And jump in them. Flashy shoes and stylish cardigan are courtesy of her grandparents.
Stay tuned to see what kind of outside adventures we manage to plan once the weather is COLD and rainy...which it will be soon.

Dog Taxi

On several occasions, while walking around our neighborhood, I have heard hysterical barking then turned to see a black cab full of happy dogs go driving by. Finally, I caught them on a coffee break and was able to take a picture! It's things like this and the incredible experience of seeing 40 army horses go trotting down major London streets, bareback that I will really miss when we have to move.

party party family family

It has been a weekend of diverse experiences. On Saturday, Jim took Evie out for a fun day (hopefully to be documented on this blog at some point) and I headed out with the girls for Jackie's hen party. Unlike the typical American bachelorette party, the Hen parties in England tend to be more than penis themed drunk fests (but, judging by the hen parties I've seen staggering through the tube stations, plenty of drinking happens, too). We all started out at a salon, where we pampered ourselves before we went out. I had my first pedicure since before Evie was born...nice!
The bride to be donned her very special bride to be boa and we hit the streets of Soho.

Since Evie was born, our going out experiences have been somewhat subdued, so it was a little surreal for me to be out in a place like Soho, where there were so many people and so many bars and so much happening. Obviously, I wasn't able to fully appreciate being out since I'm pregnant and was going the non-alcoholic route, but it was still fun to be part of so much energy. And one benefit to not being able to imbibe is not having a hangover the next morning.



There's nothing like a group of women dressed in similar outfits to encourage unattractive men to make stupid comments that they think are funny. Our first admirers were a bunch of toothless, wasted bums outside of the salon, followed by several more batches of hilarious (to themselves) idiots. I can't imagine what they said to the girls who were out in their skimpy outfits. We looked positively matronly compared to most of the hen parties we passed. Anyway,We waded through the crowds and eventually ended up at a Cuban club called Floridita. We felt like we had stepped onto the set of Scarface.
Bizarrely, one of the rules of the club/restaurant was that no one could wear feather boas or matching hen party pins. They said the feathers might fly into the food of other diners, but we weren't sure why we couldn't wear our pins. We might stick someone with them maybe? Or maybe they were just trying to keep it classy by not letting people wear common pins that said "Danger! Hen Party in Process!!!".

When we sat down, we were quickly greeted by our waitress who offered to show us the steak board. None of us wanted steak, so we declined. But no, she insisted. Apparently she HAD to show us the steak board. And so we sat and patiently listened to detailed information about each cut of steak that the restaurant offered then ordered vegetarian fajitas and fish dishes.
The music was great! A Latin band had the crowd up and dancing and there were some really impressive dancers in the mix. Latin dancing is so fun, but my large stomach was not cooperating with my attempts to move my hips in a vaguely coordinated way, so I kept the dancing to a minimum. Interesting song tidbit for non-Spanish speakers: Jackie told me that the song "La Cucaracha" (sp?) is about the cockroach who doesn't want to walk anymore because he's run out of marijuana. Hah!
(The woman with the guy smooching her in the middle of this picture was a REALLY good dancer and had great legs and 3 foot high heels. Elizabeth and Jackie had some pretty good moves, too!)

It was such a fun night, but I had to head home in anticipation of my early morning wake up call from Evie and a busy Sunday with friends. Today we headed north to have brunch our friends Carolina and Dave and their cute boys Santiago and Rafael. Rafael is only six months older than Evie, but, as usual she was more interested in the older Santi. They have a great back yard, so while we had a nice time catching up with Carolina and Dave, Evie was off having the time of her life with the boys. They played on S and R's awesome swing set, ran through the yard at high speed, picked vegetables from the garden and practiced their somersaults. It was a good day for all!

Tea time for FInchley

Evie loves to treat her friends and loved ones to tea. Even Finchley gets to come to a tea party sometimes!


Clearly he was enjoying himself!

Kite Day

Last weekend we took our kite out to Parliament Hill. Evie was very excited!

Once we had established that the kite was not to be walked on, she helped Jim put the kite together.

First flight! It was a blustery day and perfect for kite flying!



Also a good day for standing in holes and attempting to wade through tall grass.

Scotland!

After our fun times in London, we headed off to beautiful Scotland, via Virgin trains. Although I experienced considerable frustration while booking the train tickets, the Virgin Trains are, by far, the nicest trains that we have been on while traveling in the UK. Any train that Evie falls asleep on is even nicer!
Waving bye bye to our train, after we got off in Lockerbie:
Our first stop was a pretty little village called Moffat, where our Grandpa used to holiday and which Mom visited when she was a little girl. We stayed in a great hotel called the Annondale Arms and our only challenge was getting Evie to go to sleep. Apparently sharing a room with your parents is kind of stimulating and eventually, in desperation, we had to move her bed into the bathroom so that she would go to sleep.

Roaming the streets of Moffat:
Tea and scone (we eventually got another one):
Happiness is playing under trees:
Mom and Dad on a bridge:

Attempting to calm Evie down before Lala babysat. Unsuccessful. It is also stimulating to have your doting grandmother in the room with you when you're supposed to be going to sleep.

The next morning, we went for a walk through the woods near Moffat. At first we were a little disenchanted because the woods had been cleared for timber and it actually was pretty harsh looking, but eventually we got out of that part of the walk and found some scenic countryside.
Mom and Dad at the kissing gate:
I'm not sure what was going on in this picture because Dad and I were lagging behind, but it was pretty funny to see Mom and Jim holding hands. I think maybe they were trying to entertain Evie, who was making seagull noises on Jim's back because she was hungry:

Gazing down at the countryside, which was largely populated by sheep:

One should never miss the opportunity to peek over an ancient rock wall in Scotland:
A glarey shot of the three and a half of us:

The whole gang:

Every walk should be followed with a vanilla milkshake:

Mom had memories of visiting the Mare's Tail waterfall when she was a little girl and was eager to see it again, so we decided to have a taxi drive us to Edinburgh, via the Mare's Tail rather than taking the train. This also gave us a chance to experience the incredible scenery between Moffat and Edinburgh and gave Evie her first experience of car sickness. After vomiting all over herself, the taxi and the car seat and being changed into new clothes on the side of an extremely narrow and traveled road, Evie recovered and we finally made it to the Mare's Tail.
Dad running:
And a couple of cramped hours later (punctuated by the not so subtle smell of vomit), we finally made it to Edinburgh. Everyone but me (and probably Evie) thought it was worth it to drive.

Lunch in a cafe that didn't have high chairs was a challenge, but we are an innovative bunch and did our best to keep Evie entertained.
But after she nearly tripped about three waitresses and sneezed on the girl sitting in the seat next to us, Jim had to take her outside.
Dad thoroughly enjoyed his waffle with bacon and brie on it.
At Edinburgh Castle. If you look carefully, you can see the black hat of a bagpipe player up to the left:
Ascending into the castle:
Cannon enthusiast (we'll have to go to the Vicksburg Military Park next time we're home)!
Foog's names and Foog's Faces...always appear on gates in Edinburgh Castle:
We are of the opinion that one cannot eat too many scones with clotted cream and jam when one has limited time left in the UK. Evie seemed ok with this plan:
The changing of the guard:

And riding on a stone horse:

Just as one should never miss the opportunity to peek over a stone wall and eat copious amounts of scones with clotted cream, one also shouldn't miss the chance to peek through an ancient window:

Edinburgh Castle was historic, but it was much more fun to dance around in front of body warping mirrors that lined the streets:

Edinburgh was a great place to get your big dork on. They had plaid tams with red hair attached to them--a fashion opportunity that I just couldn't pass by! Combined with my Edinburgh sweatshirt and the Edinburgh Castle book, I was just a number one fan of Edinburgh.
Evie was not to be outdone. She was also very enthusiastic about Scotland:
Heading from the Old Town to the New Town:

We managed, during our stay in the historic old town, to rent an apartment that was about 20 feet from THREE youth hostels. The residents of these youth hostels spent their nights and into the early hours of the morning (as in 6am) drinking their faces off and screaming at the top of their lungs. In our stuffy little rooms with the windows closed, earplugs jammed into our ears and pillows over our heads, we managed to get a little sleep, but when we were lying down on the ground in this park, I thought I might not be able to get up again. I also thought a lot about what I used to be able to do (drink a lot and party all night) and how I would feel now if I tried that. Considering how bad I feel when I'm NOT drinking and not getting enough sleep, I think it would be pretty painful. On this trip my mom referred to me as a 'middle aged woman' for the first time. HUMPH!
Jim and Evie on the World's fastest and longest carousel ride:
And now some shots of Edinburgh architecture that Jim took while out on a photography walk by himself:

Jim and Dad did some wandering around and pub hopping after dinner on our second night. While they were out, they stumbled onto a rainbow and a cross dressing stag party. In America, men take their friends who are going to get married to strip clubs. Here, they might to strip clubs as well, but it seems like the ultimate goal is to get the groom completely soused and dress him in humiliating outfits. We have seen more drunk grooms to be dressed in thongs and other horrifying costumes while out and about in London. In this case, it looks like the groom AND his friends were enjoying the thrills of cross dressing.

On our last morning, we took a walk up to Holyrood Park, which is set within some steep, thistle covered cliffs. We didn't have the time to climb all the way up, but it was very pretty and I was impressed with how many people were running up and down the paths. Unfortunately, some unknown accident befell my camera while it was in Jim's pocket, so pictures from this part of our visit to Edinburgh are limited:

Edinburgh is usually a city of 400,000, but on the cusp of the Fringe Festival, when we were visiting, its size doubles to 800,000. Despite the crowds and the night screamers, we really enjoyed exploring the city, which was full of people from all over the world and funky shops. It would be fun to go back for a longer visit sometime but this time, alas, Jim had to get back to work and Mom and Dad had to fly home so we headed back for one final evening in London all together. I cried when Mom and Dad left and Evie was asking about them for a couple of days, but now we're on to our usual routines and looking forward to the next visit in November, when our new baby is born!