Evie and I took the tube in rush hour (never again) to Victoria station to meet Aunt Kate. Finally she made it, but unfortunately she interrupted Evie's bottle AND her obsession with watching the gigantic TV screen in the train station. So Evie was a little grumpy.
Fortunately, she cheered up in the cab on the way home (sorry grandparents...the cab was not my original plan, but after the horror of rush hour tube with baby, I wasn't going there again. Next time she'll be in a car seat!)
We headed home to drop off Kate's luggage and she gave Evie some cool kicks before we decided to head out and enjoy the beautiful, sunny and pretty warm weather.
Breakfast at Giraffe:
Followed by a walk in Hampstead Heath:
And then home for some hard core playing in the jungle gym. Aunt Kate does a great monkey impression, which I think I thought was funnier than Evie did.
The next day was a typical day. We woke up early and played and read some books:
Evie had a spit bath and massage:
Then she threw up (thanks to Kate for most of these pictures). Kate is very impressed by the sheer amount of spit up that comes out of Little Evie:
Then we dressed her in her "That Seventies Show" outfit and headed to the pub, where we met Jim and some other friends for a little while:
On Saturday we had a lunch party! Ruth, Apollo and Alex came, but I forgot to take pictures until after they left. Our next door neighbors Simon and Jack came and Aurelie and Jim's friend John and his wife and two kids. It was the perfect excuse to buy mass quantities of delicious French pastries at the Hampstead Market:
Hampstead High Street:
After gorging ourselves on quiche and French pastries, we decided to go for a walk. Everyone and his/her dog (literally) was out on the Heath, so it wasn't exactly peaceful, but it was still nice to get out and walk around:
Sunday was Mother's Day in England and the most important Mother's Day of all for me--my first! Evie could hardly contain her excitement and was really happy to give me her card:
Besides waking up to an excited and happy baby, we had great plans to go to Oxford, so we packed ourselves up and headed to Paddington Station to take the train. Evie was great on the way there and not as great on the way back, but that was understandable after a long day of watching Morris Dancing in Oxford:
There was a folk festival going on in Oxford and the streets were filled with Morris Dancers! You may remember that I spent some time commenting on the leprechan-esqueness of Morris Dancing on a previous blog many years ago and I got totally bashed by Morris Dancing fans and told to go back to America, etc. etc. SO...yeah, won't be doing that again (although I still think that it does have a leprechaun vibe to it) Anyway, it was a lot of fun to see the people dancing in their costumes and with rings on their fingers and bells on their toes (I assume that is where that nursery rhyme originated after seeing so many bells everywhere on the dancers). It was all very festive and Evie really enjoyed it (as did the rest of us. And feel free to tell me to go back to America if you don't believe me...I can monitor your comments. Muhahahahhahah!).
These people got the prize for best costumes (in our opinion). Funky!
Watching the dancers:
Torturing Evie outside of Oxford Castle:
Jim does his own version of Morris Dancing (would have been better with bells, I think):
FREE Mother's Day flowers from a random man (that would NEVER happen in London)
It's never to early to emphasize the importance of a good education! (Evie at oxford University):
We also were lucky enough to have a great tour guide in Oxford--Kate's friend, Cade--who showed us around and even let us into his college.
Kate, looking ever fabulous in the streets of Oxford (with Evie...in her stroller).
After a long and fun day, there was nothing left to do but demonstrate poses that I have developed for when I become America's next middle-aged top model:
I think I've definitely got a future...
