Return to the blog: Mom, Kate and Cora visit

While not the restful and relaxing holiday that I had envisioned (yes, I was still thinking that traveling with two kids and leaving Jim at home was going to be easy peasy, but now I know), we had a great and LONG visit with family, starting with the much anticipated arrival of Mom, Kate and the adorable Cora. As soon as they could cope, we headed out on our first London adventure. The City Farm again!!!!

Evie and Cora rocked the Farm Mobile and Millie was in the sling (and thus not featured in a lot of these pictures, as the sling was attached to my chest):

Aunt Kate and Evie checked out the ducks taking a bath. Just before this picture was taking the ducks were having sex so things weren't as innocent as they seem!
Cora loved the baby goats:
Evie, on the other hand, shrieked in terror when the mother goat moved too quickly in our direction, so Mom decided that a good way to get her over her newly discovered fear of goats was to pick one of the babies up and bring it to Evie to pet.

Not surprisingly, she got yelled at. I think the man's exact words were, "PUT THAT DOWN, PLEASE!" So she did. But not before Evie patted its head!

Here is a picture of Millie, just to show that she is still around (as a side note, that is her extra special quilt made by her beautiful and talented Aunt Kate, which she is lying on):
We had beautiful weather in London while Mom and Kate were visiting, so we headed to Primrose Hill for a picnic and some walking (and crawling).
Millie loves her Lala and was quite taken with her own tongue at that point in her life....

Cora loves the sand....

And everyone loves to swing! Especially Millie:


There was also some famous person who I couldn't identify being stalked by the paparazzi. Not very interesting when you don't know who the famous person was (I'll chalk it up to not being British), but still exciting to witness!

Americans are enthusiastic about holidays and The Hampstead Women's Club (which is mostly made up of Americans) is no exception. Easter celebrations started a month early and we were there for the earliest Easter Egg hunt on the planet...although nobody in this picture looks very excited about the prospect of hunting eggs:
Cora was, though! She is enthusiastic about most things:
Evie definitely found more than the 10 eggs that she was allowed to find:

Sisters and sisters and cousins! Can you tell which ones belong to me?

Jim and Millie shared a sweet moment before we left the house:
Evie refused to go within 20 feet of the Easter Bunny and even Cora was a little leery. Here she is frantically trying to get away from that creepy Easter Bunny!
Lunch time in Regent's Park!
Evie was eager to help push Cora around the park:
Every night we had dinner together at home. Here is Kate with the much more labor intensive than anticipated British version of a quesadilla creation that she made. Clearly Jim had a great appreciation for her masterful chef skills:
It WAS good.

Queen Evie, of course, rounded up her ladies in waiting and everyone dressed up in their bug and wench and Disney princess dresses. Cora looked especially fetching in her off the shoulder number:
Not to be outdone, Evie then put on Cora's off the shoulder outfit, which was obviously way too small for her and which horrified her father, who declared it indecent. It has officially been passed down to Millie, who lacks the appreciation for princesses that one needs when channeling Snow White:

We did take a brief trip into Central London sans kids before we headed to America. Alas, it was short lived, but we flew through a little of the National Gallery, had an overpriced lunch and then bought some junk at the Covent Garden Market (it was "junk" day, but still appealing. Mom got Evie a rubber, goo filled egg that you throw onto the floor or wall and it expands and then retracts back into a ball. Pretty gross and Evie punctured it within 10 seconds).
It was great to have Mom, Kate and Cora in town, but I think we were all happy when we got to Tallulah and were able to spread out a little bit. There is only so long that four adults can share one bathroom! Up next: The Farm portion of our American visit.

The Amazing Tap Dancing Evie and Millie

They've got mad skill...

Tap Dancers

Evie's friend Rufus came over and loaned her his Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire movie, "Roberta." He also taught her some great tap moves and introduced her to a woman who danced without a tutu. Unthinkable!

City Farm

Yesterday we got some sunshine again, so we joined our friends Emma and Sebastian on a trip to City Farm. City Farm is walking distance from us in Kentish Town, right next to the train tracks and to get there you mosey past the giant Royal Free Hospital and wander through some council flats. Then you cross a bridge over the train tracks and, behind a non-descript wooden door there is a fulling functioning, if slightly worn looking farm...in the middle of Camden and next to three train lines. I have seen the horses from the train before, so it was fun to actually check out the mystical City Farm.

The kids were ready to go to the farm...but first we had to stop at Starbucks for coffee and paninis. Millie took this opportunity to take a snooze in the back of the buggy.
When we got to the farm, I let Evie out to run...and discovered that chickens are, apparently, terrifying creatures:
It took a good half hour for her to accept the fact that the chickens were not out to get her, but eventually, after petting some baby goats, she began to embrace the farm:
Meanwhile, Millie was living it up in the front seat of the stroller--a rare treat, as usually she's in the back!
Evie and Sebastian rushed ahead and held hands a lot. Emboldened by the fact that she was over her fear of chickens, Evie went into bossy mode. Here she is telling Sebastian to "WAIT for MOMMY...PLEASE!" Sebastian, not one to be bossed around, totally ignored her.

The pigs were a great hit and part of the fun was yelling at them to wake up:

They did not:
Horses grazing next to the train tracks:
Watching the frogs:
Happy Sebastian:

We all had a fun time at City Farm but when Evie and Sebastian started picking up sheep poop, it was time to go!

That's Bananas!

Although she's only 4 and a half months old, Millie is a voracious eater and after one too many nights of being woken up at 4:20 am, we decided to let her try out a banana. She seemed to like it, although it's really hard to focus on things when there is horrible music blaring in the background and your sister is screaming in your ear about bananas. I think rice cereal will go down better:

Springier and Springier

Today, after a fun get together at our house and a delicious brunch mostly cooked by Jim (during which I completely forgot to take pictures) we went for a walk in the park. Because it was a beautiful day in London, the masses were out. And because we are great promoters of Evie burning off some of her neverending energy and going to be as early as possible tonight, we let her walk a lot. For some reason, the more tired she gets, the more energy she has. I wish I had that problem. It would make keeping up with her a lot easier!
Evie is very into accessorizing, so she wore her pink tutu underneath the dress that she was already wearing. Millie is learning great fashion tips from her big sister.

Hampstead Heath dirt inspection:
From the back seat of her stroller, Millie took it all in with her usual mellow attitude...until she got hungry and all we had to offer her was a cold bottle and she decided that she had had enough of this outdoors nonsense and we went home. Once we were safely inside the house, she was back to her happy self again:
But first we stopped by Keats' House with Jackie and Piotrek!

Evie practiced her ball throwing:

And somehow, when we got home, she still had enough energy to do this:

(Jim is not English, although sometimes he likes to talk like he is. Evie usually has a slight English accent, but seems to have dropped it for this video. It's more pronounced after she hangs out with her English friends.)

What a ham!

Kitchen dance

This morning I had a doctor's appointment and Jim had to stay home from work because I couldn't find a babysitter. AND he got up at 4:30 to feed Millie AND he got up with both girls and let me sleep until 8:00, which is late in our world. And he fed Finchley. What a man!

Anyway, we started the day with a small dance party in the kitchen. As you can see, Jim has some super fly dance moves which he will use to mortify Evie and Millie during their teenage years. Millie doesn't usually wear a hat while we're inside, but she wanted to model her sweet SIX TO TWELVE MONTH OUTFIT!!!!! that Nana and Papa gave her. Also, I'm not sure why Evie wasn't allowed to touch the garlic, but she seemed not to care....


I love my family!

As a side note, today I threatened Evie with loss of her Cinderella dress (plural) and all party dresses and tutus for an entire day if she didn't behave. That worked.