Nana and Papa in London!

Last week, Jack and Mindy came by for a visit. Everyone was very excited...especially Evie, who had been screaming that Nana and Papa were coming on a "BIG AIRPLANE MOMMY!!" for about a month prior to their arrival every time we saw or heard an airplane.

The day after their arrival, Evie had Toddler Fairy School, so Mindy joined us for the two hour fairy extravaganza, but not before getting lots of snuggles in with Millie:

Fairy Evie was VERY excited to go to fairy school and Fairy Jenny, who was their fairy teacher, was pretty amazing. She kept them all entertained and engaged with fairy dust and magic tricks and crown decorating and dancing and cake decorating...it was magical and Evie thoroughly enjoyed it.

Eagerly awaiting the start of fairy school:
Fairies in training:
Fairy magic with fairy dust:
A fairy princess:
Fairies dance in a fairy ring:
Fairy sugar high:

Proud graduate of the Fairy School:

While she is an enthusiastic fairy and princess, Evie is adamant that she wants to be a cat for Halloween. Branching out in the costume department!

Back at home, Dr. Minnie Mouse gave Millie a thorough physical and was pleased to declare her in perfect health!

While we always enjoy spending time with our girls, it was also nice to get out for a day without
them. We headed down to the theater district to have some lunch and see a matinee showing of Les Mis. Jim and his parents in Piccadilly Circus:
And at lunch at the Criterion, which is this very ornate, art-deco place with yummy food (and also was featured in Sherlock Holmes):
Outside of the theater:
And inside, before the show, which was, in Mindy's words (she is the musical expert in this family), "Spectacular!!" It was a lot of fun to go to the theater and something we probably should do more often while we're living in London.

The weather was also spectacular while Mindy and Jack visited, so we spent the next day wandering in Hampstead Heath:

And the next day, too..
And finally the much anticipated visit to the Olympic Park arrived! Sans girls, we took the overground down to Jim's office (on site) and got to see how much has changed:
Jim has gotten his license since the last time I visited the park:

Posing under the Willow tunnel in the Great British Gardens:

From what I understood (and this might be wrong), the willow branches are chopped off and then they stick them into the ground and they take root...kind of in a bamboo looking way. Then they weave them together so that they grown in an arch.
You know your husband loves you when he tells you that he thinks you look so cute in a hard hat. This was not my most beautiful moment:
Much to my surprise, we got to go inside the stadium:
They were putting down the Olympic track while we were there:
Some of Jim's landscaping project, as seen from the Olympic Stadium:
Venders and toilets will be located in pods around the outside of the stadium:

And advertisers will be able to put their messages on these banners hanging outside of the stadium:
But the most exciting part for us, of course, was seeing what Jim has been working on for so many years: The South Park Gardens.

Here he is in the North American gardens:
With his proud parents:
Flowers and landscapes that Jim and his team put together:

It's pretty amazing to think that when we got here and when Jim started working on the Olympic Park, it was just a pile of dirt being recycled by big green machines. And now, one year away from the Olympic games, it's blooming and the buildings are built and all of his hard work has paid off. Now as long as the USA wins all the gold medals, it will be perfect!

We had a great visit with Jack and Mindy (or Nana and Papa or Mom and Dad, depending on who you're talking to) and can't wait for more family time soon!