Life's Helmet

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Monday, January 20, 2014

Nursery Time

As much as we have enjoyed chasing this mischievous face around church for the last year, we enjoyed dropping him off at nursery for the first time even more.

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Stop 4 - Buckingham Palace: After arriving at the London Eye and finding that it was closed for maintenance, we grabbed the bus and headed over to Buckingham Palace to watch the Changing of the Guard.

Stop 5 - Open Top Bus Tour: During our stay, we used the open top buses as our primary means of transportation. The kids were most excited about the fact that they didn't have to wear a seat belt while driving around.

Stop 6 - Natural History Museum: We made a quick stop at the Natural History Museum to see a few of the larger displays we thought the kids would like. The highlights were the life-size dinosaur and blue whale displays. We found that Maeli was not particularly fond of the life-size hippopotamus display.

Stop 7 - Hyde Park: Due to the cold weather, we decided to forgo our initial plan of having a picnic in the park and took a stroll through the park instead. The kids particularly enjoyed chasing the birds along the lakeside.

Stop 8 - Covent Garden: Since we missed the street performers the night before, we headed back to Covent Garden to see what all the hype was about. The kids were thrilled to find that there was a performer doing balloon animals. Both kids ended the night happy with a flower balloon hat and a balloon turtle.

A Weekend In London - Day 1

Stop 1 - Tower of London: We started our trip by heading over to the Tower of London. The kids had fun seeing the crown jewels and the armor worn by the knights. Although the torture chamber was a bit difficult to explain to Maeli, we had fun navigating our way through the tower and exploring the different rooms.

Stop 2 - Hamleys Toy Store: With two kids under the age of 4, we figured that a stop at Hamleys Toy Store was pretty much a requirement. With 7 floors of over 50,000 toys, the store has been voted one of the top 10 toy stores in the world and has been said to be the world's oldest toy store. Our favorite part was getting to see all of the toy demonstrations as we shopped.

Stop 3 - Five Guys (in Covent Garden): Of all the food choices in London, we chose...Five Guys. I have to admit that this was the first "normal" American dining experience we've had since moving overseas (ie. quality, portions, drink refills, etc.). Needless to say, it was nice to encounter a small piece of home.