Park, Park, Park & Park

We all went swimming Sunday afternoon at a health club in Wimbledon.  A popular place- we bumped into Julian (famous from our walk ) and Anna, and their kids Ruby and Casper. It was the second trip in three days for Bells and the kids, so C showed me the way around the locker room and out to the pool. C really enjoyed it.  And his swimming has come along really well.  He can doggy paddle about 15 feet, popping his head up every few seconds for air.  A big improvement from 2 weeks ago, even more so from back here when discovered independence and water .  D is still in the “very excited to jump off the edge” stage, which she does over and over, farther and farther. 

I had to very stealthily get my phone out to snap this during the sermon.

Swords and cups to go with the Roman soldier A wooden spoon Roman soldier The bird from Rio, fruit bats, fish and a croc.  This may go to my office.

We found ourselves down here again last weekend- in deepest Sussex. Bells, C Ernst- aged 95, Nettie, D The reason was to visit Ernst Van Maurik (Bella's first cousin twice removed) with Nettie (Ernst is Nettie's Uncle). He's famous in the family for his stories from WWII and his exploits as a British Special Operations Executive.  Here's some background on him and a video .  He told C tales of parachuting into France and working his way undercover to the Swiss border. We then stayed at John and Shelia's house for the rest of the weekend.  Some nice walks, good pubs and a campfire to toast marshmallows.

As I was dashing out of the house this morning, I spied the kids ready for breakfast in these matching, homemade sweaters.  My Mom knitted these.

Most Americans of my generation will be familiar with Tenacious D - a comic rock band fronted by Jack Black.  We have our own Tenacious D in the Park Family. Randomly, Dorothy took a shine to her like-a-bike today (a like-a-bike is a bike that has no pedals and teaches kids balance while steering).  It has been the un-used birthday gift in favour of her scooter. She decided to ride it to the park down the street.  Even though she is about an inch too short to put it to full use.  And has never spent any real time on it in the past. On her tiptoes, very slowly the entire way.  Lots of wobbles and falling over.  Tears even at some points. I offered to help but she vehemently would not allow it.  She was going to get to the park on her own on the like-a-bike or die trying.  She made it. C has been really enjoying learning to read.  He's very good at sounding out words and then repeating them. Today, he picked a book that my parents gave him- The Cow in Apple Time .  A po

A few fellow fathers and I from Pirbright Road took ourselves off to Sussex for a bit of a walk yesterday.  Jointly organised by Rich (Thomas and Ben), Jules (Ruby and Casper), Mark (Lena) and myself, we trained it down to Alfriston Friday and walked the 15 miles from there to Eastbourne on Saturday.  Then back to reality for bathime that evening. Fuelled up on good food from The George (Lamb or beef, sir? "I'll have the one with the most fat, please") and local brew, we made good time.  Especially with no one demanding to ride on our shoulders. The scenery was pretty impressive- we started out at 9:45am on misty country trails and then the second half was the high, chalky bluffs of the Seven Sisters and Beechy Head right along the coast. UPDATE:  According to google maps, it looks like we walked about 11 miles. Jules, Mark and Rich outside the B&B, ready to set off...

We spent the day in Kent at Sissinghurst Castle - cloudy around Southfields, sunny in Kent. It was a random excursion, and it turned out really well.  We all had a great time walking the grounds and even came home with a bucketful of blackberries and sloes! Trying to fly with the wind Budding "too cool for school" look?

D is taking ballet lessons with a bunch of the other local kids.   Angelina Ballerina is a growing part of her life right now.  Maybe she's headed here ? She got her first set of slippers just last week, and was told to sleep in them to wear them in.

C's name at the top of his picture

As documented earlier , C has taken a shine to Lego.  Very little tv is called for now; it's straight out of bed in the morning and right to the playroom for tweaking on the stuff he built the night before. This is a modification off a set he got some months back.  He took the original plane kit and added his own improvements.

We had a beautifully sunny and warm weekend just past.  So warm that both Saturday and Sunday, all four of us had a big family waterfight in the backyard.  The big guns came out- a super soaker squirt gun.  And even the nuclear bomb of a bucketfull of water from the paddling pool.  It was a really good laugh. Here's D in the sunshine. She and I now have a bit of a secret handshake going.  We do a thumbs-up to each other and then press our thumbs together.

New laptop in hand.   I have a backlog of stuff to get up over the next few weeks. Legos, D in the sun, etc...