Park, Park, Park & Park

A few recent ones of D. After a strop and on my shoulder. Finishing off the last of the chocolate ice cream.

I've cleaned up the flickr widget so out with the old, in with the new. More to come. Have a look.

The day started with the kids crawling into bed with us, waving their home made cards. The note in C’s card was in that really endearing still-learning-how-to-write-and-spell format- a real keeper. Once everyone was suitably dressed and awake, it was down to the kitchen for family pancakes! I’m still considered the new guy at work, so it was surprising and humbling to get a full office chorus of Happy Birthday followed by 2 kinds of cake. In return, I provided the entertainment. I walked around the office on my hands, which I’ve done on most of my birthdays the last several years. Back at home in the evening, we had more cake and candles with the kids and some great gifts. After I got the kids in bed and I settled down with a glass of red wine, family and friends from around the world called to wish a happy birthday. And finally, the best sushi in London arrived for birthday dinner.

So far this year, Bells and I have kept to a pretty good routine of running every other morning. This means me getting up at 6:30, running 3 miles, and then Bells going out and doing the same when I'm back. When I walk back through the door, the kids are usually up and around. So there is a bit of playing and some random questioning about why this happens or how that works. And they may join me on the kitchen counter while I have some yogurt. Sometimes they will have dressed themselves already; other times they'll be at various stages of dress/undress. This morning was no different. Questions from the kitchen counter, while I was still in my running clothes, eating breakfast. I then carried them both upstairs- one under each arm to squeals and giggling- to go shower. On mornings when we’re not running, the kids will wake us by crawling into bed with us around 7am. Sometimes we protest. Sometimes not.

We took a spontaneous trip from our estate out to the English Countryside yesterday, and found ourselves in the Surrey Hills. We pulled up along a road and ventured into the woods looking for Garuffalo. After throwing many sticks and looking down fox dens, we retreated to Shere- a lovely small village. It has quite a reputation in the movie industry. We snugged into a warm booth at the White Horse Pub. Here's an earlier visit for C . Now that D has been to the White Horse, it ranks as one of the very few pubs in the UK that all of the American/Hinsdale Parks have been to over the years.

As we were out on the estate, see just past post, C invented a word. Twangly: A mess or confusion, usually of branches. Here he is in front of his inspiration.

A nice warm day today, so we found ourselves out on the estate. I took some really cute pictures of both kids- here's one of D. The colours and background are great, I think. And it's post-recent haircut.

Bella's Godmother Georgie and husband Mike stopped by last Sunday for tea- a surprise visit which was very enjoyable. After a few cuppas, we snapped a few pictures. The kids were a bit squirmy by then, so this is one of only a few good shots. This is also pre-haircut for D, which happened five days later.