Park, Park, Park & Park

Here's a few from the Christmas Holiday.  We're off tomorrow for Roman Ruins in Northumbria- around Durham.  NYE pictures after that. C after the Nativity Service at St Barnabas D climbing trees on Wimbledon Common At HMS Belfast In their new pj's on Christmas Eve.

...for the Taroh/Christian sleepover.

At Peter Jones in Sloane Square.  Out of the rain...

I didn't get any good pictures or video.  This is the only worthwhile picture. And C waiting in the background:

...for an Ipad for xmas.

Friday afternoon saw the kick off of a big Christmas weekend with the Sheringdale Fair. Here is C in the choir welcoming all the parents. D then ably picked out our Christmas tree this morning. The family all pitched in at the St. Barnabas Fair today-Bells on the trombola and C and I working the cotton candy machine.  I suspect the house decorations will come out of the attic tomorrow.

C is- 53 inches tall 56 pounds D is- 42 inches tall 36 pounds Here they are at the start of the year .

We had a small celebration at home on Wednesday for Christians' birthday.  Grandpa joined us for the very exciting opening of presents- Airfix models, books on WWII and a tome on Cricket. Here's a link to very early . And here's a link to his recent birthday party at the airshow .

C has been studying the Romans in school, so we all ventured to Bath during the half term break. Here's the highlight pictures: At the famous Roman Baths C thought this sign was pretty funny In front of a Ponderosa Wagon at the American Museum On the boat tour through Bath on the River Avon.

C, Taro, his Dad John and I went 10 minutes south- to the rough side of Wimbledon-this afternoon.  John had the idea of a demolition derby and banger racing. It is a pretty local affair- lots of dented, smoking old cars sponsored by local garages. But it was a really fun experience.

C's 8th birthday comes up later in November.  But we had a small celebration a few weeks back for him. The theme around the house has been World War Two recently .  So, Bella found a WWII airshow up in Cambridgeshire. All of us trooped up on a rainy, windy Sunday and saw the likes of Lancasters, Spitfires and helicopters fly around us.  We brought C's best friend Taro.  I have to say, it was pretty impressive. And here's D in front of the Lancaster: And, when we got home, we built our first Airfix plastic models together:

We awoke one morning to this story from D about a princess. Without any prompting, she put pen to paper.

We've entered a phase in the Park Household which revolves around WWII. Lots of questions about who fought who, where major battles took place, war movies, and the weapons of war. And this includes lots of books about war- bought, borrowed and checked out of libraries. And, of course, the art work of war.

C recited The Kings Breakfast by AA Milne to his class today from memory; learning a lesson in resilience at the same time. His reward was a Roman Coin. Here it is along with a special piece of D's recent artwork.

The kids needed to bring in some regional food o school on Friday, so with the help of Bella they made pumpernickel and cornbread.

Up at Rubinos. With Taro.  Waiting for our 'Zzaa. Updated:  We had a fun filled weekend at the Park Household. Both kids had friends sleep over on Friday-Their first experiences.  Taro and Amber joined us for craziness, some sleep, and French Breakfast in the morning.  The boys had takeaway pizza in front of a movie, hence the picture above. Sunday after church, we all ventured into Central London.  I had a very compelling dream about Malaysian food (from my time in Singapore) 10 days ago.  It turned into a mission to expose Bella and the kids to nasi lemak, fried kway te yoh and others.  It ended at Rasa Sayag- a restaurant on the edge of China Town. Then after watching the street performers in Covent Garden for a hour, we all four hopped in a bicycle rickshaw for a ride to the tube.

We caught up this past weekend with two sets of close friends we hadn't seen recently- The Hampden-Turners and the Quintons. By way of the way back machine, here's the H-T s and here's the Quintons .  And here's some video .  And here's Rupert, Pen and C . Here are the kids atop a large fort (or in the UK, a den), made of logs, located in the middle of Wimbledon Common. Pen, C, D, Charlie (face painted as a Pirate) And here are the kids with Rupert and Benedict (There is a famous line about never working in cinema with kids and animals- trying to get them still was insurmountable). Rups, Benedict, C, D

Adrian came by last Friday, and then all the adults went off to LM's birthday drinks in Richmond. I snapped just 2 pictures while he was with the kids.  In the interest of fairness, I have to post both.

Here's the current dimensions of C and D: C- Height: 133.5 cm. Weight: 54.8 lbs. D- Height: 110.0 cm. Weight: 33 lbs. And here we are out at Winkworth Arboretum yesterday.

While in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, we went to a favourite beach- Little Presque Isle.  The weather was fantastic- the water is usually too cold to even get in, but we swam for hours this time. Just off the shore is an island you can wade out to in waist deep water.  On the back side, we found all the young, cool kids hanging out and jumping off the cliffs into the water. C mustered up the courage, and we jumped together.  It's about 30 feet down to the water!

I'm just back from our US holiday- Bella and the kids are there for another week. Here's a sample of just some of the family and friends we saw... Grandma, C, me, Grand-Dad, D in Hinsdale, Illinois Bella, D, C Barbara and Jack Ryan at their cottage in Michigan Too numerous- The Isotalo side in Northern Michigan C, D and Great Grandma Isotalo in Northlake, Michigan Cary, Ubu (C's Godfather), me, Bella in Downers Grove, Illinois

We're now in the US and staying at a (very generous) friends cottage in Michigan. An aspect of the US is the large portions of food. Even for what the English would call the pudding course. Couple that with the car aspect and we found ourselves at essentially a drive-in ice cream parlour. Oinks in New Buffalo must be famous in the region. It has all kinds of memorabilia covering the inside of the shop. And so many flavours that its tough to choose. C is devouring Superman flavour (?) in a chocolate dipped cone! In the foreground is my scoop in a cookie bowl!

C spent an enjoyable week at cricket camp the last few days. Today he was awarded for Best Fielder. Tomorrow morning its off to the land of baseball though!

Bella has a close friend from her time at Wycombe Abbey- Sari.  Here we are meeting in Wales .  Since both of our sets of kids are now out of school for the summer, we took ourselves off to Sari's parents place- Blacklands Farm in Bedfordshire- for this past weekend and all met up. It's an idyllic rural setting- plenty of grounds for the kids to make mischief in, a muddy pond where they dive in nude, relaxing walks for everyone, and food straight from he garden.  We even did some camping in the garden.  It is really the polar opposite of London. Here are the kids under an apple tree: D, Jack and C  And here we all are just before leaving:

Hearing a great deal of giggling and carrying on after bedtime, I went upstairs to the kids room and read the kids the riot act last night. Maybe due to my stern voice things then calmed down. When Bells and I came up to bed an hour later though, we found this site: both of them sound asleep in our bed.

D has enjoyed her Friday afternoon Ballet classes this Spring and Summer and I've enjoyed going along with her.  Some times I watch, other times I play outside with C, most days D and me have tea together afterwards. She had her final class- "The Watching Class"- yesterday.  A few snaps- Ready to begin... With her pal Izzy Just after A random picture with her other pal Talis