Busy, busy, busy

I think the title adequately sums up our week/weekend. Mich also reminded me that I'm a little behind on filling people in on some of the important stuff that's been going on. So, important stuff first...

On Valentine's Day, which already seems like forever ago, Maggie went over to a friend's house to play. She came back after a few hours with two 50p, and told us that the tooth fairy gave them to her. We, of course, took the 50p's and went to return them, only to find out that apparently they weren't theirs, and they didn't know where Maggie had got them. We quizzed Maggie about this, and discovered that Maggie had lost a tooth while visiting her friend. (It was loose.) Maggie, being the person that she is, wasn't particularly bothered with the fact that she didn't know where the tooth was, but was delighted that the tooth fairy had already given her money. We still don't know where her tooth is, or how she got the money, but the tooth fairy visited again that night.

Work recently has been busy, but as Dalton was out of school this past week on half-term, I managed to squeeze in one holiday on Friday. We headed into London and first, went to Covent Garden and the Build-A-Bear there, so Maggie's bear "Charlie" could get stitched up again. After popping around the corner for take-away from Rock and Sole Plaice, a great little fish and chips shop a few streets from the main plaza, we ate in relative peace behind St. Paul's in Covent Garden. If you make it to London, I highly recommend checking out the Rock & Sole. After that, we went to Kensington Palace, which was the real reason we were in London in the first place. Kensington, as some of you may know, was the childhood home of Queen Victoria, as well as one of the homes of Princess Diana. Maggie got to "ooh" and "aah" over real dresses worn by Princess Diana, so she was happy. The kids also made their own little crowns and listened to tales of Queen Victoria's childhood.

Saturday was the big day for Mich, as we went in to see U2 3D on the largest screen in the UK. Okay, I'll admit that I enjoyed it as well, but obviously not as much as she did.

Sunday, after church, we went back to Kensington Gardens and had a mini-picnic. Afterwards, the kids played on the Princess Diana Memorial Playground, which has a ship, wigwams, and all sorts of other things for the kids to run around on. We also popped by the Kensington Palace Gardens, and then ended up going to the Science Museum as well - mainly because Dalton has a small bladder - although we did wander for an hour or so before heading back home. We'll be going back, I'm sure, as we only made it through part of one floor (out of six).

A Visit from the Tooth Fairy

I can only say that I am just now beginning to realise just how deceptive my children can be. Yesterday morning, while I was upstairs getting ready for work, Dalton came running upstairs to report that he had lost a tooth. This, in and of itself, is not terribly surprising - after all, Dalton had already lost six, and he got his teeth in early. What was surprising was that he hadn't said anything about it until yesterday morning. Then he admitted that it had been loose for quite some time, but he didn't want anyone to pull it. So, yesterday morning, it came out as he was eating... a waffle. Yes, his tooth was so loose, a waffle made it come out. Seriously. Still, the tooth fairy was good to him, despite his deception.

So, anyway, this past week has been fairly rough. Michelle continued to be ill for a couple of days until she finally succeeded in passing the bug to me, which led to me missing a couple of days from work before recuperating. We're both doing better now, although Michelle has a lingering cough that just won't seem to go away. All week though, we've been planning today's excursion - a trip into town to see the Lord Mayor's Show. You can find the handy-dandy website here. The "Show" is a parade which has been taking place for almost 800 years. Pictures will be coming shortly. We were able to find a spot to stand and watch and really had a grand time. After the show, we meandered the city for a bit, through Trafalgar Square, up to Piccadilly Circus, then back down by Westminster to watch the fireworks at five. (I may try to put the video on - just to show that it is now already dark by five o'clock.)

The kids were really fun to watch today. The people in the parade were stopping off to give out flags and stuff, so they were waving their little flags at the parade, then we stopped at a little souvenir shop to get them a couple of Union Jacks, then they wanted a poppy when we were in Trafalgar Sqaure - so they ended up running around waving the Union Jack and wearing their poppies. The poppies are part of the British Legion campaign - think Veteran's Day sort of thing. So, anyway, although it was a long day, it was fun, for all, I think.