Europa....

Well, ya'll, it was fun. Food was eaten (fish & chips, Indian, Ethiopian, crepes, pastries; in the UK, much beer and coffee; in France, much wine and coffee); a large portion of London and Paris were covered by foot, bus, and train; sights were well seen. Really, there are too many details for a blog posting. Some highlights:

St. James Park in London. I caught the changing of the guard at Buckingham by chance. (The Eye in the background...)

Guarding the Queen's jewels at the Tower of London. M4 had made us a most awesome going-away card with drawings of various landmarks. I tried to snap a photo with his drawing when I could.

Tower Bridge, of course.

No caption necessary. This is really something everyone should see in person in their lifetime. Not to mention the Notre Dame cathedral. I could have taken pictures there all day! The gargoyles!! One and a half days was not enough in Paris, but thanks to our fabulous hosts, David and Astrid, we saw a whole heckuva lot!!

The first day in London, Mark had gotten me a surprise: an Italian cooking course at La Cucina Caldesi!! It was such a fantastic time...everyone else was from the UK, so I got to meet some great people instead of otherwise wandering around solo. Our instructors, Stefano Borella and Katie Caldesi were relaxed, fun, and of course, informative! We ate and drank all day long (favorite pasttime); I got to hear Italian (next on the language list?); I was sufficiently inspired to come home and make homemade ravioli tout de suite (with a little help from M4)!

Other highlights:

• champagne tea at the Wolseley
  
• the Tate Modern
  
• Borough Market
• National Portrait Gallery
• the C2
• La Grande Epicerie
  
• the Marais

I also have to shout out to maybe the best coffee I've ever had: Monmouth Coffee Co. Yes, it was even better than what I had in France. Sacrilege!!! I have many more pictures...if you want to see them, let me know, and I'll send you the Shutterfly link. Mon dieu, it was a great vacation! I can't wait to take the kids sometime...

Off to Europe!

Looking forward to our European vacation in two days! Well, vacation for me; not so much for Mark, who will be working part of the time.

At the moment, I am feeling slightly spacey and frantic regarding exactly what I need to do to prepare. (Perhaps made that way by teaching my 9th class of the week tonight due to Jenny being away. She reciprocates for me next week...thank you so much, Jenny!!) Pack, for one thing. Clean the house, so my mom is not horrified. Uh....what else? Maybe nothing, really. It's London and Paris, not the outback. And we'll be staying with friends.

Why I am writing this? To make a list maybe?! To let you know why I won't be writing anything here for a while? To express my sudden realization that we'll be leaving the kids behind, leaving me both sad and thrilled? To also express my deepest fear of something happening as we travel? (I can go to worst case scenario so easily.)

OK, deep breath. Au revoir! I'll report in a couple weeks!

Spring...

Some little photographer in the house must have used my camera, because I found these:

Happy Birthday!!

To our hard-working, cake-making, fire-building, sleep-reading, playhouse-building dad! One lemon chiffon pie, hopefully coming up!

TKD pics

Grandma and Grandpa visited this weekend, and Grandma took some pics of us at tae kwon do. I broke my second board, and she got some great shots of the kids sailing through the air!

M3 working on breaking with a flying side kick.

M4 working on the same.

My feet planted firmly on the ground at this point. Good timing, Mom!

It's fun to do it together. The kids are ahead of me, so they can teach me the forms and help me. It's nice to turn the tables that way.

State Swim Meet!

The state swim meet in Ft. Dodge, IA, was yesterday for the girls (boys swim today). What a great day! They had so much fun together, and they all swam well! M3 placed 5th out of 18 in the 100 Free and 10th out of 22 in the 50 Free...great results! Her Free Relay team placed 4th out of 13! Her medley relay team did well, too, but I forgot to look at their place. It was just a nice day of being together as a team. All the other swim parents are so nice; the coaches are great; the kids are so impressive. What a great organization we have!

I had the flu, so I barely pulled it together to pack what we needed for Ft. Dodge; therefore, I forgot the camera!! Waaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! But I took some pics with my friend's camera, and I will pressure her to send them to me to post. It is a bit of a let down now that swim season is over, but it will be nice to have our weeknights a bit calmer!

Party 2!!

Pizza eating:
The scene backstage:
Old bridesmaid dresses:
A random tiger in the mix:
The crew posing: