Edinburgh

On Friday early morning we packed up and took the train north, to Edinburgh, Scotland.  It was a beautiful train ride and a really, really cool city.  Lots of old, brown brick buildings whose edges have turned black with time and weather.

Also, hills.  Here we walk down a long, winding staircase to get to the bottom of one hill, then we will scale another to get up to the castle.

Oh yeah, up there?  That's the castle

.

The view from the front, with grammies and silly kids

We spent a little time taking it all in

And Noah found a cannon

Walked around the upper buildings

Found another cannon (a big one this time!!)

We went inside and saw a lot of swords and armor and amazing old woodwork

And outside and found another cannon

The view of the city from the top of the castle wasn't bad either.

And if all that wasn't exciting enough, we also ate Haggis and it was delicious.

Science and stuff

Yesterday mom and Sue took the kids to the science museum and they worked a generator and learned how a bunch of appliances worked and visited a wildlife garden.

Today mom and Sue took the kids to the museum of natural history and they saw a ton of dinosaur skeletons and dinosaur robots and took an escalator through a planet (don't worry, Eva reassured me it wasn't a real planet) and saw a prehistoric bear skeleton.

Kids with prehistoric bear

Meanwhile, I worked on the computer and had conference calls.  While my day certainly wasn't as exciting and glamorous, I am happy that at least I had no risk from prehistoric bears.

Matilda

So it has been brought to my attention that I just jumped into this London business without bothering to explain... we are staying in London for the summer so Chad can work on the new London Thoughtbot office.  I am doing my regular job remotely,  and Mom and Sue are here to take the kids to as many free museums as possible (and in London, most of the museums are free!).

The opportunity is really awesome and a little intimidating but mostly super exciting.  We'll see how it goes once I actually start working tomorrow.

Today we went to see the musical Matilda.  Chad received tickets as a gift for his 12 year anniversary at Thoughtbot (thanks Thoughtbot!).

Everyone was very excited

The set was awesome

And the show was really amazing.  Especially the troupe of kids, who were spectacular.  Crazy staging and dancing and at the end there were scooters.  I am still fired up about it a few hours later.

Then we went and ate some amazing Italian food, and did a bit of window shopping on the way back to the bus.  Noah and Eva picked out their favorite skulls in honor of their Auntie D.

Also, silliness.

(Seriously, the show was really fantastic.  I highly recommend if you have a chance to see it.  It was border-line too scary for kids Eva's age, it helps if you have already read the book).

The Palace

Today we took the tube to Buckingham Palace

The tube was an event in itself - the underground is great, it goes everywhere, but it's an event to take with little kids because everyone in London uses it so some areas get super crowded.  Eva had a small mishap in the turnstile but I am hopeful it will only convince her that no, she doesn't need to switch from holding my hand to holding Daddy's hand at the exact moment we are passing the turnstiles in a throng of hundreds of other people... but after all she is Eva, so we shall see.

We arrived at the palace in time for the changing of the guard, which was a terrible idea because it was super hot and crowded and we couldn't see anything anyway.  Eventually we escaped the crowd and had a nice picnic in the shade, then returned to check out the palace in peace.

Then we went to see the Royal Mews, where they keep all of the queen's horses and coaches.  Some were pretty incredible

Ok kids, pose in front of the gold coach used by George III

Because of course we can.

London House

Would you like a tour of our house in London?  Here is out street: 

And here's our front door

Upon entering, you start to see the vertical nature of the house and also that we might need a new shoe system... 

On this floor there is a formal living room

With a piano!!  Of course we didn't bring any of Noah's piano music, assuming there would be no way we'd end up with a piano.  I'll pick up the music when I am back in Boston for work in a few weeks.

Up 1/2 flight of stairs there is a bathroom

Up some more stairs to the bedrooms... 

kids bedroom with bunk beds and our kids mess already all over the floor

And also the master bedroom with big windows over the street.  There is no air conditioning so we usually have the windows open, so we can hear the street pretty well.  It's a relatively quiet street, the street noise actually reminds me of our apartment on Florence street in Somerville, just the people talking on the street have British accents.

Now up another set of stairs

To an office

And another bedroom

The view from the third floor is pretty spectacular (and also pretty London-y)

Ok let's head aaaaaall they way down the stairs (three flights)

To the kitchen (plus laundry!)

And the family room with a glass wall that opens up to the back patio.  Also this room is stocked with preschool toys (hooray!!).

In the back garden there is a little playhouse full of plastic & wooden food and cooking utensils

I think the kids are starting to feel reasonably well at home. :)

Arrival in London

So we made it!  After cutting it way too close with our flight and leaving one of our bags at the airport (seriously!?) and being  stuck outside the rental house in the rain, we still managed to arrive in reasonably good spirits and here we are.  We explored the house and the neighborhood and found the grocery store and a really cool playground.

And then went to dinner and had the best Indian food I have ever eaten by a wide margin.  Eva fell asleep as soon as we sat down for dinner and was seriously out for the count. We carried her home and by that time Noah was also weeping with exhaustion.  Bedtime was easy. :)

The trip had some challenges, in the way that trips do.  The kids were fantastic and the grown-ups were pretty good sports too.  We had a great day, and it's going to be a great summer.

Recital painting

Yesterday Eva had her first ballet recital.

It was great, actually a pretty impressive production, and Eva and her class were totally adorable.  I have pictures on the big camera but no time so those will get posted later.

In the meantime please enjoy the painting Eva made today of her and her best friend Natalie (who was in a different recital, but in the same dress)

I love this picture.  I love how there is one big dress split into two girls (each with a rose), how she carefully painted the red straps and used marker to draw Natalie's hair bow, how the background is bright blue, how she wrote "love ballet" in tiny pencil letters.

Also, may I draw your attention to the rose detail?

This girl, her pictures blow me away.