Valentine's weekend

Finally a weekend with decent weather and no injuries!  We were able to spend some time together exploring!!

Saturday, we went to see Peter Pan at a local children's theatre.  It was very well done, and there were only 6 cast members!  Each cast member other than Wendy and Peter Pan had several parts.  Drew got a little bored towards the end of the first act, but he was pretty good for most of the second act after the interval.  The kids were all very enamored by one of the lost boys who was in the audience in the beginning of the second act looking for Peter Pan.

Saturday night, Brad and I had a (not very) romantic dinner of Indian takeout (which was very good!) amongst the kids dinner plates, drawings and toys.  But at least we were together, and he did get me some flowers (which are currently in my french press as I don't have a vase!)

We will have a belated valentine's dinner on Friday when Mum Mum is here.  Very much looking forward to that!   We are trying to decide where to go.  So many options....do we go into London, do we stay in Wimbledon, do we take the train one or two stops to the next town over.....so nice to have choices!

Today, we FINALLY made it to Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard.  The girls and Drew rode the tube for the first time.  The girls insisted on taking their backpacks of stuff (very typical in the states for trips so they would have activities for the car ride), and we had to talk Lauren into leaving a few things at home because her bag was pretty heavy!!  They played Mad Libs and drew pictures on the fairly short train ride and Drew had a great time watching all the other trains pass by.

It was VERY crowded at the Palace

and the queen was in because we saw the flag flying on top!  We got there around 11:00 and it all starts around 11:15, so we had a decent spot, but across the street from the palace.  We made a great decision at the last minute to take the stroller.  Not so fun in the train station, but it was perfect so Drew had a spot to sit for the palace.  There were two different groups of guards who came out.  The first group had on grey coats and the black furry hats, and the second group had on red coats with red and gold pointy hats.  Not sure of the difference, but both were accompanied by bands playing music.

We should have walked down in front of the palace to see it closer, but we will have to do that another time when it's not so crowded!  The kids of course wanted to go into the gift shop and get a souvenir so we gave them a budget, and Drew picked out (what else) a car; Alison selected a small purse that looks like the British flag, and Lauren selected a London snow globe and a keychain that says "Keep Calm Lauren."  (Good advice for her!!  And they had one that said Alison that was spelled correctly, which is nearly impossible to find in the states.)  Lauren was very interested in a shirt she found that said " F*ck, All I need is U."  She was appalled to think that someone would actually buy a shirt that said that!  They call it "the really , really, really bad word."  There are all sorts of things in the gift shops around here that could pose interesting questions now that they can read!!