poppies at The Tower of London

There's an exhibition going on at The Tower of London until Armistice Day on November 11.  The poppies are handmade ceramic flowers about the size of your fist, maybe larger.  When we were there today, over 350,000 had been placed.  By the 11/11, there will 888, 246, the number of fallen from the Commonwealth during WWI. It's a powerful, beautiful and moving view.   You can purchase one of the poppies.  It will be sent after the exhibit is over and the proceeds are donated to Service charities.  We've bought one each for the boys and one for us.  We've explained what it's all about, and these keepsakes will help them remember what must never be forgotten.

Along with the poppies, the boys got to see tall ships go through Tower Bridge and of course the crown jewels and armoury.

Going to London is still a long, hard day for us.  Manoeuvring the boys on trains, tubes, buses and crowded streets is taxing for all us, but we're getting better at it.  We bring plenty of snacks and fully charged devices.

the diana memorial playground

We picked a gorgeous day to go to London and our friends the Haags were nice enough to join us.  We made our way to the Diana Memorial Playground in Hyde Park, an impressive place with a pirate ship, obstacle course, sand feature and water feature.

Jack with Tim and Luke on the train into Waterloo.

Trying out the obstacle course.

Ahoy matey!

At the helm.

Ice cream? Ice cream!  This was mine.  When Paul handed it to me while I was holding Luke, the little fellow leaned in and tasted it, then took it out of my hands.  He ate a good bit before he accidentally threw it on the ground.  He managed to scoop it back into the cone, plus a lot of dirt and rock, so Paul gave up the remainder of his cone.

Posing in front of the Albert Memorial

and Royal Albert Hall.

istanbul

"Istanbul, not Constantinople" is one of Tim's favorite songs now.

We took advantage of a four day weekend over Easter to visit Kelly, Martin and Megan in Istanbul.  Johannes was in Colorado working with his uncle for a school internship type program.  We missed him but thoroughly enjoyed his lego.  I will never tire of Istanbul, to a large part I'm sure, because I get to see it from the comfort of Kelly's lovely penthouse.

Luke actually tries to make music rather than just pounding on the piano.  He tries but doesn't succeed.

Yummy

City life

Markets that even Tim enjoyed seeing.

The view from the balcony.

We bought two small Turkish carpets from this man who couldn't resist giving Tim's cheek a pinch.

The carpet shop was near the Aya Sophia and the Blue Mosque.

The boys liked the ferry ride much more than the carpet shopping and mosque viewing.

They also enjoyed the playground on the island where Kelly and Martin have their summer home.

Really, both of them are too big for these but they had a race nonetheless.

The deck on the island.

Thanks Kelly, Martin, Megan and Johannes!  See you soon in Colorado.

boat ride to greenwich

After a week of unpredictable spring weather, Saturday was glorious, so we headed into London and onto a bus boat for a ride down the Thames to Greenwich.

We got on the boat at Westminster, just across from the London Eye.  At this point, they didn't know about the open air seating upstairs. We waited until after they ate their lunch to go out there.  This is the first time we've taken the boat bus instead of the river cruise, and I recommend it.  It's less expensive, the line is shorter to board, and you still get chirpy commentary.

Note the blue sky - the first of many we hope.

For a future outing, we plan to take the tube to St. Paul's and walk across the bridge to the Tate Modern Art Museum.  It's free and the Tate is an interesting building, so it shouldn't be too painful for the boys.

Once Luke found the open air spot, he stayed here for the rest of the ride (an hour).  Of course he wanted to hang as far over the railing as possible. 

The Golden Hind - a replica of Sir Francis Drake's ship

The Tower on the way down the Thames.  On the way back - about two hours later - the water level was at least six feet lower.

The Tower Bridge.  Friends of ours went to a wedding meal in the bridge.

The Greenwich Meridian.  Neither of them were interested in what we tried to tell them about time and the significance of the place, but I think Tim, at least, will remember being here when he learns about it in school.

The London skyline from the observatory in Greenwich.

spring

We've had two glorious weekends in a row now.  For the first, we went into London on Saturday and attended a BBQ at the home of friends in Aldershot on Sunday.

Luke and Tim, Big Ben, sunshine and flower.

Nelson Mandela on Parliament Square.

Abraham Lincoln on Parliament Square.

St. Paul's in the distance.  That's on our list of places to visit in the near future.

On the bridge at St. James park with the London Eye in the distance.

Daffodils in St. James park.  Waiting for dad to bring ice cream!

The home of Kate and Paul Higgins.  Kate and I started work at ACS together this year .  Her son Daniel is in Tim's class.  Her husband Paul teaches math at the middle school.

We went to the pitch and putt course at school on the second weekend.

wisley gardens

My friend and colleague has season passes to Wisley Gardens, which is not far from Esher.  Her son, Daniel, is in Tim's class, and they are good friends.  We met them at the gardens today and checked out the butterfly pavilion.

 I kept Luke out of nursery today so that he could join us on this outing. 

Just one of the many butterflies that we saw today.  They flew around our heads, landed and stayed still so that we could marvel at their colors and also just hung out.

Tim was very careful not to touch the butterflies or their habitat.

We got to walk behind the waterfall as well as in front of it.  Luke is watching Tim on the other side.

Tim, waving to Luke and me.

I thought yesterday was a miserable weather day, but today makes yesterday look like the epitome of mild.  At one point there were so many puddles on the sidewalk and the wind was blowing so hard, that it was blowing the water out of the puddles and up into my face.  Guess how I feel about this?  

rain, sun and a walk

 We take a lot of walks here. 

Sometimes we get tired of walking.