Beach Vacation

We had a lovely week in Holden Beach last week with my family.  What a perfect way to celebrate the end of summer!  This year was a bit different in that we had a newcomer with us - Isla!  She and Sims really enjoyed playing together, and it was so wonderful to have a full week with her (and the rest of the family, too).

As torrential rains were coming down at home, we had very pleasant weather at the beach.  We did get some rain almost every day, but we had some beach time each day as well.  The temps were much milder than what we are used to in August, when we usually go, and even cooler than average for September.

As my mom put it, the 2 things she will remember from this year's trip are that Isla took her first steps there (!), and Sims kept singing A Peanut Sat on a Railroad Track.  The way he exclaims, "Peanut butter," at the end made us laugh every time.

This year Sims really took to the beach and loved everything about it.  He loved splashing in the water,

jumping, rolling, and playing in the sand,

and watching his daddy learn to paddle board.

The rest of the family enjoyed just hanging out on the beach,

napping,

and playing in the pool.

It was hard to return home from such a wonderful, relaxing week.  I'm already looking forward to next year!

ABCs

Sims is getting really good at singing the ABC song.  The only thing is that he will choose one line of it and sing it over and over again.  This morning he decided to play the piano while singing A through P.  (He skips J and K and LMNOP sounds like Elmo P.)

Enjoy!

Little Sewing Project

Remember when I realized that I had been neglecting my New Year's goal to learn to sew?  Well, I'm working on that now.  I found the cutest fabric, and I decided to make a small pillow for Sims with it.  I decided to try to do an envelope pillow cover, and it was super easy.  The worst part was all the ironing.  The actual sewing part took no time at all.  The entire project only took me one nap-time.

Here is the finished pillow.

The fabric reminds me of 1950s/1960s children's book illustrations, and I love that stuff.  Sims likes to point out the horse and donkey, but he hasn't really enjoyed the pillow more than that.  Maybe he will one day love it more and want to sleep with it.  We'll see.

This project has gotten me really excited about sewing more, and I have been looking at fabric for pillows for our bed and the sun room, and for curtains in the dining room.  I think I may have found some options, but I will need to ponder them for a while to be certain.  I don't want to have fabric regret. 

I feel the earth move...

...under my feet.  I know this is old news, but we had an earthquake here last Wednesday!  And I felt it!  It was just gentle shaking, but I felt it.  Check that off the ole bucket list.  Not that it was actually on my bucket list, but it should have been. 

Hurricane Irene came through the area just a few days later.  We got lucky on that one and were only on the edge of it.  We had plenty of high wind gusts but little damage.  We actually didn't even get that much rain out of it either.  It was a nice excuse to relax at home without any plans.  We don't get many weekends like that (I can't even remember having one recently.), so it was extra special.

Hopefully, Mother Nature will calm down a little and give us a break here on the east coast, especially no hurricanes while we are at the beach in a couple of weeks.

Meeting Zarich and Will

Here it is.  The last, but certainly not least, of my London posts. 

My friend Zarich lives in the London area, and we have known each other for 5 years now.  But we had never met.  We were both so excited to finally get the chance to see each other in person!

What was interesting was that it didn't feel like we were meeting for the first time.  Nor did it feel like it was the first time meeting her husband Will.  It was so comfortable and easy, which really shouldn't be a surprise since I do know Zarich very well!  And I had heard so much about Will, I felt like I knew him, too. 

We spent our afternoon together walking leisurely along the south bank of the Thames, then meeting up with the rest of our family by happenstance.  (In all of London, who would have thought?)

Zarich and I laughing about who-knows-what during our walk

We also got to visit with them again on Friday evening, when they came to dinner at our place.  If we didn't have to leave early the next morning, I think we could have stayed up until the wee hours of the morning talking and drinking wine.

Will and Zarich are such a fun, smart, entertaining couple!  I wished they lived nearby or at least closer because I could see us getting together a lot.  Knowing that they are actually interested in moving over this way for a while excites me so much.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Will can find a job of interest on this side of the pond.  We had such an amazing time with our new-but-not-really-new friends!  I can't wait to meet up with them again.  The Olympics, maybe?

Hever Castle

Did you think that I was done with my posts on our London trip?  Not yet.  And this post isn't my last one either, so bare with me.

On our last day, we took a day trip to Hever Castle, the childhood home of Anne Boleyn.  It was in the smallest English village we visited, and I wished that we could have stayed longer to explore the area better.  As we walked up to Hever Castle, I was amazed at how stereotypical it was.  Not in a bad way, but in a you've-got-to-be-kidding type of way.

It has a moat and drawbridge!  I thought that maybe they were added later for the tourists, but in paintings of the castle from Anne Boleyn's time, you could see the moat and drawbridge.  Unbelievable!

This was actually a fairly small castle, and the interior was a mix of Tudor style and more modern styles from when the Astor family owned it early in the 20th century.  The collection of paintings was amazing.

The gardens were unexpected.  As we walked up to the castle, we saw the adorable shrubbery.

Then we walked through the huge Italianate garden.  (I told you it was unexpected!)  Supposedly, it was built to house William Waldorf Astor's collection of Italian sculptures.  It felt like we were in Italy.  (Well, what I can only assume it feels like to be in Italy.)

Since some of us were leaving the next morning, we had to head back early to pack.  But we did get to finally have afternoon tea with clotted cream!  I could not leave the country without having clotted cream!

Check back tomorrow for my last London post.

Marching Men

Our Thursday in London started off with the entire family going to the Natural History Museum.  The building itself is worth the trip there.  It was built to be a natural history museum, and the details were amazing.  As we waited in the long line outside to get in, we were able to spend some time looking over the details on the outside of the building.

The inside was just as detailed as the outside.  Even without the great exhibits, it is worth stopping to look at the building.
A couple of things I learned from this museum: There used to be a bird in the arctic that looked a lot like a penguin, but it's now extinct.  Sea fans and sea whips are animals, similar to coral.  Who knew?

After looking at a few of the exhibits, it was time for some of us to move on to the rest of our day's activities.  We made a quick stop next door at the Victoria and Albert Museum to see the massive chandelier by Dale Chihuly in their lobby.  We are big fans of Chihuly, so this was a must see.  It did not disappoint.

Just the tip of the iceberg of this huge chandelier

I would have liked to spend more time in this museum, but Buckingham Palace was calling us.  During the trip, we bought a book for Sims called A Walk in London by Salvatore Rubbino.  We wanted to make sure that Sims got to see most of the big sights in the book to make reading it more interesting for him.  We were totally surpised that he was so fascinated by these guys.

Sims sat there agape watching him march back and forth.  He has been talking about the "Marching Men", as he calls them, ever since.

We strolled through St. James Park as we headed toward Westminster Abbey.

In St. James Park with the London Eye in the distance

As we turned the corner from the Churchill War Rooms, we got the best view of Big Ben.

We felt lucky that we got to hear Big Ben chime.  Sims talks about Big Ben and says, "Big Ben. Ring ring."  He has also been calling all large clocks Big Ben since we've gotten back.  I figure it's too complicated to explain that Big Ben is actually the bell inside the clock tower.
Westminster Abbey was in the middle of their Evensong service when we got there, so we just perused the gift shop.  But we did get to look around the outside at all the beautiful details.

Sims was really inspired by this particular statue,

and he was moved to imitate it.

I love the way he appreciates art!

As we walked along Whitehall toward Trafalgar Square, we happened on the very end of the Changing of the Guard at Horse Guards.  This Marching Man stood where Jason and Sims could even get a picture with him.

As you can tell, Sims couldn't take his eyes off of him. 

Sims loves to read his book A Walk in London now because of the Marching Men.  He always wants to look at the Buckingham Palace page.  On our next trip to London, we are definitely going to have to see the Changing of the Guards.