Lots of Chalk

Last Wednesday, the kids were playing outside.  Eli likes basketball all the sudden.  

Eli and Vicky went up to the school.  

Then back to chalk up the driveway.  

These got pretty elaborate.  

Cheer practice.  

 

Jet Lag

The London posts were huge.  There's not much left to share from last week.  I had really bad jet lag so I was waking up at 3am and falling asleep by the afternoon and I didn't take many pics.  After eating out for a week, I pushed through the tiredness and cooked dinner last Monday.  Ariel helped.  

Last Tuesday, Ariel was sad and called her camp friends to cheer her up.  That always works.  

We went food shopping.  Ariel gave Marty a hug.  

For the second night in a row, we had smashed potatoes.  

Art time.  

Eli got this cool game at Hamelys in London.  It took us a while to figure out but it looks like the spaceship is floating around him.  

 

Day 6: Donuts and the Voyage Home

Last Saturday, we headed to South London for a donut tour.  We met our tour guide at a Michelin starred bakery.  We got some donuts then started touring the area.  

This pub has been around since Shakespeare times.  He used to stand on that balcony and read his plays!

Another donut place.  

These had funny names.   

It's as big as her head!

Yum!

We passed by Borough Market, the huge food market.  We were headed there soon.  

The Shard!

We got some freshly brewed tea.  Very good.  

Finally it was time for Borough Market!  I had been watching Tiktoks about his place for months.  So many food trends have started here.  

This is what Ariel had been obsessing about.  The chocolate covered strawberries.  

Apparently this place makes like $30,000 a day in strawberries!

We tried a few things.  

These were great fries.  

The famous creme brulee donut.  

They are building a pirate ship which they hope to launch soon.  

We walked to the London Bridge.  The one that keeps falling down.  We saw a speed boat go by.  Amy and the older two were going on it soon!

There's the bridge.  

We walked around that area with our guide.  

Cool.  

Back to the Tower Bridge.  

The Tower of London!

Amy and the kids ate lunch at a restaurant.  I wanted to go back to Borough Market to get something there.  There were more and more people as I got closer.  

It was crazy crowded.  

I couldn't walk through.  I was sad I couldn't get what I wanted.  

I waited in the shortest line.  

45 minutes to get a hamburger!

I went back and grabbed the twins and cabbed back to the hotel.  Amy and the older two walked across the Tower Bridge.  

So sweet!

The put on life jackets.  

Then went on a speed boat ride!  They had fun!

 We got the twin's scooters and headed back across the river to the playground they like.  

We passed another food market.  

Back to the London Eye.  

They love those boats.  

I enjoyed relaxing in the sun and just taking it all in.  

We headed back to the hotel.  

We passed by Herman Melville's house.  

Then Ben Franklin's house!

That night, we ate outside in Covent Garden.  The waitress was sweet and spent a lot of time with us comparing England and the states.  At every restaurant we went to, they brought a device to the table to pay with Apple Pay.  She was shocked that the waitresses in the States take our credit cards away to run them through.  

We hit a market to get snacks for the plane.  It was cool seeing the different names familiar products had.

Of course some yummy gelato.  

This art gallery was weird.  

Pregnant Superman!

These were cool.  

Dancing astronauts.  

We took in lovely London while we could.  We then headed back to pack.  

We left around 8:30 in the morning on Sunday.  I think the hotel was sad to see us go!

An hour back to Heathrow.  

We had a nice breakfast and even shopped a little.  Then we go on board for the 7 1/2 hour flight back to Philly.  They served lunch.  Later ice cream.  Then meat pies!  We actually all did well on the flight keeping ourselves busy.  

We made it!  Big Ben too!  The twins started the clapping again.  Customs was quick but it took over an hour to get our bag back.  

It was Easter and we had no food at home, so Aden, Ariel and I went to Amy's parents to get some and bring it back.  Everyone was happy to see us!  Especially the dogs!