While Dad's Away...

J was in London the past few days checking out areas for us to live in. Since he'll be home with the kids it's important that he selects the area - one that's not too far a commute for me, offers leafy streets and green parks for the kids to explore and is within walking distance from shops and restaurants (since we don't plan on owning a car).

So while he was off touring and sleeping in (he insists this was not the case), the kids and I filled our days with as much activities and playdates as possible.

After dropping J off at the airport (or as C calls it, the "air-pork") we headed over to the GVZ's for dinner. Our friends the Stone's were there too. It was a beautiful night - we had a pizza picnic outside and then the mom's were able to chat the night away while the kids played dress-up, ran around in the grass and pushed each other on the tricycle. We stayed way too late but it couldn't have been a more pleasant evening. Here is some video of the kiddies - K, 2 princesses and a...nightclub performer?

Friday C went to camp and I took K to his swim class. He loves, loves, loves the water. He jumps off the side on his own, sinks to the bottom (until I pull him up) and comes up smiling. That afternoon, we had more friends come over to play.

On Saturday it was our friend Caleb's 3rd birthday party at Oak Meadow Park. We've been there before and love it. They have a steam engine train that rides around the park and a beautiful historic carousel. Here is K on the carousel looking adorable in the train conductor hat that he swapped Norah for.

While K enjoyed the rides, he's most happy with a balloon in his hand. Here he is running away with 3 of them.

Sunday we actually spent the morning playing at home and in the afternoon went to our local park. C accomplished a huge feat...climbing all the way to the top of the ladder and then stepping across to the play structure to the slide. She tried doing it last week but she was too scared to climb all the way up. So then she watched Grandma show her how to do it. It still took her a couple of weeks to build up the confidence but there's no stopping her now.

She also got to ride her scooter to/from the park while K took a ride in his car.

On Monday I went to work, C went to camp and K spent the day with Pam. They met up with Ruby at the park and had fun swinging together.

Today was our last day without J and it was definitely our most ambitious. We met up with the GVZ's at Children's Fairyland in Oakland. It was a fantastic theme park for the under 4 set. Kid-size rides, animals, tunnels, slides, bubbles, whales, wishing wells and more! I'll post more pictures later but this one takes the cake - C and N in front of the the little old lady who lives in the shoe.

All in all, I think we managed the weekend without J a-ok. Sure the kids are sporting a few more bumps and scrapes then when he left and their bedtime magically was reset to the 7-7:30 hour (mommy needs to be 'off duty' kiddos!) but we had fun nonetheless. And having lots of friends around helped a ton.

After naps we drove to the airport to pick up J. The kids couldn't have been happier to see him and I swear I almost caught a tear in his eye. The family...back together again.