Lake on a Mountain

Still in Canada - today we went for lunch to a beautiful place, Lake on a Mountain. Lovely view, and even though lunch with Eben is rarely relaxing, Al managed to have a beer and we both finished our meal.

First time in Canada

We're living in New York - we have to at least go to Canada and see what it is about the country which makes people so g-ddam lovely. Our criteria was that we wanted somewhere relaxed, beachy and somewhere you could drive to from New York. We were recommended Prince Edward County by Cassie's mum (who is Canadian) - a loyalist area - so we wouldn't be unwelcome - and we found a house online in Wellington on the Northern edge of Lake Ontario. It was an ambitious 7-8 hour journey in the car with the kids which we made it through and got here a couple of days ago. Couldn't be nicer. The house is really quaint and gorgeous and literally steps from the lake which is like a very calm sea so perfect for Ruby. There are tons of deserted lake shores around - here's one of them which we went to yesterday, splashed around and had a picnic.

We've mostly paddled, and eaten.

People are RIDICULOUSLY nice. Wellington is a town of 1700 people (apparently ambitious), and tonight we got invited round to our nextdoor neighbors for a glass of wine, together with Lizanne who owns the house and is staying nearby. They'd gone to such an effort, .wine, nibbles, made various barriers so the kids wouldn't hurt themselves and were taking endless photos of them. couldn't get enough even though Ruby and Eben were literally tearing their deck apart.

So Ruby and Eben are happy.

Eben especially following his introduction to chocolate orange ice cream.

Selection of Ruby and Eben

There are always just sweet fots of the kids, millions of them. So here's a hodge podge at various locations in NYC. Ruby at our street fair (which is the fete for her new school across the road)

This is just Eben being cute.

And another - he loves the scooter, can be pulled on it for HOURS

No idea where we were going here. Ruby was obviously happy about it though, so who cares. Enjoy!

This was a really great kids art thing at the Met Museum where she made little binoculars.

Ruby at super soccer stars. Thank g-d we only bought a 3 lesson groupon, she refuses to wear anything other than a twirly skirt, and drives the instructors crazy with her moaning. Al returned from today's lesson saying the wasp sting he got on his hand was the highlight. 

She does really enjoy her swimming lessons though with her friend Romy.

Not a party without face painting (Sasha's annual bash next door)

Outside the Natural History museum

So we're still enjoying NYC, raising our ever more mouthy children...ALL GOOD

Except when Al's in charge when things go awry.

But a week is short: Corporate Paula

Having enjoyed the last month at BNPP and my week off, it's time to be serious...below my corporate self. Sideways stance, and pearls....I may look 12 but I can do this job, promise.

Still enjoying having no responsibilites

We celebrated Karen's 40th birthday with a lil barbeque in the garden on the Sunday and a lil Karenoke (Al's brainwave of course) for her. She LOVED it.

But perhaps not as much as Al and I.

See the kids running for their lives inside the flat.

Enjoying having no responsibilities

It wasn't for long...it was just one week off between the two jobs. But it was GREAT. We started out by having a british style garden party (albeit in our concrete nyc yard) for about 40 friends. No fots of the party itself which was brilliant, but a few of the set-up..

I spent some time finding exactly the right bunting and convincing the very kind suzanne crumley at my work to print and cut it - which she did. Definitely worth it.

We raided the London candy company for as many british sweets and chocolate as we could find - flakes, curly wirlys, dib dabs, chupa chups, murray mints, iced gems and then made loads of marmite, cucumber and cheese and pickle sandwiches.  And lovely mum sent over flags and union jack stuff. We introduced a number of people to Pimms that night. No complaints. Below, our kitchen table, britified.

But it wouldn't be a party without a competition. So Al and I divided our unsuspecting guests into 4 teams (indicated by a playing card with their name on it to be collected on arrival). They weren't here to have fun.

First round - an American from each team was to make a Pimms cup and a blind taste test was done by a panel of brits (1 from each team). Second round - a flavour test for 5 different well-known british crisp flavours and 5 different flavours of American popcorn. Third round - guess the random british royal, and last but not least - democrat or republican (determine political allegiance of 4 U.S. celebs)

But Al and I in our ignorance had spent alot of time planning the games but had no idea just how seriously the games would be taken.  There was nothing short of scary and frankly threatening outcry at what people felt like was substandard scoring. We had to do a re-count the next day.

AMAZING NIGHT.

Mexico

As I came to the end of my time at BNPP, we did lots of fun things, including Pennsylvania. The next on the list was Mexico. First time since Ruby was born, Al and I went away for 4 nights, 5 days ALONE. Al's parents looked after Ruby and Eben and we snuck off to a place called La Reve near Playa del Carmen in Mexico. It was amazing, I have one photo of our room which had a little garden with a small hot tub. No other photos..but it was total heaven - lots of great food, breakfast in bed, lots of uninterrupted sleep, lots of reading (read 2 novels!!), swimming, walks on the beach etc. It felt so special to be totally in control of our own time and for the first time in a long long while I didn't feel tired. Incredible.

Pennsylvania part 2

Even though Al burnt the kitchen table during our last visit, we were invited back to Maggie's mum's farmhouse in Pennsylvania. This time there was more swimming and less late night jacuzzi'ing. Al and Tom did manage to spend 3 hours preparing a roast chicken extravaganza - Al at his smuggest for quite some time.

Father and son table tennis:

The farmhouse is truly amazing, with pool, table tennis, hot tub, trampolene and everything anyone could want. Lovely weekend with the Vaughans.