baby friends... part two

Allison Fowles and I have been friends for what seems like a loooong time! We were first roommates at BYU, then (after not really keeping in touch) we were in the same married ward at BYU, NOW we both have 3 kids... same ages... and we both live in London... unfortunately... on opposite ends of this large city! The kids' teachers were on strike so we decided to go to the Museum of Childhood (a museum that houses toys from as early as the 1600s through now... the 80s toys were our favorite... gotta love HeMan and old skool Fisher Price). It's crazy how these girls can see each other only every once in a while and are instantly great friends.
Brooklyn and Marianne... I bet if I checked out our baby scrapbooks... there would be a similar pictures of these two girls almost 7 years ago! Zack checking out the cars!

Mr. Z is TWO!!

So the little man of the house had his second birthday. My my where has the time gone?? We had a low-key little family party... right?? Remember... I took them to Disneyland?? :) But when you're two... all you care about is the cake! Zack had to practice lots of self control to not grab the candles... and smash his face in the frosting! At 2, Zack's top 5 are:

1. Yo Gabba Gabba (each morning after breakfast... he jumps down and says "Babba")

2. Lining up all of his cars

3. Nacho Doritos... yes they have them here!

4. His blanket and his thumb... together of course

5. Jumping off of the couch and making a slide out of the cushions

Matoke!

Josh served his mission in Uganda and Ethiopia. We are blessed to be in London and meet so many Africans. Well Joyce is our Ugandan friend. She joined the church in December and is absolutely amazing. She could honestly write a book about her history (she is really from Rwanda... but grew up mostly in Uganda due to political turmoil in her country). Anyway... she told Josh she would come cook for us so he could have some food from his mission. This is her preparing Matoke... a plantain steamed in its leaves (taste is similar to potatoes). We had some beans, jack fruit and other national dishes. Lots of fun!

I love Paris in the Spring time!

Josh had a conference in Paris... so of course we tagged along! Josh and kids in the Jardin des Tuileries. From this spot you can see most of the major attractions of Paris... the Louvre is in front of them, The Eiffel Tower behind, just to the right is the Champs Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe... and Notre Dame is also just on the other side.
Who do these monkeys think they are???
The girls playing hand games outside of Notre Dame.
Brooklyn & Zack in a park at the Jardin du Luxembourg.
Of course we went to Disneyland Paris (actually... this was my bribe in getting out of doing birthday parties this year... much cheaper if you can believe that!)
The main gate to Disneyland Paris.
The kids at the Science Museum. Zack's having his own party in the back!

London Marathon

Our bishop ran the London Marathon (for the eighth time I think??) so we decided to head down and check out the spectacle! Many run in costume... some run with prosthetics... some in not much of anything! Over 35,000 started the race and I think about 34,000 finished!!These were 6 Maasai warriors who ran to raise money for clean water for their Tanzanian village. They ran in shoes made of tires and in full traditional clothes.

Wicked

This is Brooklyn super pumped to go see Wicked with Daddy! She loved it and Josh said she was smiling ear to ear the entire time! Due to my unfortunate mishap with socialized medicine and a blood transfusion later... Makenna will have to wait her turn until Aunt Annie is here in June!

Friday... and Sunday!!

We had two days of pre-spring weather... mid 50s. The first picture is Friday evening in the garden. Then we woke up this morning... 36 hours later... to this!!!!!

The Grand National

Our friend (she is from Long Island but has lived in Wimbledon for 11 years) called this morning to ask who our horses were. Well... I had no idea what she was talking about! She proceeded to inform us of the biggest day of the year in England... The Grand National. So 30 horses race four miles during which they jump over 30 hedges. Only 15 of the horses even finished (which supposedly is quite good). Anyway we all chose a horse and cheered them on! It was super fun. This is a picture of the home stretch and Makenna's horse (the white one), King John's Castle, is trying to win... he ended up finishing second!

Working out Zack's issues!

So ever since I was pregnant with Zack I knew he was going to have space issues. Whenever I wore clothes that restricted his space... which was a lot of space since he was born ginormous... he would kick at the area. Almost two years later... he still has problems. Well the other night we were totally out of PJs for him... except one pair! They had a small hole in the toe... but we thought we'd try them anyway. If you look at the photo you can see how it worked out in the end!