Me and the kids, together again

Well, Monday started with good intentions. The Post Office to mail postcards, the Chinese Cultural Center, the children's bookstore, Pete's Frootique and Cora's. This was a revision of the original plan of taking them to a newly opened indoor playground, just outside the city. The revision happened because of going to, or rather not going to,sleep on Sunday night. Instead of nicely snoozing away by 8 am - so Neil and I could actually talk or anything, they stayed up bouncing off the walls until nearly 11. By the end of that I had written consequences of: no playground for 2 days, no chocolate for a week and no Mummy reading for three days!! Boy was I mad!!

So, at the P.O. they overcharged me $38 (which I didn't really register until later), I bought a lovely teapot, tea and cups I don't really need for $50 at the Chinese Cultural Center, every step James takes is accompanied by the whine "It's too cold" or "Carry me," and I left my cell phone at Cora's. The highlight of the day though, was sitting in Woozle's bookstore and just watching the kids play- they have a dollshouse (with little mice or rabbits) and a train table with lots of bridges, engines and accessories. I also managed to spend $50 here, which was fun - I am introducing Chloe to Little House on the Prairie and I got James a great story about dogs at the British National Gallery who decide to swap their paintings to hang out in someone elses'.
In the afternoon I got to hang out with Judi and her daughters a little. They took me to an awesome fabric/craft store - I can't wait to go back. The costumes I got for the kids for a little over $5.


I also got to see the north end of the city - the working class, black neighborhoods, and the hydrostone (explanation later).

So that's my whininess - on Tuesday I got back the money from the post office, got my phone and spent most of the day at home. Tomorrow the playground!


Tuesday we stayed home and crafted. Play dough and beanwork - a mess but they were good and I was less stressed.









In the afternoon we took a walk in the neighborhood. Here are a couple of the houses on Young Street (the sculpture in the second picture was apparently done after the tree was struck by lightning):