Ok so I finally got it together to write a post about the recent visit of my mum and dad to see us in Philly.
We had a total blast, 2 weeks of hectic day trips and family action !
Yet again my mother braved her fear of flying to breeze across the Atlantic and spend a couple of quality weeks with her son and brothers families.
We did the whole thing this time, especially because Harry is a lot more mobile these days compared to when they were last here.
Trips to historic battlefields in pouring torrential (British like) rain did not deter us, finally capping off week one with a trip to Washington DC for a couple of nights checking out the fab free museums and city.
We also caught up with my cousin Emily and her husband Pablo as they live in DC. We had a lovely meal with them, see below pic of Harry and Pablo – Harry loved being carried by such a smart looking guy – made a change from his dad who was nursing a bad back after carrying him around the air and space museum.
Week 2 was action packed also, we caught up with Lynn and Mike on memorial day and also my cousin Ben and his new family.
We spent good amounts of time with my Uncle Bob and Linda who took my folks away to Hagley Hall and its dynamite exhibit – yes an actual museum about dynamite !
We also did some park activities to entertain the kid although I’m not sure Gramps Brighton’s slide technique was up to scratch! Click on the below movie to get what I mean;
Ouch !!
We even went to The Morris Arboretum which is a fab garden close to our house. It is so good we became members. There is a lovely rose garden and quite nice fountains, although I must have to comment on Uncle Bobs ‘weak stream’ !!
Here we all are anyway at Bob and Linda’s, a lovely holiday/visit had by everyone. The 3000 mile gap between us certainly concentrates the time we spend together which I suppose makes up for the distance a little bit.
Miro Dance Theatre held a benefit fundraiser last night at the Founders Hall in Gerrard College in Philly last night. It was alot of fun as they held a Salsa competition.
Harry loved the atmosphere in this fabulous venue and had free run of the place, where they were serving up nice food coupled with margaritas, cocktails and dancing !.
We like where we live, the house and area have some character to it. Its fairly old as our house was built in 1908, our neighbour Jerry who was born across the road and is in his 70’s, remembers when there were only 2 cars on the street – those days may happen again if the price of gas keeps climbing !
Would you believe that our house features on the Roxborough town website ! – yes the header picture has our house on it (the one with yellow windows, top right). Not received royalties for this yet or remember giving permission ! http://www.roxborough.us/
We like to take TK for walks around the local streets so he can shout at the dogs and cats !
I told him to put on a safety helmet when riding his ATV on the streets, as you can see he improvised !
On Sunday my Uncle Bob and Linda came to visit us. We had a lovely day especially as they brought with them some plants to add to our small yard garden which is starting to take shape nicely, thanks to their generous donations and some hard grafting from me and Barbara, backed up by some moral boosting entertainment from the Teekman.
After having a lovely meal and chat we went on a small road trip with them to Fort Washington Park which is a lovely quiet place with a playground for the kid and a viewing deck to spy on local wildlife. We even saw a dragonfly which was great.
Anyway check the couple of pics of the relees. I especially love Linda’s expression, as I think that was taken when Harry who is learning new words by the day, uttered the word ’F*ck’ when trying to say the word ‘Frog’, lets hope he learns to correct himself in future, although judging by his tongue-in-cheek expression, he may have meant it !.
One of Barbara’s Dance companies she represents – Miro – today just performed at the Museum of Art here in Philly as part of their Frida Kahlo exhibit. It was kinda cool as they performed in the Lobby of this fab museum (this is the place where ‘Rocky’ ran up the outside steps !).
The show went well and used some interesting techniques – using an overhead projector to light a dancer and have someone draw in pen live on the projector which in turn draws on the dancers body – simple yet effective effect.
Needless to say we took the kid with us who initially was a handful but seemed to mellow out and enjoy himself while the show went on. We hid on the 2nd floor so not to disturb the audience who sat on the steps of the lobby – see pics for reference;
Yesterday my friend Greg (professor from my work), wife Lisa and daughter Miya, arranged a trip to a Bowling alley to celebrate his birthday. We all descended to the lanes to toss some large heavy round things and eventually make it back to their house for some food and drink !.
A few of their friends were also there, some other work colleagues etc and a handful of small children who enjoyed themselves playing with Miya’s toys, including Harry who did very well and stayed up 2hrs past his bedtime !.
See below film of the birthday boy with daughter on lap, doing the candle blowout of a bowling ball cake that Lisa made, she is an amazing cake-maker, which must make all birthday celebrations at their house a joyful culinary experience. It’s one of the few cakes I’ve eaten which tasted as good as it looked !.
Sorry film quality not great – taken with my cell phone.
Each passing day heralds new experiences for our boy, by the way he is known to us as T K (comes from being referred to as ‘that kid’, when either of us are checking in on him), other aliases are variations on that theme such as ‘The Teekman’, ‘Teekster’ etc etc…. I’m sure you all get the twisted idea behind it. We also coined the phrase ‘Cryin all the time’ in reference to the interesting moods that a newborn/toddler can experience. Don’t get us wrong though – he actually is a great kid and has about the same amount of meltdowns as his parents !.
Seeing as this glorious east coast weather is continuing, (hope it reaches Britain soon – yeah right…) I decided that as Barbara is away in New York working for the night I would take advantage of the guy thing and take him down the hill to the Basketball court – oh yes he got into it very quickly, way better than his dad who reaffirmed the past judgment that I am shite at sport except Cricket !.
Aside from dads trauma at not being able to sink or dunk the titanic !. The only other interesting event was Harry’s first haircut courtesy of his father who clippers in hand – yes he did think he was about to be waterboarded !, managed to give him a tasty back and sides, basically in an effort to try and get rid of those wispy curls that my mother had ME endure !. At the time I think it was OK but those horrid photos from years back do still haunt me, validated by my wife’s reaction when she first set eyes on them and had to retreat to the bathroom in order to compose herself !.
Anyway the ordeal was not too bad and as you can see below I managed to get a few locks for family pendents ha ha and also an after photo if you can make it out, although you may be distracted by his cool Tigger sleepsuit the UK relees (family term for relatives) sent us.
Wow, what a lovely days weather we had in Philly today. I decided it was too good to go to work so I figured I would get busy in the garden and get our bikes that we bought last summer set up for the kid and us in readiness for some tree hugging outdoor fun !.
I picked up Harry from daycare, who had decided it would be fun to stage a ‘dirty protest’ in his crib there this afternoon, luckily they had cleaned him up in time for my arrival with bikes attached to car !.
We went on to fairmount park for a trail through the woods.
Oh yes it was a massive success – freedom, exercise and a kid in his element looking cute in his big yellow helmet. What really surprised me was how easy it was to ride with him on the back, I just have to teach him hand-signals next, then we can really hit the mean streets !.
