Fairy Dust and Birthday Wishes

Her majesty Madeleine and her royal court hosted a most magical party honoring her highness' 6th birthday party.


The setting was the enchanted fairy garden


First her royalness was treated to a special make-over


Her ladies in waiting


Sleeping Beauty came out of her slumber to entertain the court with stories, games, dancing and magic








Everyone joined in the grand birthday feast




The Sleeping Beauty cake was a most special surprise


Happy Birthday Madeleine!

Grandma J

Grandma J came to visit this week! Thank you for reading us stories, for bringing us prizes, for teaching guitar, for playing games, for visiting our schools, for watching us so mom and dad could go out for a night, for listening and teaching and most of all . . . all those wonderful grandma hugs! We had a fun week and hope you did too!


Hyde Park


Kensington Palace


Kensington Gardens


Kensington Gardens


Buckingham Palace


Trafalgar Square


Westminster Abbey


Riding the Eye

Four Strikes and a Couple Dozen Gutter Balls

Watch out London, the newly formed London Ladies Bowling League is here! Last night our inaugural bowl confirmed a few things about our group. One, most of us are still under the impression that bowling is like baseball and that strikes are best avoided. Two, power socks don't help you bowl better. Three, bumper guards might have allowed at least a couple of us to break a hundred. Four, bowling shoes are cute. Five, bowling with people who are good would probably be boring.


Don't mess with our ball!


I don't normally regret being behind the camera all the time, but I do wish I had been in this shot. These are some of the coolest girls ever!




Socks the Queen could be proud of!

Venice

Life sometimes feels like a compression chamber. Every once and a while it's great to escape into a fantasy world and forget all about life's troubles. So when the unbelievable opportunity to sneak away sans enfants presented itself to us, we snatched it up. Planning a trip less than two weeks in advance left us thumbing through any last-minute airfare deals. Malta, Mallorca, Malaga . . . those were some that made the bargains short list. Then there was Venice.



It's a city I've visited twice before, but I don't think you have ever really been to Venice until you've been there with the one you love.



It was absolutely the most perfect getaway, perhaps the best weekend of my life. We ate, we walked, we talked, we laughed, we shared, all things our hectic lives don't always allow enough room for. If you get away from the golden tourist trail, Venice is magic. We spent most of our time getting lost among Venice's many quiet canals and bridges away from the tourist swarms. Of course I also enjoyed taking photographs unencumbered by the little people, however, this trip was mostly about doing nothing. And even photography is something, so in my relaxed state (AKA gelato coma) I didn't take nearly as many photos as I would have otherwise.



Venice is crumbling, sinking at a rate that will put some 20-50cm more of this car-free paradise under water by the year 2050. But have you ever seen such beautiful decay?





























On our last day in Venice we took a boat out to the colorful island of Burano. I had the mid-day sun to contend with, but it was still a thrill to photograph.