Princesses at the Palace

We spent today at Kensington Palace and then roaming through Kensington Gardens. It was different than I remembered it, in part because it is currently being refurbished, so there are different rooms open than usual, and also because there is (even still) a Diana Memorial Gate filled with fresh flowers and letters- but when I was last at the Palace, Diana was still very much alive. I remember seeing her wedding dress and other gorgeous gowns, so it was sad to see the mementos left in her memory.

We left the house early, to meet our friends from Seattle who are currently living in Cambridge, at the Palace entrance. All six of the kids thoroughly enjoyed the Enchanted Princesses exhibit, which offered all kinds of fun information about the previous princesses, as well as maps and interactive activities to try out. We then had fun walking through the park and playing at the Princess Diana Memorial Playground for a while, a wonderful playground based on J. M. Barrie's Neverland. We had lunch at the cafe in the park, sitting outside in the warm September sun.

Later in the afternoon we made a pilgrimage to Harrod's, the ultimate shopping mecca. What amazing things to eat and buy, it really is fun just to walk through and gaze at it all. Franny very much wanted to return to the toy department upstairs, so we took the escalators up and walked into a kid's heaven, with every kind of toy, game, doll, car, train, etc. you could wish for. It was actually rather overwhelming. But we didn't have long to stay before we needed to get the tube back in time for football practice, so we will certainly return another day (as Greta saw plenty that she thought would be heavenly, too!).

As to footie, Franny is now a member of the Carshalton Athletic Football Club, which is a very impressive group of young girls. She's had a few practices (they'll be twice per week, all year round) and already one game (they beat the other team 8 to 2, and the other girls were a year older and had three subs, while Franny's team had none at all). This is a pretty big commitment for the year, but she loves to play and her dad is a huge supporter, so he vows that we'll make it work to get her to practice and games. Like father, like daughter.

School starts next week (unfortunately, we still don't know where Greta will be), so our adventures will be changing, but we're excited for the next chapter and will keep you posted here.