London, day 2

Today we got out the door around 10:00, so that was improvement from yesterday.  Most of us slept thru the whole night - yay!  Those that didn't were only awake for a short time.  We brought Goosie in with us so zelle could sleep, and she slept like a champ the whole night - about 12 solid hours.  After getting ready, we took the tube to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards.  We had intended to get there early, but I took us to the wrong tube stop so we had to go back down and go to the right one - oops! The perils of not knowing the city you're trying to take your family around in...

Anyway, we saw a bit of the ceremony on tip toes and with little guys on shoulders, and then wandered over to St. James park.  On our way, we happened to stop at the perfect place to see the guards marching back to the guard house, and ended up having a great view of everything.  It worked out perfectly.  At the park, we played soccer and frisbee, saw swans and pelicans, and just enjoyed down time.  From there, we went to the Queens Gallery where there was an exhibit of paintings and clothing from the Tudors and Stuarts.  There was a kids room with coloring pages and costumes to try on, and we've decided part of the way for the kids to enjoy this trip is to have enough time for a slower pace and to let them do these kinds of things.  They could not believe what the royal children had to wear!  From there, we got lunch, and then visited the Royal Mews where we could we see some of the horses and carriages at Buckingham palace.  The gold coach was pretty ornate and impressive.  Goose even liked this because it was like real-life Cinderella.  On our way back to the tube, we had more park time at Green Park, and stopped at a market for some dinner ingredients.  We ate a little dinner at our "flat," and the girls worked on their books and went to bed.

We love our flat.  It has a little patio garden, and it's in a really cute neighborhood.  It's very quirky, cluttery with antiques, but it's interesting to look at all the things on the walls.  It's very tall and narrow - lots of stairs.  One bedroom on the basement, kitchen on the ground floor, family room on the next floor, master bedroom on the next, and one last bedroom on the top floor.  We're kind of used to all the stairs already, and then we can hear the tube running below us every so often, but it all just feels like part of our big city adventure :)!