A Day in London // Europe with Kids // Part 6

To start reading about our trip from the beginning, start here!

To continue our little story… we were staying in a small town outside London for a week, and of course during that week we wanted to see London at least once. The kids were excited to ride on the train! We parents were excited too, even though it took us a while to get over the cost of roundtrip tickets to and from the town we were living in. Ouch!

After the train, we road on the Underground/Tube to Notting Hill. Lena looks like such a natural.

Gil is actually about to yawn here…

First stop: Diana, Princess of Wales, Memorial Playground!

We were actually meeting up with some friends who also happened to be in London at the same time… but go to our church back in San Diego. What are the chances?!

Forest and Lucas, playing like they sometimes do in Children’s Church, but in a totally different place.

This was an amazing playground, and I recommend it for any visitors with small children in London. It was a lot cooler that day than it looks, though. Brr…

He found a little English cottage that is just his size.

Super dad! We walked with our friends to see Kensington Palace (but didn’t see any royals) and then walked through Kensington Gardens to the Peter Pan statue.

Around a random corner, we saw people feeding wild parrots, and of course we had to stop and try as well. Ring-necked parakeets are a favorite memory of mine from Pakistan and India, and they are wild in San Diego too.

My friend Rebecca helped the kids eventually coax them onto their hands.

So proud!

So amazing to see friends around the world! Thanks for meeting up with us, Rebecca and fam!

The famous Peter Pan statue was somewhat underwhelming in my opinion, but the kids had fun climbing it.

We put this poor stroller to the task this trip, but it held up admirably with no issues. We also felt like we fit in well because Maclaren is an English brand, so all the other parents were pushing the same stroller.

Cutest ice cream truck by the Italian Garden in Kensington Gardens. We kind of wanted to stop but it was too cold for ice cream, despite the sunshine finally coming out.

We found another playground in Kensington Gardens! Lena is such an amazing helper and playmate for her two brothers. So thankful for her, truly.

His favorite new move: “Power to the people.”

Next stop: the Victoria & Albert Museum. (We also tried out the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum, but both were packed, and we couldn’t even get in the latter due to Easter Break crowds.) This museum was gorgeous, but honestly we spent most of our time out in the central courtyard enjoying an English cream tea (scone, jam, and clotted cream), hard English cider, coffee, and cake.

I love his little bent knee and how steady he is now! Such a little boy already. He turned 11 months old a few days after when this picture was taken.

Lena did gymnastics everywhere we went, and her handstand seriously improved during this trip. I will admit to catching her right at the perfect second when her handstand looked the best, though; she can’t stay up for more than a couple of seconds. I have no doubt that she soon will, though, will the amount she practices!

Rolling in the grass and talking. This is the best part of vacation: relaxing together in beautiful, unique places.

Reading up on the next thing to do in London while Lena does gymnastics with a new friend in the background.

On to our last adventure at the end of the day: Harrod’s Toy Kingdom!

It did not fail to impress. Lena really wanted this unicorn (below), but it cost 499 British pounds. Not today, darling.

I love all the Beatrix Potter books in England, which has inspired me to expand our collection and continue reading them faithfully to the kids. Forest is reading a little “pram book” here which is supposed to attach to a stroller.

Walking into Harrod’s patisserie and delicatessen! We should have gotten dinner here… yum!

And that is the last photo I took that day because after that we spent over an hour making our way slowly back to the Tube station, then on the Tube to Victoria Station, then on the train (with only one seat left for me and Forest, so the kids and Elliott had to stand most of the way for 45 minutes… ugh), and then walking home to our house in Haywards Heath.

Elliott and I looked at each other in the Haywards Heath train station and sighed. “Once is enough,” I said, and I could tell he was already thinking the same thing. Due to the cost of transport and the difficulty carting small children around London, it seemed better to us to enjoy our days in the English countryside rather than trekking back into London.

This is what we did, and I don’t regret it! More about our further country adventures soon.