Author: Pam Kocke

NOLA mom of identical triplets. Talent Acquisition at Automattic. Enjoy reading and photography and sewing and bookbinding.

Painting Skylanders

The boys are all into Skylanders, and also, strangely, YouTube videos where people paint the figurines.

I made a deal with Linus – for every two chapters of a book he read, I’d buy him a jar of paint so he could paint some of the duplicate figurines they had.

Yesterday, he earned three tiny jars of Testors paint, which he used to recolor Food Fight, an artichoke-shaped fella.

Just reminded me of the jars of Testors that my brother used to have. I don’t remember what he used them for. Rockets? Tiny movie sets? Hmm.

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Can you tell which is the before and which is the after? Ha ha ha!

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Laaaazy river

Last weekend, the boys and I met his friend Diego and his mom and baby sister at the Cool Zoo at the Audubon Zoo. I was reluctant to go because of the cost, but it ended up being a ton of fun and I’d say we got our money’s worth.

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There were bridges going over the river, water features, and it went right by this exhibit. Hey peacock!

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Floating selfie!

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Best buds.

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Love those smiles!

Happy father’s day!

Happy father’s day to all of the dads in my life. George, of course. My dad. Larry. George’s dad. My brother and brother-in-law. Hope you all have a great day!

And even though George is the furthest thing from a typical “NOLA Dad”, I wrote this for the New Orleans Moms Blog today:

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Friday five

1. I got the boys new water bottles, and boy, are they excited about them.

You can get some too, from JLD Designs2. Super reasonable price.

2. Shhh, don’t tell, but I’m taking the boys to see Inside Out after camp today. They’re kinda obsessed with it. I like to think because it looks like an intelligent film, but really it’s because they want the Disney Infinity 3.0 game and the characters are in that set. Or something like that.

3. I’m going to BlogHer in NYC next month! I’m so excited. I’ll be working at the WordPress.com booth, so if you’re going, be sure to stop by!

Dangit, why did I start this post with a title? I don’t have two more interesting things to say. Let’s see.

Oh yeah, this is cute:

4. There was a display for the new Peanuts movie. Linus was happy.

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5. Got a meal box from Blue Apron yesterday, cooked the first meal for George and I. While I appreciated that the mashed potatoes included a little bottle of heavy cream, I still think I prefer Hello Fresh. We’ll see how the next two meals go. (PS Use the code R7KT4K with HelloFresh and get $40 off your first box. Full disclosure, that would give me $20 off a box for me as well.)

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Meanwhile, back in the USA

While George and I were off gallivanting across Merry Olde England, the boys were spending plenty of Quality Time with their maternal grandparents.

I don’t know everything they did, but here’s what I do know:

They took a yo-yo class:

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They went to the beach, where they swam in a pool:

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They visited a naval museum:

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And ate the kinds of food only a grandparent can guiltlessly provide:

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I know they went fishing and walked on the beach but I don’t have photos for those. I know they had a great time.

I also know, poor things, didn’t have enough clothes and were apparently dressed like orphans because their terrible mama doesn’t know how to pack a suitcase. Apparently. I don’t know how they all survived. I really need to up my organization game.

I also assume an Oreo commercial is in the pipeline. Nabisco! Gimme a call!

London (the rest)

I think it’s time to wrap up my trip recap, so I’ll just put the rest of the London bit in this post.

Tuesday was our second day in London. George wanted hats, but I’ve already blogged about that. We also did some other shopping and browsing, which was fun.

On the bus!
On the bus!
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Piccadilly Circus
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Me ‘n’ the Queen at Hamley’s

After we got George a jacket and me some tea at Marks & Spencer, we went our separate ways. I ended up eating a sandwich in Soho Square, where Kristina and Anne and I used to meet for lunch almost every day, 18 summers ago.

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The next day, George and I poked around Camden Market (it was pretty dead, being a Wednesday) before meeting a friend for a pub crawl.

Pub crawl!

Yes, this is Pimm’s on tap.

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Cool pic of a bridge we were near. Can’t be more specific.

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The best meal we had all week, if you ask me: Toad in a Hole!

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Thursday was our last full day, so I crammed as much in as I could. Museums, (okay, mostly the gift shops), walking around my old haunts, etc. It was a pretty warm day, and people were covering every inch of grass everywhere. I love London for that.

Friday, we flew home. The end.

London (part 1)

We spent as much time in London as we did in Keswick, but I took about a third as many photos. I suppose it’s because I already have a ton of pictures of London. And by this point in the trip, my shoulders were killing me from carrying around a heavy bag with my camera, so I took most of the photos with my phone.

Anyway, enough excuses.

When we first got to London, we went directly to the Airbnb that we had rented. It was tiny but clean and bright. Perfectly sufficient for our needs, and just down the street from a tube station. I’d say the only downside was the size of the bathroom. The sink in particular was just comically small. Washing my face was…messy.

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Anyway, after dropping our stuff off, we headed out to explore a bit. We walked up (and I do mean up – didn’t we leave the hills behind in the Lake District?) to Hampstead, where we hit up a pub (natch) before catching a glimpse of Hampstead Heath.

Oliver is a far more common name over there.
Oliver is a far more common name over there.

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Okay, that’s enough nature.

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More Keswick

Just to round out the Lake District portion of our trip…some more photos of sheep, and other stuff we did.

The outside of our B&B
The market square.
Sheep.
A lane across fields of sheep.
George talking to the sheep
The bridge to Portinscale
The bridge to Portinscale
The river under that bridge
Lots of dogs in this pub.
Mmm, pie.
Clouds over mountains
Cockermouth flooded. A lot.
Mmm. Pimm’s!
Rivers in Cockermouth
The Jennings brewery
Hops
Stuck my head in this, pretty sure I have no nose hair left.
Old movie theater
Going back to Portinscale
I think a mouse must live down there.
Fish n chips

Another Keswick walk: to Castlerigg stone circle

IMG_2349Another day, another breakfast, another walk. We ended up spending the day between our two big walks in the town of Cockermouth, where we went on a brewery tour and visited a few pubs (shocker.) For breakfast, I chose the slightly less hearty meal of yogurt and granola, plus scrambled eggs with salmon. Good choice.

But on Sunday, we were ready to tackle another one. This time, in keeping with our theme of “walks with Castle in the name,” we decided to take a walk that encompassed the Castlerigg stone circle. It wasn’t so much that I wanted to see this stone circle, but it started right near our B&B, and the distance was manageable (about 4 miles.)

Well, not to give away the ending, but it was exquisite.

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Keswick: Castlehead walk

On Friday, our first full day in Keswick, George and I decided to try a walk. It wasn’t very far, so it seemed like a good one to start with. But we flatlanders forget that maps don’t always show elevation. So it was a little more challenging than we expected, but totally worth it.

Here’s how you tackle a stroll to the top of a mountain hill.

First, you start with a hearty breakfast. What you don’t see here is the sausage, bacon, egg, mushrooms, and hashbrown I ate before taking the picture. (I should mention here that we stayed at the very excellent Stonegarth B&B, recommended by my coworker Rachel. The breakfasts were beyond delicious and the proprietors kind and friendly.)

Next, you walk through town to get to the visitor’s centre so you can get a map so you can get lost before finding your way to the start of the walk. Admire the flowers along the way.

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Finally, you arrive at the path in question. Oh look, there’s the lake! Our first glimpse since arriving in the Lake District. This one is Derwentwater.

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