The Cutest Way to Eat Fruit Salad

We are having some technical difficulties uploading some recent adorable videos (namely, the one involving the introduction of a certain new play kitchen . . . ), so the video accompanying these pictures will have to wait.  (But trust me, it will be worth the wait!)  For now, enjoy watching Our Little Loveday as she thoroughly enjoys consuming a raspberry and melon salad. 

 

A Garden Party (in our own garden!)

Today our amazing neighbours, Jane and Patrick, threw a garden party for the house residents as well as some of their other Crystal Palace friends.  

Jane is a raw foods chef and we have had the enormous pleasure of sampling many of her delicious foods since we've moved to this house.  Today's spread was no exception:  everything was absolutely delicious!

She kept saying that she kept things simple (they picked up a few of the items such as the bread from a local Turkish grocery store), but it was just about as involved as I'd ever want to get when entertaining twenty people in my garden!

Serving Pimms in the summer is an absolute must if you live in London and Jane and Patrick didn't disappoint.  They had a nice large cauldron brewing!

 There was a fun assortment of people.  (Forgive Charlie's un-lady like pose in the shot below . . . )

Charlie had a great time!  She gorged herself on olives, devoured her very own cupcake and played lots of football (and by football, I mean soccer) with some new friends:

"be careful.  These leaves are sharp!" 

I snapped a few pics of the party from our kitchen window when we got back up to our flat:

Charlie got to eat her dinner while watching the remainder of the party.  She had fun watching everyone and kept yelling, "hiya" to everyone.  

Yes, that's cheese and spinach on a tortilla.  Time to go grocery shopping!

Taking Good Care

So here we are, a week into Jason being away.  Every now and then Charlotte will look at me and say, "Papi.  Sad."  Then she makes a sad face and fake cries.  It breaks my heart every time!  Charlie and I both miss him like crazy, but we're managing without him.  In fact, we're having a great time together!  (But I can't seem to get my act together enough to get out the nice camera, so sorry for all the iPhone pics!).

Urban Beach Day at a church down the road:

New art supplies!:

Pinterest inspired cardboard house:

We've also gotten out and about quite a bit.  It has been beautiful here!!  Here's a pic of a path in our park under gorgeous blue skies:

Watermelon with a friend on a hot day:

And at our pub with Emily and matching Peppas:

I've also been cooking (wipe that shocked expression off your faces).  Jason is the usual chef around Chez Hungerford, but in his absence I've been able to hold my own, thank you very much!  Given that meat freaks me out (especially when I have to handle it raw.  BLECH!) I've stuck to simple vegetarian meals such as salmon and some delicious quinoa and bulgar wheat fritters.  Mmm!

We've been taking good care of each other while Jason's gone.  We both take our vitamins every night and Charlie has gotten really good at letting me brush her teeth (also usually Papi's job . . . ).  We've been arriving to Charlie's school on time in the morning (a minor miracle) and I even let Charlie bring her own bag to her hook, just like Papi does:

Still, the best part of our days are when we get to chat with Jason in China.  Charlie likes to carry around my iPhone and hug it and kiss it when we FaceTime with him.  It is so sweet.

Come home soon!

An Evening in Three Acts

The Hallidays, once again, invited us over for dinner tonight.  They seem to be very good about taking care of us Hungerfords when we're single parenting . . . or not single parent parenting . . . Okay, truth be told, we just really lucked out when we met them.  

Anyway, they also invited another lovely couple over along with their lovely daughter who was born just about a year before Charlie.  

The evening broke down into three adorable segments . . . three acts, if you will.  The first act I shall call "Fun in the Garden":

The second act I shall call "Water Play" . . . except it was so adorable that I failed to get any pictures of it.  Sorry.

The third act I shall call "Dinner":

 PS:  Babies in laundry baskets:

Eight Years and Counting . . .

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, JASON!

2003:  The day of our engagement in Cannon Beach, Oregon.

2004:  Our wedding day in Seattle, Washington.  

2005: Our first anniversary in Cape May, New Jersey.

2006:  Our second anniversary on the California coast.

2007:  Our third anniversary in Cape May, New Jersey.

2008:  Our fourth anniversary in Maine.

2009:  Our fifth anniversary in London.

2010:  Our sixth anniversary in Washington, DC.

Our seventh anniversary was spent apart while I was on tour with my baroque ensemble:

A lot has happened in these past eight years that we've been married.  

We raised two beautiful cats:

We bought and renovated a house:

We've witnessed history in the making:

Obama's inauguration.

We've taken some fabulous vacations:

Barbados

Costa Rica

Paris

Italy

We've made it through some hard times:

And we've had to say goodbye to many people that we've loved very much:

We've had a baby:

And then moved her to London:

And here we are now.  

A wedding lasts a day; a marriage lasts a lifetime.  I can't wait to spend the rest of my lifetime with you.  

Love,

Bethie