Trattoria!

We have the good fortune of living 6 blocks from a fabulous cooking school in London...La Cucina Caldesi. After 3 hours of hard work, we were able to dine on delicious, homemade Italian food. Did you know the hearts of Sunflowers are not only edible but delicious in risotto?

Thanksgiving in London

Last year, John & I were still in the hospital with Levi. This year we were extremely excited to celebrate Thanksgiving as a family and with friends, enjoying all the Thanksgiving fixings .

Levi and I spent the day playing and visiting our dear friends Maureen and Nicolaj while waiting for John to finish work!

Nicolaj and Levi are merely 4 weeks apart and both have full heads of hair (and curls I might add)

Maureen and Nicolaj took us to their local park and, of course, the boys found some cars to push and ride around in

Levi was in love...

A few games of peak-a-boo before heading home to Skype our families and wish them a Happy Turkey Day

We ended the night with the most lovely Thanksgiving dinner at Courtney and Michael's. We celebrated with 8 of their friends from France, Sweden, Germany and the UK. It reminded us (again) how thankful we are for all of the truly kind and interesting people we've met over the last couple of years!

Levi turns 1

He's happy, healthy, very busy and super smiley. We love him dearly. Happy Birthday buggy.

A Party fit for a King!

On the near-eve of turning 1, Levi celebrated with friends of all ages at Swiss Cottage Leisure center. Starting with an hour of swimming, followed by...

Delicious treats & big comfy couches to climb over & under.

Guests included babies to big boys....

Old friends like the Guerra's...

& special guests such as Mama Manjola, who's been our saving grace since Levi was 8 weeks old and is a mother of 3 boys (soon to be 4... gasp!)

homemade cupcakes by Dad...

& lastly, extremely proud parents of this genuinely happy & healthy boy.

A best friends birthday!

Complete with Tin Pan Annie who sang for the children...

A ball pit...

A slide that was just about the right size you could crawl up as well as slide down...

Lots and lots of yummy cupcakes and a big cake for the birthday boy...

And of course a best friend named Harry!

It's offically Christmas in Marylebone!

I always love Marylebone, but especially when the Christmas Lights are lit! The High Street is transformed into a pedestrian-only winter-wonderland (fake snow and all). Complete with entertainment (Elvis made an appearance to sing Christmas Carols) as well as the best looking Santa I'd seen in a long time! Not to mention it becomes pram central with giddy children dancing around and everyone drinking mulled wine!

Levi bumped into Rufus who's quite possibly the only other dog in Marylebone who has the celeb status that Hank carries when he shuffles down the High Street; Rufus takes the tube into the city everyday w/ his owner who runs a local art gallery in Maylebone). We LOVE Rufus!

Always the best spot in the house to see fireworks and the lights!

Ta da! The High St is officially lit! I love, love, love our neighborhood.

Annual Dog Show

Since we moved to London, we've been making the annual trip to the Dog Show at Earls Court. It's definitely become a highlight each November.

Our favorite part of course is petting all the different doggies. We methodically walk up and down each aisle scouting for our favorite breed and making sure we don't miss a pup!

Levi got a birds eye view from John's shoulders!

Unfortunately, the Australian Labradoodle isn't a recognizable breed (boo!), but this standard poodle won us over with his extra flare!