halloween

just a quickie (after the fact) halloween post. i turned 45 this year! seems like a milestone but i feel pretty much the same. i have been in midlife crisis mode for about a dozen years anyway, right?



i like homemade, handmade costumes but the girls begged to look at the cheapy costumes at the store so i went along. it was actually fun and surprisingly easy !!
Lizzie is some character from the monster high books? cartoons? not totally sure



emily was little red riding hood, always a favorite in our house (lizzie still has the cape my mom made her when she was about 4 or 5)



we used the "fish" game again at our camp fire carnival. it is so easy to set up and has a nice big look to it. our halloween carnival is super corny and retro, which i love, but we are trying to elevate it a bit so the kids don't get bored. the big kids REALLY get into it



they did a gross out booth... which was very popular!!



this cracked me up because i remember sorting out my candy with my friends and my brother.... the girls were so excited! another halloween (and birthday) has passed! on to thanksgiving and christmas we go...

London, chasing the sun

my mom and i would decide what to do each day depending on the weather. we actually got lucky with a few sunny days

it was a challenge to find the Dulwich Picture Gallery, but we made it! a beautiful park was adjacent to it so we took the scenic route


and caught a glimpse of the London Eye on our bus ride back


one of my favorite trees was in full autumn show:


and on one or our last days i saw a vespa club zoom by on regent street


just out and about

Cemetery tour

London: hmmmmmm.... what to do? been here many times and seen so many things.... let's check out ANOTHER cemetery! Actually, my mom and i have a "thing" for any ancient cemetery. they can be creepy, yes, but i find them extraordinarily beautiful too. we decided to hoof it out to hampstead heath to one of the oldest victorian cemeteries called "highgate cemetery" it is a good 30 minute bus ride and then a little hike, plus you have to go when they are offering tours... only took us 2 tries to get it right. :)

the tour was very informative: i learned that London became industrialized much earlier than many other cities with the population swarming into the city... there became a large demand for places to bury the dead. there were no cemeteries in the city and people were traditionally buried beneath churches where with the increase in bodies, fumes began to fill the churches and made people sick



cemeteries were not allowed within the city so around the edge of London, many cemeteries sprang up. highgate is one of the first



victorians liked to bury their dead in the ground rather than putting them in crypts above ground. they chose decorations from a catalogue, it was quite a big business



a rare example of a crypt



common victorian decoration: upside down torch still burning



church above the cemetery, many victorians visited the cemetery weekly after church services



angels were a common decoration, most were picked from a catalogue but this is a custom made sleeping angel



snake chasing it's tail



i would recommend this cemetery if you could only see one in London, it is very special!

paris dog cemetery

today we visited the paris dog cemetery

 

we also took a walk around the tuileries gardens, it was raining but not too hard so umbrella in hand... we took a little tour



the louvre is here as well






d'orsay museum






fontaine st michel









italian lunch in paris and a metro ride home: fun day!!

paris

two weeks hanging with my mom... london and paris

my mom and i made it to a garden we tried to see last time we were here like 17 years ago!







we spent 2 days recovering from our flight in london then took the eurostar to paris (i think its a great way to go and pretty cheap) my mom was wiped out that first day in paris but i had some energy still so i took a walk to the eiffel tower and around our neighborhood. the sun was out and with approaching rain in the forecast i was glad to get some photos with nice light



here for a week and then back to london... stay tuned!

obsession

so my newest obsession is ancestry.com and i do mean OBSESSION! we recently started cleaning out my grandpa's house and i hit the motherload of photos, letters, postcards and genealogy notes my grandfather and other family members took over the years. it is just a mind blow how much there is to go through. i have pretty much spent every spare minute scanning photos in and putting people into our tree. if you have never checked out ancestry.com, i highly recommend it. even for just one side (i have barely started my mom's side and already have found people i had no idea about) the site makes it very easy to track people down with very little info but be warned! it is the funnest treasure hunt type experience you will ever have!

italy in the 60's (florence)


wilson group shot at my grandpa's house



my grandpa's uncle



my brother and i in the 70's



my grandmother's photo album... here she is goofing on herself (virginia, my grandpa's younger sister is the other girl here)



my grandma at a house that is still around (yay google maps) and a short drive away from here. on the to do list to get a photo of that!! i still have more italy photos to share... someday!