Sunny Days, Pillow Fights, and the National Gallery

We have been enjoying a really beautiful spring here in London.  All the flowers are in bloom and the trees are starting to bud.  Every time Tyler looks outside he says, "The trees are growing!" in his cute little astonished voice.  We have been trying to make the most of our time here so when we are in town in London we are going somewhere of interest now.  See below for our latest adventure to Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery.  Now this month is going to FLY by!  I'm so excited to welcome some of my best friends from Oxford, Sarah, Autumn, & Megan to London on Saturday and then we are headed off to travel more of Europe kid-free!  Then a couple days after they leave, the Chapmans come to stay, and then the day they leave we are on a plane to Chicago for a visit and celebration of both of JJ's grandma's birthdays!

Tyler loves to "use" the outside gym near a playground we go to.  Here he is working on his lats! 

We went to the Natural History Museum one rainy day.  He loved this digger truck on display

He was also really pumped about the stuffed birds and pointed to each one saying, "What is THAT!?"

Meeting the mammals

One of the things the Natural History Museum is known for is this big blue whale display.

Tyler is kind of obsessed with motorcycles these days and he has a new found interest in this baby trike.  He says it's his motorcycle and he rides around our tiny flat on it.  He even set aside space for it's "parking spot"

We visited the Battersea Park Zoo with friends one day.  The boys weren't very interested in the animals that day but there was a great playground and all these cool things to climb on.

Hi, Bob the Builder!

One of the things on my list of things to do before leaving was to visit the National Gallery and see Van Gogh's Sunflowers paintings (both Sunflowers paintings are together there at the moment).  I had no idea when we went down there that National Pillow Fight Day was taking place in Trafalgar Square right in front of the National Gallery.  It was crazy.  Tyler was annoyed because feathers kept blowing in his lollipop and we were annoyed because it was a bit of a nuisance to get around.  I did get smacked with a pillow though (not too hard) so I guess I can now say that I've participated in National Pillow Fight Day (who knew that was a thing???)

People were really getting into it.  Trafalgar Square was trashed.  I can't even imagine what the clean up was like.

No pictures in the National Gallery so I had to take one outside the side entrance to prove that we were there.  

Shake Shack - the new very unhealthy favorite eating spot for the family!

After we ate in Covent Garden, Tyler really enjoyed the band that was playing on the lower floor.  It drew quite a crowd there.

Tyler enjoying the big kid swings on a sunny day

This building is right around the corner from us.  One beautiful day while walking home I looked up and noticed the cool tower up there and how great the building looked in the sunlight behind the blossoming tree.

Tyler was super pumped to see all these tractors working on the lawn in Regent's Park.  We didn't leave this spot for a while.

JJ is in Chicago this week for work so Tyler is getting a lot of "Mommy & Me" time.  Here is a selfie of us at the Heath watching the ducks and swans.  I think he is getting tired of me though because he asks, "Where's Daddy?" first thing every morning.