A Week of Visitors!

This has been such a fun couple of weeks!!

During Betty and Roger Mueller's visit, I received a phone call from Laurie (Joyce) Cullen. Laurie's father and my Dad served in the Illinois Senate together for many years, so we go way back to the good ol' days of the Joyce Picnics on their farm in Reddick, Illinois! The Joyce kids always loved when the Rock kids came down from the city - we loved to shuck corn!
Laurie and her husband Tom were in town with their kids Jack and Will. We decided to meet for dinner on Wednesday, 27 March. After a wonderful day with our neighbor friends, the kids and I took the tube to Waterloo and walked over to the south bank of the Thames for dinner with the Cullens at Giraffe. For anyone familiar with Giraffe restaurants - you know this is not fine dining, but rather a kid-friendly restaurant that serves decent food and wine and beer. Perfect! Also meeting us was Perry Stamp. Perry's father is a lobbyist in Illinois and a mutual friend of my Dad's and Senator Joyce. But that is not all! I received a phone call from another friend of my parents, Phil Krone and he informed me that he was in town with two amazing ladies I worked with many moons ago in the Mayor's Office of Special Events - Rosalie Clark and Susan Lock. Phil asked if they could join us for dinner. I hesitated to agree but only because Rosalie and Susan would be coming from high tea at The Wolseley...this was a huge step down for them. But they braved the screaming children and fish fingers with chips and came along. It was such fun to catch up with old friends and meet a new friendly face in town. Thanks to all for such a wonderful evening! (Picture forthcoming...Laurie or Rosalie help!)

On Thursday, 28 March our friends Stu Hirschman, Mindy Arbaugh and their daughter Julia arrived in town. On Friday, Mindy and Julia came over to The Lodge and Nilda (the superstar that she is) watched all four kids while I introduced Mindy to Marylebone High Street. Stu did not like that! Then we met John and Stu at a great tavern by Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, St. Stephen's Tavern. You'll hear more about this place in future entries as it will be one of the sites for the 40th Birthday Celebration weekend coming up.

On Saturday Stu, Mindy and Julia come over for a sleep over. The kids were having a great time and Kate especially loved having a little girl to play with...or maybe boss around. Julia is tough though and gave it right back - they were fast friends immediately.


While Nilda was having a "jolly night" complete with popcorn and movies for the kids, the grown-ups went out for a great dinner at one of our local favorites, Duke of York, and then after dinner drinks at a good ole English pub, The Star. On Sunday, after John fixed us a fabulous brunch, we walked over to the Zoo and then through Primrose Hill Park. It was the first real day of spring, lots of sunshine and blue sky! We had a wonderful day with our friends and look forward to more visits from them and others in the future!


The Rock clan - Phil, Sheila, Kathleen, Meghan and Jay arrive on Wednesday to celebrate not only Colleen's 40th, but also Meg's Birthday (3/23), John's Birthday (4/3), Kathleen's Birthday (4/4) and Phil's Birthday (5/2).

Cheers!
P.S. The dryer is still not working and the shower on the 3rd floor stopped working...shower fixed today, still waiting on the dryer.