One Palace, Two Princesses, One Small Problem

Kensington Palace was our destination today, a working royal palace built for William and Mary. Queen Victoria was born there, and it is still occupied by the royal family.The highlight was definitely the grounds, including the round pond with its gigantic swans and the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Playground. The grils ran and played and jumped and hopped and skipped until they were red-faced and short of breath. We thought we had worn them out sufficiently. We warned them that we needed their best "princess manners". Olivia showed great enthusiasm and was outraged to find that as a commoner she wouldn't have qualified for a debutante's introduction. The state rooms were beautiful, and Scott and I saw several things of interest. Meredith drew a decent copy of one of the intricately carved fireplaces. Cecily, was everywhere, trying to sit on century-old clocks and wanting to open drawers in Seventeenth Century furniture and trying to finger 200-year old curtain sashes. It's the first time I ever found myself wishing more things were behind glass. The highlight for Olivia was seeing just how many clothes a lady or a gentleman had to put on for a formal occasion. (Two large cases were full of clothing that comprised a single outfit for a gentleman). For Meredith, it was trying to decide which of Princess Diana's dresses was her favorite, and everybody enjoyed the playground with its giant pirate ship and Indian tee-pees. That's the part for which we'll return!