There are two things ...

... that London has a lot of. Parks and rain. These are not mutually exclusive, and that's important to remember as one slogs through a wet July that it is the rain that makes the parks so incredible.

Ava and the kids regularly schedule "Park days" while I'm at work. They make a picnic and go to Regents Park and eat, read, play, and dodge raindrops. On Wednesday, three out of four wasn't bad: there were too many raindrops to dodge.

Will: It had been raining most of the day but then it stopped so we decided to go to Regents Park. When we got there the playground was crowded with kids, which annoys me to no end. But luckily for me, it started to pour.

Andie: It started to pour! Da da da daaa ...

Will: When it started to pour, the moms pulled all the kids into the little house thingamajiggy ...

Ava: It's called a gazebo, Will. I'm going to put that on your spelling test!

Will: Mom! OK, me, on the other hand, I kicked off my shoes, took off my jacket, and ran and played in the pouring rain. Much to the horror of the other mothers. Their kids wanted to go out too, but those mothers stopped them. Me and Andie were the only kids playing in the rain, except for this other girl, but she got in trouble. Mommy didn't notice the puddle seeping over her flip flops. But the downpour only lasted for a half hour.

Will puts on a raincoat ... after he was already soaking wet.

Will: When the sun finally came out, there was blue skies, and the kids also came out. So we left the playground and went to the field to play soccer. Too bad for Andie. The field was wet and she was running up to kick the soccer ball ... slip, skid, splat.

Andie: and OW!

The sodden pitch makes footballing difficult.

Will: We went home, got dry, changed our clothes, and walked to see Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens. It was really great. I loved the flying people.

Andie: I liked how they made them fly.

Will: Yeah, it looked like they were flying on coat hangers.

Ava: I liked the dog.

Andie: Yeah, can we get a labradoodle puppy when we get home?

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