Legoland Windsor

Our last day in the UK came quickly. We discovered that Windsor is only a mere 11 miles from Legoland Windsor so we hired a taxi (vs. hopping trains) and arrived around 11 am. The lines to get in were staggering. I joked that they were typing blood or something (lines just weren't moving at all). It was the one and only time we stood in line like blokes ;) I had purchased all of our tickets online before leaving for all of our other excursions and whizzed through the queues. We were spoiled! We did score two free tickets while in line so Gigi and Dada got in for free.

Legoland Windsor sits up on rolling terrain. That's a nice way to say that we walked a lot and most of it was at an incline. There was a spectacular view of Windsor Castle though! Dave and I split up and I took Jack on a water ride since he was tall enough for the fun rides. We got soaking wet but he loved it! Dada and Dave did some slower paced rides with Theo over in Duplo Land (named after the bigger Legos for little kids). Jack and I met them by chance while Dada and Theo were in line and I pulled a French move by sending Jack in to line to join them. We only did that once though.

There were so many things to do at Legoland and we had done zero research since it was a last minute decision to go there. It all worked out though! We spent time walking around all of the Lego exhibits in Mini Land. The detail was just astounding. We could have stayed there all day just looking at everything! We rode some rides (a slow roller coaster, a Viking ship that terrified Theo, the water ride (once with Dave and once with me), a little kid roller coaster for Theo and a full-fledged roller coaster for Jack), saw a 3-D show, built Lego kits (the boys could have stayed there ALL DAY) and ate ice cream! We stayed 7 hours and were beat when we left. Everyone there seemed and sounded British, unlike Disney which was a total mix of Europeans. I loved listening to the accents and people watching :)

Legoland was definitely little boy heaven. We bought the boys souvenier cups and let them assemble tiny Lego people. No kits were fitting in our luggage!

Lehmannfest 2011

We attended our third Lehmannfest reunion this past week, the main reason for our trip to Europe! Cousins (Dave's father's side of the family- from his mother's side of the family)from around the world gathered in Camberley. We stayed at Frimley Hall and the boys loved roaming the grounds. Theo played in the gravel rocks and made a rock family. I loved all of the lush flowers around and really wanted to clip off one of the huge rose blossoms :)

We had met some of the cousins before from previous reunions (in Berlin 7 years ago and New Orleans 4 years ago) but there were new faces as well. There are German, English, Japanese and Canadian branches of Lehmanns and every branch was represented in Camberley. I tried to snap pictures of each group on the last night in Camberley. There are some pictures from our tours in to London and Sarum/Salisbury as well. Toby and Susie Lehmann were our hosts for Lehmannfest and doubled as tour guides. They live in the general London area (I think) and Toby is a Lt. Col in the British Army. I learned so much about Parliament and the monarchy from Toby during our walk throughout London. He used the word "brilliant" a lot and I loved that!! I want to make it catch on here :)

The large group photo was taken at the banquet at The Military Academy at Sandhurst. Princes William and Harry attended Sandhurst and I'm told it was an elegant evening. Gigi and I stayed back with the boys since the banquet was scheduled to last until around midnight. It was a wise choice :)

Jack and Theo met scores of new relatives and just relished in the new experiences! Thank you to Toby and Susie for organizing this reunion. We will treasure the memories for all time :)

9th Anniversary

Dave and I celebrated our 9th anniversary last night. We cooked up some lobster tails that Mimi and Papa gave us for Christmas and toasted with some sparkling wine. We look forward to having better champagne at the top of the Eiffel tower in less than a week!

Jack let me pull a 2nd loose tooth last night. I feared it would want to come out while we're away and that's just no good! It came right out :) Jack wrote this note all by himself for Tabitha (his Tooth Fairy) and she left him a note with $5 and fairy dust. I loved hearing Jack sound out the words that he wrote in the letter. Sekkit is second by the way. He can read so well but it's funny how it all gets translated when he writes unprompted ;)

Lastly, here is a picture of the standing board a friend of mine lent us for Europe. Jack can stand behind Theo's stroller when he gets tired. This saves us from pushing 2 strollers or even a bulky double stroller. I've learned the hard way that little feet get mighty tired very quickly. We'll see how it goes........

We hop across the pond tomorrow. Be back to update in August!

Bella's party

I took Theo to the dreaded Chuck E Cheese's on Sunday for his little friend from school's 4th birthday party. Theo had a great time and just loved playing all of the games and going down the slide. He had no fear of the giant rat (Chuck) so this might mean good things for Disney! Happy birthday, Bella!

Brit Brit

I dragged my friend Betsy to the Britney Spears concert last night. We busted out some sequin tops and the heavy eyeliner. It was a great concert but we felt like the only people there that didn't know any Nicki Minaj songs (she opened for Britney). A huge thanks to Betsy for coming with me last night. :)

Sneaky sneaky

A friend of mine made these adorable shirts (and shorts for Theo) for our quickie Disney Paris trip. I CAN. NOT. WAIT to surprise the boys with these outfits :) We're going to get on a train in Paris and venture out to Disney (only 40 minutes outside Paris) and spend the entire day and night there. I have some additional goodies that Mickey Mouse will bring by our resort hotel :) My friend did that for her twin girls when they went to Disney last year. A different princess visited every night while they were sleeping and left surprises for them! Mickey will be bringing these outfits and autograph books the day we go to Disney and then leave monogrammed ear hats and pajamas that night. I've read that the Europeans don't generally dress up for Disney like Americans do in Orlando but I don't care! It's our first trip as a family and I want my boys to experience the magic of it all while they still can be in awe of it! :) Six days and counting..........

Visit from the Tooth Fairy

Jack has had two wiggly bottom teeth for several weeks now but the right one had gotten really, really wiggly recently. He has complained of it hurting when he bit into food for a while as well. I decided to take action since we are going to Europe next week. I really wanted the first Tooth Fairy visit to happen here at home vs. explaining how it all works at a hotel in London :)

Jack let me wiggle his tooth out with some toilet paper. He was all nervous and got kind of clamy, but he was very brave! The tooth came right out and barely bled. We were all kinds of excited! We'll always remember that he lost his first tooth on Dada's birthday (happy birthday, Dada!).

I had gotten a little porcelain box a few weeks back in anticipation of this event so I let Jack open it up tonight. We placed his tiny tooth in there and decided to leave it at the bottom of the stairs for the Tooth Fairy. The upstairs is in total disarray from having our office and closets redone.

Here is the note the Tooth Fairy left for him. She left a trail of quarters to a pile of $4. All in all Jack got $6 for his first tooth, the most special one. The Tooth Fairy sprinkled glitter all over the money and letter too! Maybe she'll be back to visit soon.........