Vacation Report: London

Michaela was obviously there too... but she took the picture. :)

While in England we did travel into London for a day. Our family has been to London before so we had seen all the big things, but when you are just an hour away, you need to go. :) We hopped on the tube and off we went.

As a mom it's a huge deal to "give" your day to someone, so I really do appreciate that Ingrid escorted us the five of us through London from place to place. She was an outstanding tour guide and I'd highly recommend her services!!! :) I didn't have to look at a map once which was a nice break!!

While in London we basically just went shopping. :) We went to a HUGE book store and Michaela picked out books for her birthday. It was a really nice book store, but Borders makes me happy enough when it comes to book stores. :)

Then we also went to a HUGE toy store and it was slightly unreal. Hamleys is HUGE. Five floors and every floor has a different theme! They had a floor for girls, one for boys, one for stuffed animals, one for crafts, for one for something else, games maybe? Can't remember. It was enormous though and the best part was that it was very well designed so that you just keep walking in circles and you can see everything.... no roaming aimlessly. :) We roamed with purpose...

They also had demonstrations all over the place so the kids could watch magic shows or watch flying helicopters or swirly markers. I realize all the demonstrations were to in order to sell things to us, but it was still fun and the kids loved it, especially the magic ones.. It felt very Disneyland-ish; the California one, not Paris. :)

There was even an entire corner dedicated to Teddy Bears... not to mention the Build a Bear corner! :) However big you are picturing this toy store in your mind... it's bigger.

Because I had not yet spent enough money, Ingrid found an American food store. :) We bought some root beer and some candy and also got some snacks for later. I even splurged and bought these FRUITY PEBBLES!

England is tricky because they use the Sterling Pound as their currency, it looks like it could be dollars.... 5.85 would be a reasonable amount of American dollars for me to spend on this one small box of Fruity Pebbles. 5.85 pounds is a bit more ridiculous though. To convert to US Dollars you nearly double it ...so this sill box cost almost ten dollars!! But I hope Ingrid's kids are enjoying every bowl full... because we forgot it there. :) Ingrid don't let them go stale, if your kids don't like them then share with the eye-closed, hoola-hooping, singers. :)

If Ingrid writes on her blog about the Jiffy Pop we bought I'll post a link, because it was fun to show her family how Jiffy Pop works. :)

We even made it to Princess Diana's playground, which was really cute! We hung out there for a while and then made our way back home.

Andrea is a pouter. If you tell her something that doesn't make her happy she will flop to the ground and "pout". I guess being a "pouter" is better than being a "temper-tantrum-er". It's much more quiet and almost funny.

I also learned that, in London, cabs are black... "Black Cabs". I might have already known this, but I doubt I'd ever thought about it. Our family is way past the "fitting into a cab" stage. :) You don't even notice them as much because they are black, not bright yellow. :) Of course I still like the yellow ones more though because I'm a loyal American and yellow is even my favorite color, but the black ones are still cute.

That was our day in London. :) Thanks Ingrid. :)