Random Tuesday: Legos and Sight-Seeing

Gimme all your LEGOS or I'll shoot!

Sometimes it's hard to remember that one parent's bragging rights are no better than another's. Sure my kids may not be brilliant football (soccer) players, they may not know the first thing about rugby, they may not be at the top literacy table....

But I can tell you that they know their LEGOS and can build with the best of them. I forget sometimes that this building thing is a gift, just like any other talent that proud parents rattle off in their children's list of positive attributes. As CC reminded me this week, "Mom, LEGOS are my thing. They're what I do!"

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In a fit of jealousy over Capt. Dumbass' clever LEGO photographs, I asked the boys to stage a LEGO event for me to photograph. This is what they came up with:

Note the Lego guy in the back that just got run over by the Star Wars land-cruiser.  That's right, even the doctor can't handle the horror.  Heh.

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On a completely different note, I have been lusting for a new pair of shoes and have set my sights on certain pair of unattainably priced Christian Laboutin's.  Behold! The shoe that guarantees a quickening of the pulse when seen by men and women alike. Behold! The shoe that will put me at a whopping 6'1" if I were actually able to hobble from "car to bar" in them. Behold!




The Christian Laboutin Very Prive or Pigalle 120, both with the 12cm heel.  That is 4.72 inches, folks! Never mind that I would be crippled if I were to wear them. Never mind that I wouldn't even be able to wear these out my front door because of the gravel that surrounds the house.

I want these shoes, or a reasonable facsimile thereof, in a physical that's-gotta-be-some-kind-of-sin-according-to-the-Catholic-church-kinda way.


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This too shall pass.


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My brother-in-law and sister-in-law are here visiting for a few days and it is making us all homesick.  Distance makes the heart grow fonder, as they say, and after four years of having family right around the corner (literally, they lived a block and a half away from us in Madison), I think we had started to really take it for granted that they were right there.  The boys are having a grand time with them and their happy, easy going nature around their aunt and uncle have really thrown into stark relief just how awkward and uncomfortable they can be around everyone else here.

It has been an absolute joy having them for a visit and makes me really hope that more friends from home will make the trip overseas to come and see us and beautiful southern England.  We had a beautiful sight-seeing weekend--NO RAIN!--back to Corfe Castle and Durdle Door. And went to Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral yesterday.  The weather at Stonehenge was miserable, windy and cold, and oddly identical to the weather there in September, which was the last time we went.  I managed to get some great photos along the way and I'll share one from each locale.

 Update: Because I love this hat so much and a couple people have asked, I got the hat (pictured below) in Missoula, Montana from a woman who sells hats on Etsy.com.  Her company is called Piper & Paisley and the hats are fantastic. This one is stretchy cotton & synthetic and I wear it every time it is rainy or misty out.  I have another wool one that I forgot in the states that is more adorable, but not quite as comfy as this one.