I see London...

What do you do when you are living in Europe, with an extremely tiny oven, 

limited American food and a giant itch for travel and it is Thanksgiving time? 

You bag the whole thing and take a vacation!

Well that is what we did anyways.

London was the overwhelming choice by all.

And for my boys it wasn't for any other reason then to 

go to the Warner Brothers Studio tour of the Making of Harry Potter.

I may have had other motivations but whatever gets us all on the same page works for me!

The shuttle bus from the train station to the studio

This is pretty much how Mack looked the entire time. Too enthralled and excited to be bothered with pictures.

Some Privet drive in the back and some knight bus in the front.

My favorite Diagon Alley

Hogwarts castle at the very end was mighty impressive. It was a good time of 3 plus hours spent browsing and dreaming in the gift shop and touring the sets and memorabilia. 

at Kings Cross Station they have a nice little spot designated for annoying Harry Potter tourists like us. 

London eye views were incredible!

It was incredibly difficult to get a good picture from inside the pod but Big Ben looked pretty cool from above.

Peter Pan statue in Hyde Park

The boys really loved The Princess Memorial Playground at Hyde Park it is really well done with
creative and imaginative play structures suitable for a wide variety of ages.

Paddington Bears in the famous department store Harrods.
Let it be known that is the only store I went in the entire time I was in London.
Even with many many stores that I have missed immensely calling out to me, begging me to come in.
I spared my 4 boys and kept walking.
Aren't I such a good team player?!

See what I mean? Just look at the boys faces when they asked where we were going and we pointed
to the big Harrods sign behind us. 

One of the main draws for me to head to Harrods was the Christmas window displays
that were absolutely magical.
They had a Disney princess theme this year and they all were fantastic!

Our kids were apparently a little hungry and spent a good amount of time with their little faces plastered at the chocolate counter. The lady finally took pity on them and most likely wanted them to stop drooling on her glass so she gave them samples in an attempt to make us leave.
And we did. 

Has anyone else heard of this cologne brand? We hadn't but Creed thought it was pretty cool!

Oxford Circus Piazza

You can't come to London and not get a picture inside a red phone booth. 

Waiting outside Buckingham Palace for the changing of guard proved to be a disappointment. Our family at least
couldn't figure out what all the hype was about. 

I couldn't get enough of the cute little taxis everywhere. It was so refreshing to see these instead of a sea of yellow that happens so often in large cities. I really think it should be a law that all taxis should look like these. 

Our Yeoman Warder tour guide at the Tower of London was such a delight. 

The Rosetta Stone inside the British Museum.
We did a major fail and didn't notice what time the museum closed and missed our main attraction and although the clock still said 5 minutes left the guy at the door wouldn't budge and let us through no matter how much we begged. So we were obnoxious and stood in the door way trying to zoom in and take pictures while people were filing out. He would have been better off letting us go in for 1 minute instead of us blocking his door but we tend to be nice that way.