JAY-sus! Evidently, the app on my device doesn’t auto-save unless you have initially SAVED the post at some point. I will now attempt to reconstruct a BEAUTIFUL, long-winded post (if this one fails to entertain, just imagine the incredible humor of the one that got away). Lesson learned, WordPress app. I will now fear you more than love you.
Anyway.
I WAS posting about what items I thought the kids would miss the most whilst we are abroad, in a clever attempt to anticipate what we should pack (as we have not packed ANYTHING yet) in terms of toys and entertainments for the children. Let the cleverness begin.
Item for all three children: the playground structure immediately outside the door of our house in California. I feel confident that this item will not fit in a airplane regulation size bag, and would probably be overlimit for weight as well. (Not to mention the chagrin of our neighbors if we hauled it off.) However, I believe we will be able to find a local substitute in Highbury Fields, immediately outside the door of our flat in London. Using Google Maps to stalk our new neighborhood fills me with hope, though I cannot see a structure in its particulars… At the very least, we can take the children into the center of the park & let them run (and try to restrain ourselves from hiding from them when they want to go back in).
Item for Eli: the FIVE MILLION POUNDS (weight, not Sterling) of Legos his room is burdened with. We will be taking a selection, obviously, but there will certainly be some rending of garments and gnashing of teeth at some point regarding a specific piece (or set of wheels, etc.) that will have been left behind. And then, the secondary (and far more abstruse) question– what balance of Bionicles / Hero Factory / straight Legos will be satisfactory? Which variety of Lego will the hoped-for English friends want to play with the most? File under: questions without answers.
Item for Finley: IF the brand-new doll with the brand-new trousseau and brand-new accessories is packed, THEN we should just accept as a given that many tear-filled nights will be had in memory of the wooden brick (or feel free to insert any radically inappropriate object here) wrapped in a bit of cloth diaper that Finley said was “a baby” at some point in the indiscriminate past.
Item for Sawyer: nothing will be missed. Any found bit of plastic or rubber will do for “entertainment” purposes. I am choosing not to speak of the wooden-monkey-bell-rattle-thing that she freaked out over during the holidays. That will not be going with us. It will NOT.
General items: Bikes– file under “oh well.” Books– going to have to get a lending library card. Playmobil– they’ll have to be satisfied with Legos. Hot Wheels– probably have to take a few of those. Magic wands– only one of the kids get really worked up about these, so we can probably fit what we need. Art supplies in general– have to bring some, and then buy more… The critical thing (perhaps the most critical thing on this list) will, of course, be scotch tape.
canardchronique
fdalley
ldalley
sawyerdalley
Eli Dalley
dalleyfamily 
Love. We have a large scotch tape budget at our house. Large. As in bigger than the milk budget.