the latest chapter of LEGO Friendsgate

it seems that lego friends is under fire again. the latest lego club magazine has advice for girls about haircuts suited to a particular face shape and that made a righteous nytimes mommy blogger just a tad unhappy. the website boingboing responded with similar tongue-in-cheek beauty advice for male lego executives. and cool mom picks had a more thoughtful response about the implications that our judgements about "girl's toys" have on how girls think of their toys and themselves. in my view, the face shape/hairstyle advice is a bit out of place in the lego club magazine and someone should have known better, but whether it warrants a whole online kerfluffle is another story. in any case, lego friends continues to have the capacity to inspire passionate feelings on both sides of the issue of toys aimed at a particular gender. but seriously, give me wonder woman any day.

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the paleo diet is also under fire, so what's the next diet trend?

things we've built lately

the creator 3-in-1 beach house. it's got all kinds of great details - like a wave out front and a surfboard.

it also has a cool window that opens on the back side, for playability. and check out that outdoor shower!

and from this side, looks like an architect must have designed it.

we put emily to work building the treehouse when she was here. it's also a creator 3-in-1 set.

there's a little crankable bucket and the ladder can be folded up to prevent unwanted folks from coming up into the treehouse.

love the super cute friends camper - sabin built it, but i might have to take it apart and build it myself, just for fun. if i had a camper that looked like this, i could totally get into camping.

next up was the friends juice bar - all kinds of awesome details in this, but that's what lego friends does best.



juicing blenders and check out that orange juicer detail on the right. love it! but probably the best part of these friends sets is the colors. they're so bright and cheerful.

i have a little bit of a thing for chima legend beasts. they've got cool teeth and ball joints, so what's not to like?

and the minifigs are dressed very cool as well. i don't really know the chima stories, but these little warrior animals just speak to me.

look at all of those cool wing pieces on the awesome eagle!

the lion was the one i got first and oddly enough, i don't think i shared him before. posable and cool. i think maybe what i like is that they remind me a bit of mixels with the small ball joints and posability.