Thursday 27 August 2015

The Pirates Vs The Land of the Living Dinosaurs


I've been doing all i can recently to throw myself in to Opeie's new love by coming up with fun themed things to do and places to go. A couple of months back a friend of mine put up some images on Facebook and I got really excited. Her little boy was looking very excited standing among life size dinosaurs and it looked AMAZING! I assumed that they were on holiday and that the attraction was going to be miles away so i was pleasantly surprised when I contacted them and found out that the awesome looking dinosaurs we had seen were just down the road at the West midlands Safari Park. I had not been to the Safari park since I was a boy myself so i had no idea about the Land of the Living Dinosaurs.

Although the trip was for the boys i was really excited to see some big scary dinosaurs after all of the books we have been reading together. As we pulled into the main entrance of the safari park we spotted two dinosaurs waiting to greet us and i knew we were in for a great visit. It was fairly early when we arrived and we made a Bee line for the Land of the Living Dinosaurs which was really quiet as the bulk of the visitors had gone straight for the Safari tour.


Being able to sit in the jaws of a dinosaur pretty much kicked off our Mesazoic adventure. I was in my element which is still surprising me to this day. Like most boys I was a big fan of the dinosaurs and I was captivated when we did a project at school, but that's as far as my Dinosaur love affair went. This time though like some sort of parasite I have been feeding off Opeie's excitement and passion. The great thing about being a hands on parent is that when your child is into something you can go all out and throw yourselves in to a world of fun.


As we passed the Dino jaws and rounded the corner, all those books that we had read, documentaries we had watched and never ending dinosaur activities we had been keeping ourselves entertained with over the weeks was staring us in the face. It was like all the previous weeks fun had been building up to this very moment and i was loving every minute of the expressions on the boys faces. Its that kind of moment that really makes you realise that as a dad, you are doing an awesome job.


THERE ARE DINOSAURS EVERYWHERE!!!

With tales swinging and heads moving about watching you, The Land of the living Dinosaurs really was an amazing place to visit, the fantastic weather really added to the day and we were all having an awesome time.

The only negative about the trip was that there was a board with information for the Archaeopteryx (Opeie's joint favourite dinosaur, with the Triceratops) but no feathery dinosaur to be seen anywhere? A little disappointing but there were so many other dinosaurs there that Opeie soon forgot about that.


"Mommy, mommy......A TRICERATOPS!!!"

Only half way round the park and Opeie's day had reached its peak but there was more to come. He was hoping for at least one Triceratops and there they were, his beaming little face said it all. As if a life size Triceratops wasn't enough the boys then spotted two to ride on, AMAZING!


Next we moved on to the Dino dig area, where there was a dino handler taking care or a baby raptor which was really cute. Opeie gave it a stroke and then began to explain to the lady that the raptor was a 'Therapod' and if it was a Velociraptor it was Cretaceous but an Eoraptor was Triassic. The poor staff member looked at him like he was talking another language haha.


The Dino dig area gave Seth a great idea for something we could do at home and as I like to accommodate as many of the boys creative ideas as I can, I put his idea into motion this week. I'll write about it very soon, but it was an amazing idea.

I was really hoping to see my favourite dinosaur during the visit. So you can imagine my excited when I spotted a Pachycephalosaurus staring at me. By this point I had reached excitement overload, it was such a great place to take Mrs M and boys, interesting and educational.


From a home education point the West Midlands safari park is a great learning resource and the opening of the exhibit couldn't have come at a better time for us as a family, with dinosaurs being at the forefront of everything we do these days.

The Land of the Living Dinosaurs was a fantastic place to visit, interesting and educational and I would love to visit again later in the year when they have the dinosaurs at night event. I bet the dinosaurs look great in the dark. I think Opeie's love of dinosaurs will be around for a while and no matter how many fun activities we do and places we go it will be hard to beat the excitement we got from spending an afternoon with real dinosaurs.



Wednesday 26 August 2015

Avoiding another 'Soggy bottom' with Netflix.


We've reached that point in the year again where the smell of bread and cakes is filling many of the homes in the UK and social media is blowing up with talks of The great British Bake off. Personally I'm not a fan, so while Mrs M and Seth had their weekly bonding session this week, I popped my headphones on and did some work on the blog, hoping to avoid the sound of Marry Berry's 'soggy bottom'. 

As i gazed across the room i smiled from ear to ear when i realised that that adorable mini version of myself had the same idea and was sitting contently sporting a dinosaur T-shirt, new trucker cap and catching up on the recent Netflix children's show Dinotrux.


Part dinosaur and part truck, whats not to like? Dinotrux is every boys dream and the first season, based on the books by Chris Gall is available to view on Netflix now.



Friday 21 August 2015

'Robin! To the Bat Boat'


I love how in to our LEGO posts the boys get and it was only a matter of time before Seth decided that he would be reviewing a kit by himself. After all of our LEGO stories it was his turn to have full reign and show me what he's got. We were sent kit 76034 Super heroes the Batboat Harbour Pursuit and with Seth being the biggest Batman fan in the house it made sense that it would be him telling the story, so over to Seth...


The LEGO Batboat harbour Pursuit is another great kit from the DC Super heroes range. The thing I love most about the Batman kits is the gadgets and the way LEGO have really embraced Batman's amazing vehicles. While playing it was great that the bat boat split off in to 2 seperate Batpods adding to the adventure of the chase while stopping any 'I want to play with that part'. Sadly it didn't stop the 'I want to be Batman' (but then who really wants to be the sidekick?).


COMING SOON...

See what happens when the boys meet Scooby Doo and embark on their spookiest mission yet, Zoinks!!

 

 





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