"It's impossible to make your eyes twinkle if you aren't feeling twinkly yourself."

The Weather is really throwing a spanner in the works for us at the moment. Opeie and I are desperate to go camping and after our failed attempt a few weeks back when it thrashed it down on arrival, every time we've looked to go since the weather has been awful along the coast. This week gave us another 2 days with nowhere to be so we looked at the weather again and yet again Disappointment! We decided instead to head to London and do a spot of adventuring.

On the way to London during our last visit, we decided to visit Wendover woods to hunt for the Gruffalo hiding at the forestry commission site. Being such a long drive from Shropshire to London, stopping off to break up the journey really makes a difference. The night before starting our journey I googled 'attractions off of the m40' and then looked for museums and the perfect place to visit popped up.

I didn't let Opeie know where we were going as I thought it would be a really nice surprise after a 2-hour drive. When we parked up in Great Missenden, Opeie was excited about stretching his legs and  finding out where we were going. When we arrived at the museum we passed the shop window first and he noticed some Roald Dahl books, so when we rounded the corner and passed through the archway Opeie really started to get excited.

I've wanted to visit the Roald Dahl museum for quite some time and with me and Opeie 3/4 of the way through Charlie and the chocolate factory it seemed like a very fitting time to make that visit happen. We've been reading the book every day for the past week and Opeie is really getting into it, so you can imagine his excited little face when we rounded the corner and found doors made of giant Wonka bars, what a great start to the visit.

We had been bought The Enormous Crocodile from our friends over at Another Last Story a while back which we both loved and despite knowing the story Opeie still fell for the Croc disguised as a bench. Thankfully he was safe, though.

My Roald Dahl trivia knowledge was rubbish, I just knew that he wrote great books! so it was really interesting to learn about his life and how he came to become a writer of children's books. Opeie was fascinated to learn that he was a pilot during the war and being able to dress up like a pilot too really got my passionate new reader excited.

What really stuck out for Opeie about the visit though (apart from the Wonka bar doors) was Roald Dahl's little hut where he went for four hours a day to write. His homemade felt covered table, sleeping bag to slide his legs into, and cannister of coffee was too cute. It made me think that maybe I should transform our shed for blogging!

With lots of props from the movies and books to sit and read while you are there it really is the perfect Museum for excited little fans of literature. We didn't think much of the newer Fantastic Mr. Fox movie but the film prop was amazing to see.

The Museum is really interactive with lots of things to keep you and your little ones entertained. With 'create your own movie' sets and activities like writing your own stories using word tiles, It is a museum we are sure to be visiting again.

The Roald Dahl museum was a perfect distraction for our 3-hour drive and with only an hour left to go, it was spent excitedly talking about Roald Dahl and all his magical stories.

Unexpected kindness is the most powerful least costly and mostunderrated agent of human change.”

It is so nice to see daily how much Opeie loves his family. When he's playing / role playing all our family and friends are included even if they are not there at the time. Last week while shopping for Mrs M's Mother's Day gift Opeie started to get really excited and couldn't catch his breath. When he finally got his words out it seemed that he had spotted an enormous Lindt bunny and knowing how much Nanny loves Lindt chocolate he was desperate to have a picture taken to send her way...

Opeie is such a thoughtful little boy. I think, like me, he really appreciates the family he has and he wants to make everyone happy with these thoughtful little acts of kindness.

All celebrate the zombie resurrection..... with excessive amounts of chocolate!!

It seems the older I get the more cynical I get with it. I'm pretty laid back most of the time but certain times during the year this side of me really comes out and this weekend is one of them. I guess you could say I'm a bit of an Easter Scrooge, I love the long weekend, the chance to catch up with friends and relax but as I checked my Facebook account yesterday i was greeted with an array of images of children with excessive amounts of chocolate. The yearly Facebook Easter competition had begun and it was absolutely ridiculous. 'Look how many Easter eggs my child has got' each status was screaming out. Surprisingly I didn't check it again yesterday as the first viewing had enraged me. Probably a little over the top I know but I just think that much chocolate despite being unhealthy is also unnecessary. And I just couldn't let it go, I could have easily gone on a commenting rampage but it was probably a good job I didn't.

Despite my eggstremely over the top Easter rage (haha), We did celebrate zombie resurrection Sunday today instead but without making a huge deal about chocolate and junk. Seth has been going on about a Lego kit for quite sometime, no longer available to buy in the shops so I searched eBay for it in the hope I could find it at a reasonable price. I did track it down for roughly the price it was sold for minus the box and instructions and when it arrived I was debating how to wrap it up for the boys.

We have an abundance of empty plastic eggs from Opeies 'surprise eggs' obsession in the house so as there was no box for the kit I split the Lego pieces into some of the eggs so that we could have a Lego themed egg hunt. It was a bit depressing to see £40 of Lego kit distributed in to 9  half filled small plastic eggs but I knew the boys would love the sentiment and of course the treats inside.

And to go with each egg a rhyming clue leading to the next. Seth being Seth guessed what kit it was by egg 3 but that just made the hunt more exciting because i had left the minifigures until last and he knew exactly who it was he was looking for.

At the end of the hunt there was another surprise, while many children were stuffing their faces yesterday me and Opeie were busy building our next large Lego build as part of the Easter fun. I didn't manage to complete it due to Opeie coming down with chickenpox and needing cuddles so i will write a post about it when it is complete but there maybe a slight clue in the picture below. The Lego Easter egg hunt spurred on a morning of Lego building which was great as Mrs M and Opeie were feeling a little fragile. Not the greatest of Easter weekends over all but as always i surrounded myself with some of the people i care about the most. 

Happy Easter everyone.

 

Gifts from thePirates in Orlando - Competition winner(s)

Okay so i know that I'm a day behind, my bad, but its what happens when your days are taken up with none stop running about, playing and generally making sure that the boys are having an amazing time. I thought that the only fair way to pick a winner is to let that 2 year old angel of ours do it. So the names went in to a hat and the winner is Emma Kinsley, well done Emma. I will contact you shortly and thank you for the lovely email you sent last week.

Opeie clearly enjoyed being clapped and cheered pulling out a piece of paper and showing it to us and got a bit 'winner happy'. So because he pulled out two extra names (and because i have an abundance of chocolate left) i will be sending two runners up prizes to Nik Nak and Molly Kay and i think you both made it quite clear in your comments what you would like.

Thank you everyone who took part its nice to be able to share the goodies that we brought back, plus it means that my waistline should stay roughly the same for another week of so. Merry Christmas guys xx