"Artists are just children who refuse to put down their crayons."

When you pull into the car park at the Florida mall and round the corner of Macy's you are greeted by a huge display of colour and some giant fun loving crayons up to mischief. From the outside, the Crayola experience looks like the most fun you could possibly have and when you get inside you are not disappointed. Everywhere you look there is somewhere awesome to take a colourful pic. The staff (like everywhere else in Orlando) are all smiles and clearly there to make your experience magical.

Eager to find out what the tokens were for that we were given on arrival, the first thing we came to were machines where you could create your own crayon labels which was great. These crayons have barely changed since I was at school and I remember filling in my colouring book pages clearly (with my tongue hanging out the side of my mouth for concentration). I really enjoyed colouring as a child so it was a lot of fun creating these labels. Turns out you can't give your crayons inappropriate names though, much to my disappointment. 
*must remember that these are children's attractions.

With machines for you to melt crayons into various shapes, ones that melt your crayons and spray the hot wax to create fun spinning creations and photo booth areas that take your picture and turn you into a colouring book page, there is loads to keep you entertained during your visit.

The great part about the attraction is where it is situated, making it the perfect way to break up a hefty shopping trip, because us tourists need to fill up those empty suitcases we travelled to Orlando with and it's not much fun for the kids at times. While we were there we also visited the Crayon factory to see how the crayons were made which was really interesting.

The Crayola tokens can also be used on the vending machines for the play putty in a variety of colours and there are plenty of cutters and other tools available to keep you occupied for some time. Clearly I had let myself go this holiday and was having too much fun!

To top off our amazing visit we left through a great giftshop where we were able to fill a huge tin with every colour crayon they had and more, meaning we could continue our Crayola adventure back at the apartment. A definite thumbs up for our creative little colour fiends and I thouroughly enjoyed the visit myself, a recomended attraction for any fan of colour.

A couple of quick craft activities to fill the morning. Painitng eggs and making masks.

Because of the great weather we have hardly done any craft activities over the last few weeks, none of us really want to be cooped up indoors, i know i could do it outside but lets be honest its never going to win over a trampoline and a good old fashioned ball. yesterday though Opeie was adamant that he wanted to stay in and colour for the morning so i went hunting through the boys craft boxes. back at Easter time we had brought lots of plain polystyrene eggs, designed and painted a few but didn't end up doing anything with them, there were plenty left over so i got them out for Opeie so we could continue our decorating, still with no idea what we are going to do with them.

We've now ended up with a big box of decorated eggs to play with which I'm sure Seth will find a use for at some point. As Opeie scribbled away at his eggs he gave me clear directions as to which characters he wanted me to create for him...

Opeie soon got bored of colouring eggs and said 'scissors', while pottering round Ikea last week Mrs M picked up a big pack of coloured card for the boys so seeing as Opeie was in a foreman style craft mood dishing out his character requests we started chopping away at the paper to create some masks and Opeie did an excellent job of gluing all the pieces together, in the words of that rather annoying children's program 'wonder pets' that he likes so much, "whats going to work? Teamwork!".

The little scientist gets a day out at Thinktank

We've all been having such a great half term and have managed to really make the most of it. Seth has decided recently that he's really in to science so we've been doing experiments at home. Yesterday we decided to take the boys to ThinkTank to fuel Seth's new passion and we were really pleased when auntie Lotty said she was going to come with us. We all love Lotty she's so much fun and yesterday was the first time Opeie said 'Charlotte' which was so cute.

 After picking Lotty up we headed to Birmingham, we were looking forward to having lunch at TGI's to start our adventure, Opeie had other ideas...

Typical Opeie, he's such a cutie though. Lunch as always was lush but in great Opeie style he didn't want to eat his. Lotty decided she was skipping lunch and went straight to dessert (my kind of girl).

After lunch (and colouring) we headed to ThinkTank and as soon as we walked through the entrance we were hooked, there was so much to do everywhere you looked. We really didn't know what to do first so after having a little wander about looking at fossils and a crocodile in the floor we asked Seth what he wanted to do and he decided he wanted to go to the 'Big bang Show'. The show was great with lots of explosions. I was so busy taking in what was going on around me that i didn't take as many pictures as i would have liked.

  My favourite part was the old cars and motorbikes...

After looking out of one of the windows and seeing the outdoor play area the boys were itching to get outside and play so even though it was freezing outside we headed out to explore the activities.

After the play area we headed home, it was getting on a bit and we wanted to miss the rush hour traffic (didn't really work out though). We didn't manage to get round even half of Thinktank as there was so much going on so were going to buy a years pass and go again soon. Only 3 days left of half term i cant believe it's gone so quick. Ill be counting down the days till the Easter holiday.

"The less routine the more life."

It was one of those days today where it seemed that every room on the house was a complete mess. Mrs M had to work and I really didn't want her coming home to toys all over the house and a lounge that looked like it had been transformed into a craft/play room. I don't like days like this, not because I have cleaning to do on my own but because it means I can't give Opeie the attention he deserves (plus it means i don't get to concentrate on playing).

I find that when I hit a day like this and have lots of tidying and a child to entertain i have a certain routine which works out best. I set up something to do in each room to keep him occupied and it makes it easier for me to flit between rooms. I started with the lounge where I had got out some Yo Gabba Gabba colouring sheets that Mrs M had printed out yesterday. Opeie was happy colouring so it meant that I got to Hoover and sneak all the toys back into the boys room.

Then I moved us both in to the bedroom where I had got all the Star wars chunky figures out for Opeie to play with on the bed. Since collecting toys for Opeie I've worked out that it's really handy to have some toys that don't come out very often. I've had the Star Wars figures since before Opeie was born but I only get them out when me and Mrs M have things to do around the house as we know they will keep him entertained while we take care of jobs etc, (Seth's never even seen them) and today was no exception Opeie played quietly examining each figure.

Luckily I had cleaned the kitchen before dropping Mrs M off so we had a break to play and I ended up playing for the rest of the time she was at work, oops. When Mrs M got back from work I decided to tackle the boys room while she was relaxing in the bath and again Opeie was happy playing on the floor with his most recent favourite toy, the Lego Joker ice-cream parlour we had built, he loves putting all the minifigures in the jail cell.

I didn't get to do nearly as much cleaning as I would have liked but the house didn't look terrible and Opeie had a smile on his face so I was happy. Mrs M was just pleased that the lounge looked like a grown ups room again. It's strange the routines you get in to as a parent but its a way for us to make certain situations easier and to keep a smile on the boys faces.