"I think every player should think that he's a difference maker."

As a gamer that spends most of my game time on a handheld console, it can be frustrating when I get into a game on our Wii U and don't have the time to sit and play for extended periods of time. Being able to take the 3ds about with me is a lot more convenient. There have been some amazing Wii U releases this year and many of them I have wished could be somehow moved to the 3ds so I could fit them into the times I can actually dedicate to playing. It's this frustration that is getting me so excited about the Nintendo Switch, I love the idea of being able to continue a game I am playing on the go and I cannot wait to give the console a try in 2017.

Until that is possible though I spend my time hoping that the games I love will be moved to a handheld platform. Recently I've been in luck (Twice). Since reviewing Super Mario Maker back in September it instantly became my favourite Nintendo release of this year and inevitably made its way to the top of my top 5 Nintendo Christmas List. Super Mario Maker has taken those Mario games many of us have grown up with and given the Nintendo gaming world the chance to design custom levels to share with people all over the world. This is what I have always loved about Nintendo, for me, they are at the peak of games design.

When I first read that they would be creating Mario Maker for the 3ds I was so excited and couldn't wait to get stuck in. There are some really creative levels that have been designed and I love seeing what people have come up with, The boys and I really enjoy making almost impossible levels for each other to tackle and the game has sparked some serious competition in our house.

I was actually expecting the 3ds version of the game to be really limited, but there is just as much going on. The only negative I have found and its nothing to do with the actual game, is that you obviously need to be connected to the internet to enter the course world and play other gamers levels. That being said though, as I sat outside Seth's school with the game on, I clicked on 'Mario Challenge' and I have become obsessed! At first glance, these not very challenging levels look simple to complete but when you add things in like not being able to use the left button or only being able to destroy certain bad guys, the levels become not only difficult but very very addictive.

Seth has asked for Super Mario Maker for Christmas and has refused to play this until then. With the option of being able to design levels and send them to each other, I've got a feeling we are going to be in for a pretty eventful Christmas day.

I did mention earlier in the post that there has been two occasions where a game I love has had the WiiU to 3DS cross-over, The second is coming soon. I cannot wait to get my hands on another of my favourite games in 2017 when Nintendo also release that 3DS version of Yoshi's Woolly World, Poochy and Yoshi's Woolly World. 2017 is going to be huge for Nintendo and I'm excited to be a part of it.

"There's so much more to a book than just the reading."

A few weeks back me and the awesomeness that is Emma from Another Last Story were talking about books and charity shops which we seem to do a lot when we get together as the two go perfectly hand in hand. Emma came up with the idea of a fun book related charity shop competition and after chatting about it a little, the day was upon us and it was time to put our plans in to motion. We met up on the morning of the great book off in Shrewsbury, where there are plenty of charity shops to mooch around. Before heading out and starting the competition though we popped in to the library with the boys to read a few books in hope that it would be a great start to an afternoon of children's literature.

The plan was to hit the charity shops armed with £5. We had a list of rules, one adult book, a selection of children's books and one gifted book to each other, but minutes before we kicked off the fun we decided to just go and buy books, spend a fiver and meet up to compare our spoils. Emma threw a huge spanner in the works early on when she declared 'No Shoplifting!' so as you can imagine the fun started on a down note. There was a bit of smack talk before we kicked off but then we went our separate ways. We had roughly 40 minutes before meeting for lunch so we split up and me and Opeie hit the shops hard. Our first find was a book about Nessie which fit in perfectly with Mrs M working away at Loch Ness this week, It was a great way to start the hunt.

We managed to grab some great bargains in what turned out to be the first leg of our book hunting adventure. The plan was to meet up at 12:00, i tried my luck with a text saying "how about 12:30" to which I received a rather blunt reply "12:00", that told us! We managed to grab Oliver Jeffers A way back home and a vintage nursery rhymes book that had seen better days but had a lot of character (I knew Emma would love it). We regrouped back at the library for lunch and added our friends Lucie and Martha to the fun. The smack talk continued and Lucie joined forces with Emma (because clearly she needed the help).

Rose found a quiet spot for lunch on Charles Darwin, meow.

With £1.50 left to spend it was time for round 2 and me and Opeie ventured to a different part of town where the charity shops are a little more classy. Opeie had set an extra task of finding a cool pop up book for us, which we did although it took us over our budget so we couldn't include it in the game. When I visit any charity shop I always have a few "Id love to find" books in mind. At the moment I keep hoping Ill stumble upon the Robert Sabuda pop up edition of The wonderful Wizard of Oz because I cant warrant paying the price it goes for online or anything by Florence Upton (I love those illustrations).

We spent our remaining money on an adults Roald Dahl book for Emma that I had never seen before as I knew she was a big fan. Me and Opeie had come home from a morning out last week to find presents waiting for us from Emma and Matthew, which was so kind of them, so we thought it was cute to stick with the Roald Dahl theme.

Part two flew by and we arranged to meet at Shrewsbury museum for what Emma called "an Opeie friendly hot chocolate" (Soya). As the kids sat and had what looked like a very sophisticated coffee date us adults filled the table with our findings and exchanged gifts. Emma had found us an atlas of Dinosaurs which went down a treat with Opeie and a copy of Mr Popper's penguins which me and Opeie are really looking forward to reading after we have finished James and the giant peach.

Sophisticated and friendly hot chocolate aside it did get to that point in the afternoon where the winner had to be announced so we turned to the referee's that had joined us mid competition. While going through our spoils we found that the other team already owned our gifted Oliver Jeffers book so it went to Lucie and Martha which may have swung Martha's vote when she announced we had won. Thankfully though our awesome children decided that 'everyone is the winner' and rightly so if you can pick up that many amazing books for £5 how can you not be a winner. 

Our charity shop adventure was so much fun and we are now thinking about making it a regular thing as it will be interesting to see what we find in different towns. It looks like Bridgnorth may be our next destination so if you are from the surrounding area be generous with your book donations. 

As we made our way back to the car everyone pointed out foxes for our next Gifts from the pirates fox hunt post too...

...and Emma pointed out 'There's a couple of Foxes over here!', Love these guys!

 Another Last Story have got plenty to say about our afternoon of fun and Emma certainly has a way with words, I love reading her posts, so check it out...

There's Nothing Like A Bit Of Healthy Competition

 

"It is better to create than to learn! Creating is the essence of life."

You cant beat a good LEGO competition, we have them all the time at home, it usually starts with one of seth's cunning plans, 'i need lots of vehicles for something I'm doing so...' "Hey everyone! lets have a LEGO competition... who can build the best vehicle!". This time though a team building exercise, limited to three bags of the series 4 Mixels and the aim was to build an ultimate mixel. If you combine 2 or more Mixels it becomes a Murp!!

After emptying all the bags out over the table we discussed our ideas and came up with something a little different. When series 1 of the Mixels was released i tried desperately to get the boys interested, the parts were the big appeal to me and the fact that they were such a good price for what you got in each pack. By series two though they could see what i could and they were hooked.  The fun part about creating your own Mixel for me is the eyes and teeth because it doesn't matter what you create you can just attach eyes and teeth and instantly it becomes a character, genius.

Our Mixels creations were well thought out though. Opeie's main specifications where that he had fire coming out of his hands and bottom. He also informed me that he was a snowboarding Mixel and set about building a Snowboard to ride on. We also thought it would be fun if we could turn the Mixel around and see a completely different character on the back. That's what i love most about LEGO, the versatility. You can come up with an idea and if you have the patience to sit and work out the dynamics of it, literally anything is possible. Because our Mixel has two different heads Opeie decided that the most obvious name would be headbanger.

 Unfortunately Headbanger didn't stay erected for very long and Seth pulled him apart and made a Mixel of his own. No need for a name here though as Seth informed me that he is in fact a mysterious Mixel and no one knows his name.

Get to the shops and pick up some LEGO Mixels, these little monsters are seriously addictive.

"You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win."

Inspired by the recent Golden Brickies and secretly being entertained on an unhealthy level by Mrs M's competitive nature I thought it would be a fun idea this week to have a build off. We had popped to the toy shop to get Opeie something for his good behaviour. Initially he chose a LEGO Ultra Agents kit (which I know will make Mrs Ultra agents very happy), but as he rounded the next aisle the kit was handed back and replaced by the LEGO Disney Princess Rapunzel's Creativity tower. (He's a lover of pink and bright colours just like me).

We had the LEGO City Auto Transporter Sitting at home waiting to be built so I challenged Mrs M to some fun in the bedroom. LEGO being the fun and the boys room being the competition venue. 

The competition kicked off with Mrs M complaining that she had 'more little pieces' than i did and it was going to take her a lot longer to build, but she soon ripped the bags open ahead of me and started getting stuck in. Clearly she wanted the head start because she very quickly asked me to go and put some music on while we were building, which was followed ten minutes later by 'can you put something different on please'. It was Mrs M's usual dirty tactics.

With the auto transporter having 350 pieces, Rapunzels tower coming in at 299 and me being the pro builder i thought the competition was about even so i took my time and played with Opeie as i was creating the LEGO masterpiece. Mrs M had the look of sheer determination on her face and there was no way she was letting me win, she was in it to win it. 

I love the LEGO City kits so i was taking it all in building. The City kits always take me back to being a child. As a little builder back in the 80s, it was a police station, along with lots of road base plates that really started this fascination with LEGO that i still have today. The auto transporter comes with two cars and while Opeie built the two minifigures included, i breezed through making them. But i spent a lot of this time watching what Mrs M was doing. I love the Disney Princess and Friends kits, so much colour.

I was soon on to bag two and Mrs M followed close behind, it was shaping up to be an excellent LEGO battle. Mrs M usually isn't a fan of our beloved bricks but she was building like a pro and had her eyes on the prize. I think Opeie's excitement playing with Rapunzel and Pascal was all the fuel she needed to get the kit built quickly so they could play.

Part of me wished i could have filmed the whole thing as Mrs M's competitive streak had reached its peak. and one point Opeie said 'mommy I've hurt my finger!' the response "I'll have a look at it in a bit". Nothing was taking her attention off the build (that's focus). Not to worry though i tended to Opeie's finger and was back from A&E within the hour (just kidding).

The competition was starting to heat up and Mrs M needed a towel to mop her brow. I think she was feeling more pressure than a day at the office.

Bag 3 and i was on the home stretch but Mrs M's tower was starting to look pretty glorious. To be honest i had decided quite early on that i wish we had swapped kits, I'm a sucker for a bit of pink. While we were building me and Opeie had an in depth conversation about the LEGO Frozen Elsa's castle that's coming out soon and what he wants to do with it if we get it, so cute.

It seemed i had taken Mrs M's building skills for granted and with the trailer still to build while she casually sorted out the towers awesome amount of brightly coloured accessories it was obvious that i needed to up my game before she wiped the floor with me.

It literally came down to the dying seconds, but who won???

Yes I (the household master builder) was beaten, by the family member that claims she doesn't like LEGO. It was a dark day but i held my head high. mainly because i wanted to just get past the gloating so i could play. As my forfeit it was my turn to get tea on while our very own princess put her feet up and played...

Ready for food delivery around 6 o clock!

(oh no!!!! i put the sticker on upside down haha!! i should be ashamed.)

"A smile is the chosen vehicle of all ambiguities."

Yesterday while I was cleaning Seth's room I stumbled upon a well hidden box of Lego I didn't even know we had. I'd sat and organised most of the Lego a few weeks back and this box had managed to go undetected. So while we were waiting for tea to cook we emptied out the hidden box and Seth came up with a family Lego competition. Build a futuristic vehicle.

Seth's little face lit up when Mrs M sat down to join in too. I think Seth loves the fact that he can be the master builder and show mommy how to build. I love how he proudly takes the things I've shown him and explains them to Mrs M.

Opeie was busy pottering about so Seth decided Opeie could be the judge. I don't need to tell you out there how much I love Lego, it really is the best toy ever. Anyway after about 40 mins of building, Seth told us it was judging time. We each had to present our creation to Opeie and try and sell it to him, like Dragons den but with Lego. So here are the results as picked by Opeie:

Bronze went to me. I think I lost points for it being a single seater but also because the driver was on his phone while driving, tut tut...

Silver went to Seth and his flying/driving space vehicle that split Into two separate vehicles for excellent getaway, built in CCTV and ejector seat. The Lego vehicle equivalent of a Swiss Army knife...

And gold went to a very proud Mrs M (who couldn't cover up that certificate smile) for her very pink police/fire truck from space. Space to carry baddies below. The driver/pilot is part mutant and has wings for swooping down on the less desirable members of her planet.

Even though he spent the Lego session pottering about Opeie still managed to dazzle us with his building skills by creating this head transporting vehicle. A great little unexpected building session and a fantastic toy that I could happily write about every day.