"Come on, step out of your cage. There's a whole twisted world out there."

 There is something incredibly relaxing about sitting with my headphones in, sewing of an evening. Which is why I'm all over Opeie's new interest in puppetry. I'm looking forward to making some random characters next but this weekend was spent making an Alice Angel puppet from Bendy and the Ink machine. The puppet was fairly easy to make until I got to the hair, if I'd have had any myself I'd have probably pulled it out. 

After I'd finished it Opeie made a pretty cool video for the channel. Check it out Here!

"Life is a collage of events, really."

Day 40:

Not the greatest of days today to be fair, everything just seems a little heavier than usual. We did however manage to have a morning of cutting and pasting, 80's style. Opeie drew a pretty awesome Mr.T to go on his which really made me smile. The little things that make us happy are pretty much all we've got to hold on to, while we're not seeing our friends and loved ones, I'm really hoping for some much brighter days. 

“Crackers!” said Dumbledore enthusiastically, offering the end of a large silver noisemaker to Snape, who took it reluctantly.”

Home ed has gone out the window a little this week, and we've decided to focus the week on Christmas craft. If I'm honest we were in the Christmas wind down zone a couple of weeks back and it seems like all our other Home Ed buddies are feeling the same. With a list of things that Opeie wants to make he decided to kick off the week with home made Christmas crackers for the tree. I disappeared upstairs looking for patterned paper to use and while rummaging I found some Doctor who magazines that had the perfect pages in to make Christmas crackers fit for a Timelord.

Becci had brought Opeie a selection of cardboard tubes round over the last few weeks (that boy loves a cardboard tube). So we cut one of the tubes down so that we could support the main body of the crackers, folded the ends of the paper and cut in diamonds into the fold for where the ribbon would be tied. Then we unfolded and rolled the paper around the tube (nice and easy).

We had picked up a roll of Harry Potter wrapping paper a few days back that Opeie had spotted in a shop and as soon as we started making the crackers he told me that he wanted to make the hats with that, So much better than the hats that you usually get in crackers.

Opeie had the time of his life writing the jokes (which obviously I wasn't allowed to see) so I'll be looking forward to hearing those on Christmas Day. All that was left to do was to find something fun to put inside them and we came up with a pretty lovely idea, but I can't reveal it on here because our Christmas guest will be reading.

The crackers were a nice easy activity to kickstart a week of Christmas fun and its already making us  feel a little more festive. 

"You know you’ve read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend."

The last few months have been all about making the house ours, moving rooms around, de-cluttering and making use of all of the space we have. We decided that one of the rooms downstairs needed to be a relaxing reading space. We couldn't quite decided what to put on the wall though in a relaxing space dedicated to one of our favourite past times. That was until I thought about a gift that my bestie Helen had got me for my birthday. She has really helped me through a lot of the harder parts of all this heartache and she was eager to help with putting some personal touches into the house. She had very Kindly bought me 3 canvas's so that the boys and I could create one each.

I asked the boys if they would use their artistic flair to create something each around a book (or series of books) that were important to them. I knew straight away that mine was going to be based on A Series of unfortunate events as Ive been reading them to Opeie at bed time and Ive really loved how excited he's been as we have ploughed through them. I didn't want to draw an obvious picture of the Baudelairs or even their nemesis Count Olaf so I went for a random singer from the Volunteers fighting disease, as the song about the heart shaped balloon always stuck out for Opeie.

I wasn't at all Surprised when Opeie decided he was going to base his canvas design on Beetle boy by M.G. Leonard. The Beetle boy trilogy will always be very special to me as they were the books that really opened up Opeie's imagination and made him realise just how amazing the world of books can be. He hung off every word of those stories and after the first and the second books we were both eager for the release of the next one. I was genuinely gutted when Battle of the Beetles ended.

I not quite sure what I expected Seth to choose, as he mainly reads on his own these days and he gets through so many books that I can't keep up with him.  I was pretty surprised that he chose Enid Blyton's 'The Secret Seven' as they are books that I have been reading to him at bedtime. The secret seven and the Famous five were books that I grew up on and I wanted to share those adventures with the boys.When I asked Seth what was so special about the Secret Seven books he said that he loves me reading to him and finds my voice really relaxing (which made my day).

Emotions may be all over the place at the moment but these little personal touches around the house are making fun new memories and giving us the relaxing home that I think we all need.

"Puck the halls with lots of Slapshots Fa la la la la la la la la "

'Dad can we have something hockey related to go on top of our tree this year?' was roughly what was said when the boys had finished decorating the Christmas tree in their bedroom this year. Every year it has been tradition for the boys to choose random toys to be our festive showpieces, but with hockey becoming such a big part of their lives this year it was inevitable that they would want their new love up high above the branches. There are so many cool Christmas related items available in the US and Canada and I'm kicking myself that we didn't realise that Hockey was going to be so big while we were away so we could have snapped some things up.
 

Sadly over here in the UK it is difficult to get many of these items and with import tax, extended delivery time and high costs, I just couldn't warrant splashing out this close to Christmas. So.... we did what we do best in our house and decided to make our own hockey-themed tree topper. Opeie is a big Chicago Blackhawks fan, partly because he loves the Jersey but also because he's a big Waynes World fan (I know what an awesome kid). So the Chicago Blackhawks were the starting point for our Christmas craft session. 

It's great crafting with the boys because they come up with the best ideas, like having a goalie mask and a Waynes World cap for the head piece. I threw in the idea for the wings and Opeie's last minute hockey stick idea while eating a frozen banana and being inspired by the stick,  meant our team creation ended up looking pretty great I think.

"Use your imagination, not to scare yourself to death but to inspire yourself to life"

It's got to that time of year again where we go into a craft frenzy. There is something so satisfying about decorating the house for Halloween and Christmas and we couldn't wait this year to get going with the spooky fun. Halloween is so much more fun when you have children and I like to think we take full advantage of these cold wet autumn days by filling them with fun activities. Me and Opeie have been researching fun Halloween craft ideas and while out doors hunting for branches, leaves and pine cones to make an Autumn wreath for the front door, we also decided that we wanted to create monster wreaths for the doors inside the house. We wanted to make a fluffy monster wreath and speant a week popping into charity shops looking for something suitable to cut up for cheap. We had no luck and was feeling pretty deflated until I was searching for one of Opeie's toys under his bed and found a huge box of pompoms and lollipop sticks, BINGO!

We cut out a big cardboard ring, fired up the glue gun and started sticking. With lots of bright coloured fluffy pompoms to choose from, Opeie was thouroughly enjoying the craft activity, sitting outside despite the cold. There was a few moments where there was a freak gust of wind and he was chasing pompoms around the street but it just added to the fun as he ran around laughing. With the cardboard ring completely covered and looking very bright and fluffy, we added big polystyrene balls for eyes and some black teeth covered in green slime and Hey Presto! our monster wreath was complete.

Not 100% happy with what we had achieved though and eager to continue our fun Halloween activities, Opeie opted for another wreath because apparently there are alot more doors in the house to decorate. We looked around the house for something else colourful and found a basket full of Play doh lids that I had saved while cleaning out the boys room a while back.I had no idea at the time what I was going to use them for or why I was even saving them but the bright colours sucked me in like some sort of magpie.

I had already cut out a second cardboard ring (clearly I knew he would want to make a second one before he did), so the glue gun made another of his weekly appearences and we got sticking. Im not sure my parents would have let me use a glue gun at the age of 5 (I could just imagine myself pretending I had Han Solo's blaster and making a mess everywhere), but Opeie is calm, loves craft and is really responsible so the gluing was left up to him. Opeie made some lovely bloodshot eyes and mad fangs from lollipop sticks and in no time at all , another door in the house was looking fabulous.

Weve got so many ideas planned for the school holiday with Seth that the house is going to be filled with lots of spooky things. The great thing is, when they all come down, theres no need to feel sad as we can start on the Christmas decorations then! being a dad is AMAZING!

"A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work."

It's been a restless few weeks for Opeie recently sleep wise. We're not really sure why but he's been waking up on and off and occasionally has been a little upset. It may just be a growth spurt but he's never been the best sleeper and would keep us up sporadically through the night for the first 4 years, which at times was exhausting. A few nights back we heard him wake up and I went upstairs to make sure he was ok. He was still semi-asleep and explained that he had had a bad dream.

When asked what the dream was about (because it's always important to ask in case it is something serious) he explained that the dream was about a small fish who was being chased by an angry whale and couldn't get away. Although he was clearly quite upset about the poor little fish he said it was ok because a swordfish had come along and saved the little fish from the big bad whale. Despite the tears and restless sleep I've got to say, the whole thing was pretty adorable.

I'm not really sure where it all started but swordfish keep popping up a lot recently when Opeie is talking. As far as I can remember we've not been anywhere where he may have seen a swordfish, read any books including a swordfish or even spotted one in any documentary we may have been watching recently, but it is clear that this new love of the hero swordfish is here to stay. So when Opeie decided he wanted a craft session a few days ago we came up with a plan to recreate his dream.

The idea was to make something cute that could be a decoration for the house. Opeie and I had a long discussion about the dream and he explained what the fish looked like before drawing them for me. We cut the front and sides out of a box and covered in duck tape that we had left over from our Custom scooter. Opeie did a great job of mixing some lovely colours and painted the inside of his fish tank and the three fish. We had a big bucket of shells and rocks in the back garden from various visits to the beach which were waiting to be used for something fun, so we made the most of them.

After Opeie had painted his dream fish and given them button and googly eyes, we suspended his creations with the only string we could find (yo-yo strings) and our fish tank was complete. Our craft session gave us a great chance to talk about dreams and why we think we have them. We talked colour mixing and textures, but most importantly to him, he got to use a glue gun. A pretty perfect little craft session and a splash more colour added to the house.

"Life is anything that dies when you stomp on it."

Its been a few weeks since our post about our interesting find in the woods . We did finally get round to painting the other side of our dinosaur feet and on Friday night before heading out on our weekend of camping fun I spent the evening drilling holes and sewing the elastic straps on to our creations, ready for some dino stomping along the beach. Earlier that day we popped out to get some last minute provisions for the trip and Opeie spotted a dinosaur costume in a shop that just had to come along for the journey too.

 The dino costume had to of course go on as soon as we hit the beach and as Opeie galloped along the rocks with a huge smile on his face I found myself falling in love with him all over again. We were after soft wet sand though, so that we could give our dinosaur feet a good stomp but as we couldn't see past the rocks in the distance, the dino rider and his trusty steed inevitably ended up on my shoulders.

 We finally reached the wet sand and sat down to attach those gloriously painted Theropod feet. Opeie looked so pleased with himself and what he had created as we stamped our feet along the shore line splashing in the water and squelching our colourful toes in to the soft wet sand.

 Being a dinosaur is hard work! so after an hour of stamp, STAMP, STAMPING, We sat down for a bite to eat (there were no smaller dinosaurs about so its still the herbivore lifestyle for us). It was a little overcast but the beach was calm and peaceful (after the stomping had stopped anyway).

 Our homemade Dinosaur feet were everything we expected, as we sat on the beach Opeie said "Daddy, I'm having the best day today, I love you.", I could have cried. Being a dinosaur for the afternoon is AMAZING! but it will never beat that awesome feeling I get from being a dad.

"The path of sound credence is through the thick forest of skepticism."

I love getting out and about adventuring with the boys and we've found some pretty great hidden things to do in Shropshire. Ive recently started running again and last week while i was running through a woodland area I spotted a huge piece of tarpaulin that looked high up in the trees well off the footpath. My sense of intrigue quickly kicked in and I found myself climbing over branches and walking through wet mud to find out what was going on. When I arrived I wasn't disappointed and I knew that I had to show Opeie what I had stumbled across, the find was going to be perfect for some Home ed fun.

What I had found was what looked like a landslide that had unearthed a huge tree and the tree had fallen across the other side of a mini valley with the off shoot of a stream below. Above, someone had built large decking supported by the tree with a tarpaulin roof, pretty amazing. Below, further down the tree was what looked like a cliff tent hanging from the tree like a cocoon, so we're not sure if someone is living there. There was no one about when we arrived so me and my little side kick made the most of the very cool structure.

We had a great conversation about how the decking was being supported and then we started an afternoon of painting, home education at is best. At the start of the summer holiday, after Opeie had been making mini dinosaur footprints in his Play-Doh me and the boys had drawn dinosaur feet, cut them out of cardboard and my good friend Steve had very kindly cut them out of wood for us. We are planning on making dinosaur feet to attach to our shoes for stomping in the mud but first we needed to paint them and the towering structure in the woods was the perfect spot for creating.

I love painting with Opeie but sitting in silent woodland was really relaxing and really added to the experience. We talked about all sorts while we were using our creative flair. Its this sort of thing that really pushed us towards home education, Opeie not being confined to a classroom and instead, sitting outdoors with fresh air taking in the beautiful surroundings.

We spent a good couple of hours on the new woodland base and painted one side of our dinosaur feet. The plan is to visit again this week and paint the remaining side. Opeie had had his fill of painting and wanted to move on to something different...

... a game he simply called dinosaurs in the mud. We got to run around pretending to be different kinds of dinosaurs while Opeie told me lots of facts about his favourite topic at the moment. When we were both shattered and sweaty we lay on the leaf covered ground and played with his dinosaur toys and counted the flowers, awesome. 

All that was left to do after all our forest fun was head home to go and wash our hands. It pays to investigate, get out there! there may be all kinds of fun on your doorstep too.

“ Mind is the battery cell, Intelligence is the switch ”

When i first started writing the blog i would say yes to all manner of craft challenges from companies as we loved receiving packages of random craft items. As the years have gone by though the yes' got less and less, it's been a good 6 months since the last one so when we received an email to take part in the Energizer’s Re-imagination Challenge, I asked the boys what they thought and they jumped at the chance. Energizer has re-imagined the battery category with the world’s first battery made out of 4% recycled battery material and their aim is for the EcoAdvanced battery to be made from 40% recycled battery material by 2025, Which i think is amazing when you think of all the batteries that get thrown.

I explained the challenge to the boys and this weekend while Mrs M had a bit of quiet time after a busy week, me and the troops crept out into the garden with our wooden crate of random objects to upcycle. Our first plan was to use EVERYTHING to create one huge sculpture but as we chatted about it Seth said that he didn't feel like it was upcycling unless it was something we were going to use regularly. 

Seth took the brief as 'we're not allowed to use anything but the things in the box' and while i disappeared looking for a paintbrush for the boys to use with the acrylics, Seth used his initiative and used the scissors to chop up the sponges for him and Opeie to use. Seth's upcycling plan was to turn the CD'S in to coasters for the house using the Acrylic paints...

Me... I threw caution to the wind with Seth's 'we're not allowed to use anything but the things in the box' and got the electric sander out as i had my eye on the wooden crate that the delivery came in. We had been doing a little upcycling already over the last few weeks when i got hold of some pallets and decided to make some garden furniture (unfinished at the moment), but more importantly the boys dinosaur excavation pit. The upcycled dig site turned out great. Opeie keeps leaving his dinosaurs scattered about thogh so i thought the crate would be perfect for storing them in. I sanded it down and went looking for the left over paint so it matched the pit.

Opeie used his upcycling time to create an alien using sponges, paper plates and pipe cleaners, followed by a kite made from a scarf, an interesting use of the items sent to us.

It was clear from the look of concentration on Seth's face that he was really in to our afternoon activity and his upcycled coasters ended up looking amazing. Sitting outside in the sunshine creating is definitely one of my favourite things to do wit the boys, it's quality family time.

There is still plenty of items left for another craft session and we've already discussed the next transformation of the spirit decanter into a dark and creepy bottle of elixir for our Halloween celebration decorations so watch this space.

Who'd have thought it, all this fun from a pack of batteries and we didn't even have to use them to power anything up.

"There are two kinds of light - the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures."

It's been 6 months since we moved in to our new home and although we are completely settled now we didn't have a single light shade up in the house! Well until this week anyhow. You would think lampshades would be something that would get sorted as soon as we moved in but we didn't take any of the ones from the previous house and just hadn't spotted any that had taken out fancy.

It was starting to get to the point where it was annoying us so we went looking for some lighting accessories to cover the bulbs and perk the rooms up a little. Mrs M spotted some odd looking shades while we were out shopping one afternoon and although i couldn't stand the look of them I went along with it and we brought them to try (they were returned the following day, I don't know what she was thinking??).

I was hoping to find something quite simple that was very 'US' but nothing was getting my attention.

If you have been reading the blog for a while then you will be aware that I love recycling old books and I'm always picking up extra copies of the picture books we love for future craft ideas. As reading is such a big thing with our house we wanted to incorporate the stories and illustrators we love as much as we could in to our home. While we were out at Ikea last week we spotted some really simple shades that you velcro to a frame and we knew they would look great lined with pages from our favorite books. 

Oliver Jeffers has now dominated the two lights in our hall and the extra copies of 'The amazing book eating boy' and 'The great paper caper' I had found a while back worked out great because of the amazing illustrations and colours he uses. For the boys room it had to be Dr Seuss as the books are really important to me and we have had some great times together reading them. I asked Opeie which book he would like me to use and he asked for Green eggs and ham, great choice I thought.

We love the way they look so much that I think that these illustrations will be popping up throughout the house now in various ways and we still need to add shades to other rooms. Its amazing that some old books and some double sided sticky tape can transform a room this much. Adding these decorations to our home just shows even more the importance of books and the impact they have on us as a family.

 

"I hear the pitter patter of a dinosaur"

There will probably be a few short posts pop up over the next couple of days as Opeie has declared it 'Dinosaur week'. It seems that the new Jurassic World LEGO kits kick started something laying dormant that we thought was extinct. Then a great surprise delivery from Nintendo just got this week of dino appreciation started. 

To celebrate the release of Yoshi's Wooly world on Wii U, Nintendo have created these adorable knitted Amiibo's which started the conversation of 'what other Dinosaurs do you think Yoshi would be friends with?' Opeie informed me that as Triceratops (his favourite dinosaur) is a Herbivore, so they would be great friends as they wouldn't eat each other! So as the package came full of craft items also we decided to kick of 'Dinosaur week' with a Triceratops mask.

After creating our masks we had lunch while watching Walking with Dinosaurs on Netflix. I had to turn it off after one episode though when a dinosaur stuck its nose in another Dinosaurs nest and ate its baby. There was a genuine look of distress on Opeie's face, luckily there was a great selection of dinosaur themed shows so we replaced that bleak (but interesting) look at the prehistoric era with Jim Hensons 'Dinosaur Train' (much more appropriate for a four year old).

All that was left then of  'Dinosaur week' day 1, was to strap a Triceratops puppet to front of his Micro Scooter and head out on a Dino hunting adventure.

Note: While watching walking with Dinosaurs Opeie asked " where are they filming this? because we don't have dinosaurs in this country!!

Love that innocent little angel.

Yoshi's woolly world is out now and we can't wait to give it a play, until then though Roooooaaaarrrr!!!