Your friendly neighbourhood... fairground vendor?

Over the summer holiday we didn't venture out anywhere near as much as usual and ended up spending a lot more time at home and surprisingly I absolutely loved it. During term time we're all over the place, adventuring and visiting interesting places but as soon as the holidays arrive we tend to shy away and keep ourselves to ourselves, It seems to be common practice among many home edders. The erratic weather helped with the 'parent guilt' of not doing much but I think Opeie  got as much out of the rest as I did. Because of the hermit like behaviour our weeks ended up being heavy on the LEGO building and we were been busy creating all sorts. The building of Opeie's upside frown made him realise again that a little time and effort with the building goes a long way.

So after that was finished we were having a discussion one evening about where to go next with those magical bricks. I asked him if there were any other of the larger kits that he liked the look of for a bit of inspiration. We had a little mooch through the LEGO site and Opeie decided that he really liked the look of the Ferris wheel but had a much more 'Opeie fitting' theme to base the build around.

So the following afternoon we went on a piece finding binge In hope that we had the parts for the main structure before we started putting our own spin on it. Aside from a few technics parts and some pieces for the main wheel that we had nowhere near the quantity needed, we were pretty much good to go. As expected Opeie had no interest in the start of the build, as building the main body is "Boring", he's all about the cosmetic flair. So I got a chunk of the 'boring part' out of the way while he was in bed over the first couple of nights and got the build to a point where I knew he would be excited.

While I carried on with building the main posts and the big wheel Opeie got to work on the kiosks and as you can see, the 'Opeie fitting theme' was of course Spider-man (which is why I was so excited from the get go). A Spider-man themed Ferris wheel got us talking about all sorts of creative ideas to follow up this build and the the more parts we connected the more the ideas were flowing. I could never get bored of the great ideas that Opeie comes up with, his imagination is amazing.

In no time at all we had the main structure completed, the base of the wheel filled with Spider-man themed things and we were left with the part of the build that Opeie was most excited about. We had decided early on that the twelve Ferris wheel carriages were each going to based around a different character with colour schemes matching their costumes or personalities. This part was really fun because the carts themselves were pretty basic to make and we didn't want them to be too heavy and affect the way they moved, so we had to be creative with the parts etc. My favourite was definitely J. Jonah. Jameson's carriage with his Daily Bugle desk in and Opeie's was Sandman's bumpy looking sand carriage.

Unlike other things that we have built recently there was the added satisfaction of adding the power functions in to make the wheel spin. The fact that Opeie could have it remote control made the whole thing more exciting, and there was nothing quite like the look of pure happiness on Opeie's face being the first to push the button and watch our creation spin.

"Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick."

As much as I adore LEGO, I wasn't 100% sold on the Brickheadz range when they first came out. They seemed too static and lack playability which really put me off. That was though until a couple of days back when Opeie decided that he wanted to spend some of his birthday money on the new Brickheadz Go brick me kit. He got home tore open the box, had a quick flick through the instructions and built himself and his doting dad. The instruction book is awesome, giving you all sorts of plans for various facial features and accessories. I was blown away with the characters that he built and I think he really did us both justice.

Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/steve_jobs_416858?src=t_brickres and accessories. I was absolutely blown away by what he built and I think he really did us both justice.

Opeie's creations have completely changed my view on these fun builds and I'm now hooked. we've ordered the parts we need to build lots more so watch this space.

"You’ve got to take life and ride it till the wheels fall off"

Seth has had the BMX buzz back over this easter holiday. After finding a dumped bike at the start of the holiday and spending an afternoon taking it apart and cleaning up the usable parts, I sold some unwanted things to fund new parts and the excitement of the new project was all the motivation Seth needed to continue our original project that we started last year. Seth has been doing odd jobs around the house and even wrote me a blog post a couple of weeks ago to make some extra cash for his creative ventures. This week all the new red parts came for the dumped BMX and Seth ordered a seat, brakes and calipers for his own bike that he has been building himself.

Having these projects on the go has been great and we've sat in the garden chatting and having fun while he learns his way around his new bike.

On Friday when he got home his new seat was waiting for him and he couldn't wait to get it on so that he could give his new wheels a test ride. The bike looks so nice but what really did it for me was the huge proud smile on his face knowing that he has built that bike himself. All we need now are the brakes which should be here very soon, then he's good to go.

Hi! its Seth, This bike has turned out great, I feel so proud of myself. I am looking forward to a cycle with Pauly. This was really fun!!!!!

As for our found BMX... Well, Seth put that together too and it looks amazing. We had a slight issue with the chain which neither of us could work out, but after a good night sleep we had another look in the morning and worked it out together, real team work. The boys informed me that day that the new 'Spider-man bike' as we have named it is for me as the boys want me to go on some Goonies style adventures with them. Don't mind if I do!

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I love being a dad!!!

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."

All last week Seth had been watching videos on YouTube of how to make DIY hockey goalie pads. We are forever looking on eBay for some because in this country they are a nightmare to get hold of and when they do pop up they are really expensive. With Seth's recent video viewing, it was inevitable that this weekend he would be wanting me to make some. So after talking to a friend in the library early in the week, I was told about 'Scrappies' a shop in Church Stratton that sells bits and bobs for craft ideas. I was hooked by the thought of a shop dedicated to that so as soon as I got home that day I checked out their website. Their website header says 'supporting creative arts and children's education'. That sold it for me.

The following day after a fun (but freezing) afternoon at Stiperstones we decided to detour home slightly to check out Scrappies in hope that we'd find the things that we would need for Seth's pads. I needed foam and something strong and water resistant to wrap the pads in. The store was a lot smaller than I was expecting but it was packed full of all sorts of random things and the staff in there were so friendly. I quickly found some large pieces of foam and a roll of yellow plastic that looked like the kind of material gym mats are covered with so that was perfect. I also had a yoga mat in the loft that I had brought home from a Netflix event a while back so apart from Duck tape (which I picked up on the way home) I had everything I needed for Seth's big hockey idea.

I had an idea of what I wanted to do and like most of our creative ventures I tried not to over think it and just get stuck in. So we cut the foam and the yoga mat to the correct shape for Seth's legs and glue gunned the layers together. The plan was to stitch the yellow plastic material around the foam but it wasn't doable with Mrs M's sewing machine so we had to improvise. Mrs M had a large can of spray adhesive for carpets so I took the foam and material out side and I wrapped the pads. For extra support, I used the yellow duck tape to seal the edges. I was so excited when I saw the yellow material in 'Scrappies' as our team, when we are playing hockey in the street is 'The Bees'. So with some black Duck tape, we also gave our bright yellow pads some black bee stripes and they looked great. I also took Seth's plain white hockey mask and with the yellow and black Duck tape and a stanley knife, gave it a makeover, fit for any hockey playing bee.

The part that was concerning me from the start, was how we were going to attach them to Seth's legs. Seth set about rummaging through the house looking for anything strap like that we could use, but there was no joy. So we jumped in the car and headed to Hobbycraft and found some thick black elastic to use. I still had no idea how we were going to attach it though. As we were walking back through the door though it came to me. We cut 4 slits in the pads and threaded the elastic through the front and then tied them around his legs, job done! I will get round to adding clasps on the back at some point but for now they are awesome.

All that was left to do was play and the boys were loving their new pads. Seth was blocking most of my shots which meant he was brimming with confidence, talking about wanting to become a professional hockey goalie. The goals that the boys are using were also made by us, we used heavy duty Wilkinsons bags with bees on to hold the netting to the pipes, we're very resourceful.

The pads were a touch too big for Opeie's little legs (even though I think they look great on him), so as there were some leftover materials I made him a smaller pair. He wanted his Bee pads to say 'HONEY' though, these boys of mine are too cute!

Seth has now asked if I can make a blocker and catcher! A hockey dads job is never done.

Game On!

"There has been an awakening. Have you felt it?"

Lego building with the boys is my favourite indoor play activity. Every building session is completely different from the last and the versatility of those amazing bricks is why for me LEGO will always be the number one toy brand. Although I adore those building sessions we have together they can also be very demanding. The boys have so many ideas of what they would like to create next that we have had to create a queue system and while I'm working on something big for Opeie at the moment, Seth is patiently waiting for the build to be complete so that I can concentrate on something big that he has in mind.

Custom building demands a certain amount of creativity and when you have a 5-year-old architect who knows exactly what he wants, that creativity can be magnified on a huge scale. Because of this, I love having a sneaky little kit to build by myself. I do occasionally feel guilty about doing this but there's never a shortage of building sessions for the boys and building the odd kit alone is really quite therapeutic. 

It's nice to build some kits myself because seeing how the designers at LEGO have recreated something triggers all sorts of building motivation for the things that I am creating with the boys. As I slowly crept out the back door a few nights back clutching the Resistance X-wing fighter I could hear nothing but the birds tweeting and it was lush. When I first opened the kit it reminded me of a building session a few years back when Seth had asked me to make an X-wing and he said I wasn't allowed to Google X-wing to get a picture up (just to make it a little more difficult). Luckily at the time, there was a fisher price X-wing on top of their bookcase and I just had a cheeky look at that, It didn't turn out too bad.

This X-wing though was sleek and an absolute gem of a build. I was eager to see how LEGO had replicated the shape of the nose of the ship so perfectly and I wasn't disappointed. This is a great well thought out build and beautifully designed. The parts they have used to shape the ship will definitely come in handy with ideas for my own builds and this is one of the things I love about Lego the most. Not only is it fun to build the kit but with each build comes endless LEGO learning. I am a little confused as to why LEGO had included the transparent pink bricks in the middle of the build, as you can't see them when they are built? If you are reading this and know why? let me know as I'm really interested. You can learn so much from the LEGO kits and without them I probably wouldn't have so many of the techniques I use all the time and these are things that have been passed on to Seth and Opeie to use in the future things they are creating. It was so relaxing building this myself and the only time I felt a little guilty was when I put the Minifigures together as that's Opeie's favourite part of the kit.

There's something about flying vehicles that makes me not want to break them up after building and we have a huge box of built ships including Quinjet's, the Milano and the X-jet, I'm thinking they all need to be suspended from the boys bedroom ceiling at some point. The Resistance X-wing is just one of the great kits from the new range based on the force awakens. I'd definitely love to get my hands on the Millenium falcon and Seth loves the look of Kylo Ren's command shuttle. If it is big impressive ships you want, then the Star Wars range is definitely what you are looking for *Waves hands suggestively, using the force*. 

“Riding bicycles will not only benefit the individual doing it, but the world at large.”

I am loving this bike building with Seth at the moment, the pedals we ordered arrived yesterday and the look on his face when he opened the package was priceless. Seeing the boys get excited about things they are creating is really moreish. His new bike (for when he's that little bit taller) is really starting to come together now and it's making me want to build one for myself.

Since starting the build Seth mentioned that he would love his own tools for tinkering with his bike so he was really chuffed when we received a package from Rex London after being included in their 12 dynamite daddy blogs. that included a bike multi-tool and a puncture repair kit. It is always lovely to hear what people have to say about the blog and I'm touched to come in their top 12. Thanks to the great package all Seth needs now is his own mini tool box.

Again Seth did a great job of attaching the pedals himself and they look great. We've also now ordered brake pads and some skyway handlebar grip's to go with his swanky wheels. All that's left on Seth's BMX list is brake levers, calipers and a saddle and then we can concentrate on designing decals, which I think he is excited about the most.

We had talked about replacing the brake cables with something a little more colourful, but then Seth came up with the idea of making use of the remaining patterned duck tape from our Pedalflow. While he played with his friends outside a few days ago I sat in the garden and wrapped his cables, it was a really nice touch and a great idea by Seth.

This bike is all Seth and I'm really proud of how interested he has been during this build so far. It's important to have hobbies and as I've said many times before it's great to have a couple of projects on the go with your kids. These are experiences that they will remember forever.

"The secret of life? Just enjoy the ride."

The weather in Shropshire this week has been all over the place, with strong winds, torrential rain, hail, snow, and the occasional bright sunshine breaking through. We've not really known what to do with ourselves. Today was one of those days, so... me and Seth decided to continue building our bike. 

After some good behaviour and him clearing out some unwanted toys to make some money for parts, myself and Mrs. M decided to put the rest towards the wheels he had his eye on and surprised him with them. So that afternoon we put some sheets down in his room and started to assemble the bike with the parts that we had.

Seth attached the wheels and we put the crank back after taking it all apart to clean up. It's great doing this kind of thing with Seth as he asks lots of questions about what the use is for each part. He is clearly getting a lot out of building his bike from scratch and I'm really loving the father/son bonding. I do a lot with Opeie throughout the week so this has become mine and Seth's special thing.

After sorting the crank out, Seth fitted his stripy chain that he had sat and made himself and he was looking pretty pleased with what he had achieved. I loved doing things like this when I was younger and having that pride in what you are doing is really important. The plan was to use the 2 left over pedals from the custom Pedalflow job I had recently done but it didn't cross my mind to check the thread size on the pedals and they were, unfortunately, the wrong size. Seth was a little disappointed (I've ordered some more though so he will have those this weekend to tinker with, shhh!).

 
Seth's BMX is really starting to come together which is great but more importantly Seth is really getting to know the ins and outs of his bike and how everything works which if you really enjoy riding, is a great thing to know.

"It takes half your life before you discover life is a do-it-yourself project."

After opening my presents one Christmas as a child (I think I was around 8) I was lead into the kitchen where there was a shiny new blue BMX waiting for me and it looked glorious. It was the 80's so it came with those foam padded frame pads, which to me at the time were cutting edge. After I had added some spokey dokeys and some Cornelius the rooster-shaped reflectors from the Kelloggs cornflakes it was well on its way to becoming a traffic stopper.

I never really grew out of owning a BMX and although I never chose to aim towards becoming a pro biker, as an adult I went on some pretty awesome (mainly alcohol fuelled) adventures all over the place with friends. Not being a driver at the time, my BMX served as a way of getting me all over, as well as to and from work. Tinkering was always a big thing for me with bikes, I loved to buy a bike, take it apart, pick a colour scheme and completely glam it up, much like my recent scooter customizing.

The boys have really picked up on this and are always so interested In the things that kept me entertained growing up. Taking apart a bike and rebuilding it has always been of real interest to Seth and he loves listening to me talking about the fun I used to have. I love how the boys seem to want to relive my own childhood and I get a huge kick out of introducing them to these things too. At the end of the summer last year, I was putting Seth to bed one evening and we were chatting about this and that as we do every night. We got back onto the BMX conversation and I mentioned that if he could clear his room of all the things he no longer played with, we could make some cash to start our own build for when he grows out of his current BMX.

As excited as he was at that idea, the weather inevitably started to get grim, his own bike seemed to get asked for less and less and then the subject wasn't brought up again until recently. Seth has now started clearing his room of untouched toys and games (which saves me the job) and after selling a couple of games last week I went mooching on eBay and spotted a great looking GT BMX for sale and managed to win it for the starting price as it finished one afternoon midweek.

So our planned summer build has now started early and the boys have been busy helping me to take the bike apart and move the unwanted decals etc. Opeie has been a great help with cleaning the frame and as always is loving being one of the lads...

And Seth has been learning how to use a Rivet extractor to combine different coloured chains. He has also been researching various parts online and has got his eye on a nice set of Skyway mag wheels so is desperately on the hunt for ways to make some money to fund that, which is also great as it is teaching him the value of things and what he needs to do to reach his targets.

 

I think it is really important to have a project or two on the go with your children. This is going to be great for some quality father/son time and I'm really looking forward to that proud look that they will have on their faces when they see what we can achieve together. Watch this space.

Why fit in when you were born to stand out (part 2)

I'm not in the habit of reusing quotes for post titles but as I'm writing about the same product I was before and it seems far more fitting to this post I thought what the hell!

It's no secret that I am an ENORMOUS Micro-scooter enthusiast and if you have been reading the blog for a while then you'll have been following our Micro adventure and be fully aware of the amazing impact the scooters have had on us as a family. The Pedal flow has been taking up most of my scooting time since Christmas and although it is a really fun and interesting scooter it was missing something really important, a splash of colour. The Pedalflow may be aimed at us adults but I find the colour schemes and prints of the children's scooters far more appealing (it must be my playful side).

The pedal flow as it is, is a real head turner and I've been stopped many times out and about because it seems people want to know 'what it is!'. It definitely needed a bit of extra pizazz though so I started looking in to what parts I could change easily on the scooter and after talking it over with the style council about colour schemes, a decision for pink and green was unanimous.

If you are looking to spruce up your pedal flow it's handy to know that the handlebar grips can be replaced with any standard size bike/scooter grips. Micro-scooters have an amazing selection of coloured grips to choose from. Unfortunately the two colours I need we're at that point out of stock. When changing the pedals, any 9/16" thread pedals will fit so I went hunting for some to fit our colour scheme. 

Our plan was to put a snazzy pink chain on the Pedalflow but when I noticed a seller online selling both pink and green chains I couldn't resist buying both, along with a rivet extractor to make the chain stripey (I think it made all the difference to the overall look). I couldn't not have coloured dice for the valve caps to finish it off, all my bmx's had them as a kid.

The scooter looked a lot more fancy but I really wanted to do something about all of that white. I did a bit of research online and a friend of mine told me about Hydro dipping. If you've not heard about it, I'd definitely recommend watching a video on YouTube, it's fascinating. I really wanted leopard print covering the frame but after requesting a quote from a local company, that came back at £200, I ruled out hydro dipping straight away.

We drove past hobby craft a few days back, which got me thinking about découpage and whether there was any way that I could somehow apply it to the scooter. Then I had a eureka! Moment and remembered working with Duck tape on the blog some time ago and thought yeah that could work. So after parting with probably the best £6 I have spent in a long time, yesterday while Opeie played with his friends, I sat in the sun and began wrapping the frame.

The curves were a bit of a pain to get around but after a couple of hours wrapping, some skillful cuts with my trusty x-acto knife and a little help from my awesome neighbour, the Pedalflow diva deluxe was ready to be put back together. Today was the perfect day for its first public appearance and as I pedalled away from the car after arriving at Ironbridge, Mrs M said 'that man just stared at you open mouthed as you rode by!'. I'm still not sure if he was solely taking in the awesomeness of the scooter or whether it was more the fact that attached to that sexy set of wheels was a built, bearded man. Either way it was exactly the first response I was expecting for my new glamorous wheels.

As Dr. Seuss so rightfully put it, "why fit in, when you were born to stand out"