"My theory in anything you do is to keep exploring, keep digging deeper to find new stuff."

A month or so back i was looking for ideas for garden furniture as we've not really done a lot with ours since moving in back in December. We really needed somewhere to sit out there and i didn't really want to spend a lot. I ended up on Youtube and came across lots of videos on how to make garden furniture using pallets. Its important to know that although i can create all sorts using the medium of LEGO, when it comes to DIY, woodwork or the use of power tools I'm pretty useless. Despite this I politely asked a couple of friends if they could get hold of some pallets for me so i could attempt some garden chairs.

Sadly there wont be any pictures of the chairs in this post as although they are built and sanded, they are yet to be painted and covered, stay tuned though. This novice building in the back garden left a great heap of scrap wood which was sitting in the corner of the garden waiting to be shipped off to the recycling centre. As we were leaving West Midlands Safari Park a couple of weeks ago, Seth said "I really enjoyed the Dino Dig, could you make us one with the wood in the back garden please?".

 Well I've never been one to pass up a challenge and I try to embrace every idea that the boys come up with as much as I can so last week we set Seth's big idea in to motion. We pulled all the wood apart and Seth this time round was more than just a foreman, he got his hands dirty and was loving bashing the nails in. we made a large square box and painted it bright green, lined it with dark green tarpaulin and then cut out some spikes for a stegosaurus effect (nice idea by the boys and was a great touch).

 Not at all bad considering all we did was recycle some scrap wood from the garden. I'm yet to put legs on our 'Dinosaur excavation pit' but the boys couldn't wait to fill it up with sand and start their new career in paleontology. The boys had a selection on dinosaurs to start with and thanks to our friend Chris giving the boys a great Fossil that also added to the fun. 

A few days back i found some small toy dinosaur skeletons online so I got those for the boys and hid them in the pit for when they were playing a couple of days ago. It was lovely seeing their surprised faces when they uncovered the new skeletons and they loved carefully brushing off the remains and preparing them for their imaginary museum. I'm going to be making molds of bones next after me and Opeie watched a documentary about archaeology.

The small dinosaur skeletons are great for a bit of fun but i wanted something a little more interesting for the boys so I've ordered a 1/6 Scale resin dinosaur skull for them to unearth, if it as interesting as i am hoping then i think there is going to be lots of fun and fascinating things being unearthed in this new found interesting geological area.

"Oh i do like to be beside the seaside..."

Health wise its been a pretty bleak Easter holiday for us at Gifts from the Pirates, Seth kick started the holiday off with Tonsilitis, Both Myself and Mrs M had Bronchitis and then Opeie joined the Lurgy club with a bout of Chickenpox (or Chicken spots as he liked to call it). We managed to get out and do some things but there was a fair bit of time at home relaxing and trying to get back to health.

Today was the last day of the Easter holiday and that's really quite a depressing thought. We love having Seth off and now that Opeie is at Nursery too the holidays are even more important. yesterday we had planned to go to Legoland but the Metoffice informed us that there was going to be heavy rain in Windsor so we decided against the 3 hour drive just in case it was right. The boys had been talking all week about going to the beach so we checked the weather for Barmouth and surprisingly it said sunny and dry so we packed the car and headed out for some sun,sea and sand. 

about an hour in to the journey the sky turned grey and everything started to look a little grim, had we made a bad decision? Mrs M checked the Metoffice again, 30% chance of rain, She then decided to check Windsor again, dry and sunshine! yep that about sums us up. we ventured forth though adamant that there was fun to be had at the beach.

We stopped off at the supermarket just before hitting the beach because we were ill equipped for a picnic, changing our plans when we woke up threw a spanner in the works so by the time we arrived we were all hungry, it was cold and windy outside so we had a very cramped car picnic, needless to say the car is now in dire need of cleaning out. The boys couldn't wait to get their coats on and grab their nets, buckets and spades. Despite the cold and gloomy weather fishing in the rockpools and hunting for shells was loads of fun. The boys were really excitable which was great and they ran around on the sand with big smiles.

Mrs M donned her shades and wooley hat and although she doesnt like the cold at all she was relishing her time with us. The sunshine desperately tried to stay out and when it did show its face it warmed up nicely but the whole time we were playing on the beach we could see the rain heading our way. After splashing in rock pools, digging a trench and looking for crabs we headed back to the car to venture to the other end of the island. Opeie decided that this was a perfect opportunity to have a sleep and as Mrs M was feeling shattered too so she stayed in the car for a bit while me and Seth went searching for adventure.

The weather was taking a turn for the worse and we knew we wouldnt have long before the rain came thrashing down. Seth decided he wanted to do the thing he loves doing most at the beach and that was dig a nice deep hole...

...and of course, climb inside it!

As expected though the sky turned grey and the light showers turned into a heavy downpour so we headed back to the car, with Seth though there is no such thing as heading straight for your destination so on the way back we had to climb up some pretty high sand dunes and then throw ourselves down them.

 It was a pretty amazing afternoon at the beach and although id have loved a visit to Legoland I'm glad we ended up where we did. Its so nice to have us all back to (almost) full health, its just a shame that it happened towards the end of the holiday.  Time to count down to half term now.