"Just living is not enough... one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower."

The sun is out, the sky is blue (well at least it was on when I took the photos) and for us that means that the Micro Scooters are going to be hitting the streets. The scooters have always been a great distraction from any work we are doing at home and it's always fun to take our learning to the great outdoors, investigating an area or doing some sort of scavenger hunt. Today's hunt was to spot as many different flowers as we could, as we had downloaded a really interesting app called PlantNet where you can photograph plants and the app will tell you what you are looking at (Shazam for horticulture fans).

Considering we were only out scooting for an hour or so we managed to spot so many different varieties of flowers and it made for a really interesting Micro adventure.

"It will never rain roses: when we want to have more roses we must plant more trees."

This morning I told Opeie we were going to do a spot of gardening, he looked through the back door at the rain bouncing off the slabs and the grim look on his face said it all.

But today's gardening didn't include getting wet or cold. There was no need for wellies or gloves and no unforeseen weather was going to stop us in our tracks.

Today's gardening was going to be a virtual experience! 

When we were asked to review Gardening Mama: Forest Friends I thought it would be the perfect game for Opeie. Bright fun colours and a game with a sense of purpose. I've been desperately waiting for summer to arrive so we can add a bit of colour to our garden, Gardening Mama gives Opeie the sense of what needs to be done to tend to a pretty garden.

Gardening mama takes you through all the steps you need to have your garden in full bloom in no time, without relying on an equal ration of sunshine and rain. You get to pick the flowers, vegetables or fruit you want to plant in your patch and as you progresses through the game more seeds and bulbs become available to you. Gardening Mama isn't a 'chuck some seeds down - throw some water at it' kind of game. It's up to you to be sure that your plants aren't over watered or picked to early. If your garden is not tended to properly you will lose your crops.

I didn't think this game would interest Seth that much but thinking about it I should have known really, considering how much time he spends playing Tomodachi life while doing his physio, Seth loves a game with purpose and especially one where he can go back and expand with each play.

Gardening Mama Forest Friends isn't just tending to crops though, there are a great selection of fruit, vegetable and flower related mini games and tasks, which on completion help you to advance through the game , unlocking new crops. There are also lots of incoming messages from your animal friends asking you to complete tasks so that you can earn garden points to spend on new seeds and bulbs.

Your garden is fully customisable and there are a variety of accessories you can add to get your garden looking amazing as you progress. Fancy some playground equipment? Maybe a bench to relax on and look at what you've created? There are sculptures, water features and pergolas all at hand as you advance to help you to create your perfect garden.

 Although we are yet to use it you can also receive extras using the spot pass on your console.

I'll be interested to see how the boys interactive garden blossoms over the coming weeks. If interactive gardening isn't your thing be sure to check out Mama's other recent release, 3ds Cooking Mama: Bon Appétit!

"It's a genuine daisy! I've seen them quite often in fields growing wild. But never before on the head of a child. Now what in the world ever made this thing sprout? I have no idea. But I'm going to find out!"

Despite a couple of little accidents Opeie  seems to have got in to quite a good routine with his potty training. We've been pottering around the house for the last week and a half but after dropping Mrs M at work today (and knowing that Opeie had taken care of business a few times today) we headed over to the lake to feed the ducks. We hadn't been to feed the ducks for a few weeks and were concerned that warburtons may go in to liquidation though the lack of our bread buying. Opeie was really excited and was clutching his bag of bread like some crazy duck enthusiast.

Opeie got the ducks all riled up by hovering his bagels over the railings but not throwing any in. I wasn't sure what he was up to but when an army of ducks arrived i just put it down to the fact that he wanted a feathery free for all. He finally decided to share his bread with the ducks and then cackled as they started biting each other to get at their lunch like some evil overlord.

After feeding the ducks we had some time to kill before picking Seth up from school so we went for a trek around the lake. Opeie started pointing out "pretty flowers" so as we have been learning about colours today at home i used the nice selection to get him practising again which he seemed to find fun.

Our little game was going lovely until Opeie spotted a Dandelion to blow and then the rest of the walk back was taken up by Opeie picking every one he saw and blowing raspberries at them, very cute. Opeie loves flowers especially daisies after the first time we read Daisy-head Mayzie (great story by the way). Its nice to be out and about again, i think i will start venturing out further now he's in a bit of a routine (armed with our potty of course).

"Friday. The golden child of the weekdays. The superhero of the workweek."

 Finally the sun is back, it's been a pretty grim week weather wise and its really put a dampener on our plans. But Friday i wanted to make sure we spent our afternoon in the sun. Mrs M unfortunately had to work so I packed a huge bag of books and some snacks and we headed over to the abbey for a reading session (or the "ohhh.... Castle" as Opeie calls it). There was only one other family there so we pretty much had the place to ourselves. It was lovely and quiet so we found a spot and threw our blanket down. We read a few books and ate some fruit but Opeie was itching to be chased around.

After we had exhausted the abbey we jumped back in the car, rolled down the windows and headed towards Ironbridge as I wanted to get Mrs M some flowers for date night (Even though Opeie didn't go to bed till late and Mrs M dropped off soon after him, there's always next Friday i guess). Opeie helped me pick some 'pretty flowers' and some for Nanny Roo too as we had been reading about them in one of his books. We pottered around a couple if shops and then made our way to the park as Opeie was informing me that he wanted to go on the swing.

I needed to pop to a couple of shops after the park,before we picked Mrs M up from work but opeie had other ideas and fell asleep , which left me sitting in a car park taking in the view of the back of a Renault Clio, beautiful. I'm really Hoping the Met office is right and we have a few days of this so we can get out and about.Opeie was full of beans once he woke up so it was straight in to the garden when we got home. A pretty perfect afternoon.

"A happy family is but an earlier heaven."

Ive been writing the blog for over a year now, it's a dadblog so obviously its filled with the stories about the boys and Mrs M, but its easy to leave out the family that we don't see all the time, the ones that always make the effort to keep us a close knit family. Today we had a delivery from a florist which was a lovely surprise and inside a card saying simply 'thanks for listening and your kindness'.

The flowers were from nanny Roo, Mrs M's mom a lovely lady who is as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside. I feel so lucky to have her as part of my life and the boys adore her. Ruth is the closest thing i have to a mom and she has welcomed me into their family with open arms. I'll always remember the first thing she ever said to me, "thanks for looking after our little girl!" it really was nice to be appreciated by such a kind and caring person.

Nanny Roo has been through and is still going through a pretty rough time at the moment but despite this she has been a tower of strength (i can honestly say in the same situation i would have probably crumbled). Its nice to see a family all coming together in times of need as unfortunately i don't have that on my side of the family. Sad really but i guess I'm just used to it by now it one of the many reason why i have really embraced this relationship with Mrs M's parents.

 I love it when Ruth rings the house and it's me that picks up, I'm not sure Mrs M likes it though as we can be be on the phone chatting for quite some time and she's always desperate to get in on the action.

me and Seth have been making something special for Nanny Roo for Christmas which now it is finished were both very happy with it. Unfortunately because Nanny Roo is one of our regular readers i cant let you guys in on what it is but be sure to check again after Christmas to find out what I have been helping Seth with.

Thank you for the flowers Ruth and if you don't know already we all love you very much, as for the listening, we will always be here for you whenever you need us xxx