"There's excitement in the air!"

We have been to some awesome LEGO events over the last few years and each one that we have attended has left us with huge smiles on our faces. When you love a product like this as much as we do then you can imagine the excitement of feeling like a VIP at these brick related soirees. Despite all of the previous events being amazing, there was something extra special about our recent invite. It's not every day we get invited to a LEGO store opening and if that wasn't exciting enough, also the biggest LEGO store in the world.  The countdown to this amazing day, for me, was more exciting than the build up to Christmas.

 

 Opeie and I traveled to London in a bit of a giddy mood, We were looking forward to visiting some great museums in London but the main event was definitely what was keeping the Cheshire cat grins on our faces. Opeie had come up with a great idea a couple of days before our trip to make LEGO name badges for the event so that people knew who we were, So we had some fun on the build up.

 

After pottering around the Museum of Natural History for a couple of hours we headed towards Leicester Square. It was exciting to see the escalators at the tube stations advertising the new store and the excitement almost tipped us over the edge. We were definitely ready for some LEGO action. The store location really couldn't get any better, we could see the bright yellow store covering that was up for the official store opening that following afternoon from quite some distance and the surrounding area of Leicester square was buzzing with street entertainment and people enjoying the sights.

 

Being able to see the store before it was opening was really special for Opeie and he loved that we had to enter behind the huge LEGO covering hanging over the store, he said he felt like we were important, which I loved. The store is AMAZING and we were greeted by the happiest group of people, who were clearly loving being there. There were loads of LEGO staff around waving at Opeie and coming over to talk to us, it was a really amazing experience.

 

 

The Leicester Square flagship store seems to have every LEGO kit available at the moment and they were also offering the chance to buy the new Architecture kit the day before it was officially released. This was made even better by the fact that the creators were in store that evening and we got to chat to them for a while and they showed Opeie how Big Ben worked. The guy that created the enormous Big Ben in the front window was also in store and we got to chat to him about building on a bigger scale which was really interesting.

 

 

What I loved most about this bright colourful store was that everywhere you turn there is somewhere amazing to take a photograph. With Big Ben, a Tube carriage, Phone box , Lester (the store mascot) and the feature wall, it is like one huge eye-catching backdrop. Aside from the amazing Staff and people to talk to, the thing that stole the show for us was the Mosaic Maker. On arrival we had both been given a scratch card to win a prize. Opeie had scratched off a LEGO mosaic and I had no idea what it was. While we were chatting to our friend Sophia she filled us in and was really excited for us. The Mosaic Maker is the first of its kind, a photo booth that takes your picture, turns the image into a LEGO guide for a Mosaic and then prints out the large image along with the bricks to build it. We couldn't have asked for a better souvenir for our visit to the most exciting store in London. 

The whole experience had me and Opeie excited and chatting all the way back to the hotel that night and the following morning Opeie couldn't wait to look at his new (very special) LEGO kit. There is something so magical about those amazing bricks and they have been the reason for countless hours of bonding with the boys. Our visit to the Leicester Square store reinforced even more why LEGO is such a huge part of our lives

"A work of art is above all an adventure of the mind."

I can't believe it's taken me this long to get round to writing about the second day of our London trip two weeks ago. Our visit to the Roald Dahl museum mixed with the long drive and followed by a late night had a huge effect on the following day we had planned scooting around London. It didn't however, stop us from getting the Micro Scooters out and heading out to try and make the most of the day we had there. It took a tired Opeie a little longer to fully kick into gear but by the time we had reached the train station to head to our first destination he was back on scooting form.

A friend of ours who we stay with when visiting London works at the Tate and on the evening we arrived she was telling us all about The Tanks, the latest addition to the Tate Modern. I love taking Opeie to art galleries as I find it really interesting to hear what he sees in what he is looking at. Because of its size, The Tate Modern has always been one of our favourite galleries to visit so because our train stopped at Blackfriars we made it our first stop.

The thing that had really stuck out for me when our friend was telling us about the gallery was the viewing level. 10 floors up and with a beautiful view over London, it was the perfect spot for Opeie to sit down and sketch the London Skyline high above the Thames. At first, he was adamant that 'I can't draw that' but as we broke what we could see down into various shapes and concentrated on that, his drawing soon started to come together and he really got into the activity.

Inside the gallery was all kinds of weird and wonderful things which really got Opeie thinking and us both talking about what we could see. I love how a child's mind works, In one piece he spotted what he thought was a potato which then had him seeing all sorts of food in each piece that we saw.

This side of the gallery is definitely more interactive than the original part of the Tate and although Opeie loves that one there was more here for Opeie and he clearly felt a lot more connected to what he was seeing when he was able to walk through and over some of the pieces and even lie down inside one of them too. With homeschooling (especially at this age) anything that gets you thinking, starts conversation and encourages questions is doing your job for you. We chatted the whole way round and it was lovely to hear his excited little voice explaining what was going on around him.

We were walking around for 2 1/2 hours before the inevitable 'Dad I'm hungry'. Opeie knew exactly where he wanted to eat his lunch so we jumped back on the scooters and headed over to the south bank as he wanted to watch the skateboarders. It's handy to know that if you are Scooting around London and are planning on visiting the Tate, they have a free cloakroom where you can leave your scooters while you take in the art.

Sadly that previous late night and long journey had finally caught up with Opeie and that was it for our scooting around London (until next time). We spent the rest of the afternoon reading and playing before heading home to our own beds. I do love visiting London but as Opeie always says "I love going home more".

"It is not the ship so much as the skillful sailing that assures the prosperous voyage."

Part 2 of our London trip, because clearly the Gruffalo took full control of that last post. After finally getting into London and getting over the initial 'what the !@%£ is with all this traffic', we made our way to our friend's house and it was clear that like myself, Opeie didn't have any energy to do much else that evening, so we took it easy. Visiting Sam and Jamie is amazing, they are such lovely people and when we visit, it is like having a couple of fantastic tour guides on hand. We spent the evening discussing where we should go and narrowed our day down to the Horniman museum, because we only spent 30 minutes there on our last visit, Greenwich Observatory and Richmond park. We had the Micro Scooters loaded into the boot ready for action and we set off early to make the most of the day.

When we arrived at the museum it was closed for another half an hour so we made the most of the beautiful surrounding gardens and whizzed around on the scooters. The smooth winding path around the grass areas was great for picking up some speed and we could have happily scooted there all day.

When we entered the museum I looked to see if the lockers were scooter friendly but they were tiny so I carried mine while Opeie casually scooted around. Thankfully no one asked him to get off of it so we were left to our own devices. The Horniman museum is a great resource for our home education adventures and it is great for Opeie to see animals that he's never heard of even if seeing them like that is a little eerie. Opeie thought that the wall of dog heads was "really cute" until he realised they were real heads and he moved us along quickly with disgusted look on his face.

On the way out Opeie picked up a new fashion accessory which he ended up rocking for the remainder of the day. Even as a bug he is still absolutely adorable!

After the Horniman museum, we scooted back to the car and then made our way over towards Greenwich observatory. The weather was lovely and we were both itching to get back on the scooters as soon as we saw the winding paths running from the top of the hill. We've scooted so many amazing places over the years but this had definitely been one of my favourites, we were scooting so fast. The great view and huge grassy area gave us the chance to stop off and have some lunch, lightening the load in my backpack, phew!

We hadn't planned on going to the Maritime museum and I had no idea that it was even there but as soon as Opeie spotted that giant ship in a bottle as we scooted by, it jumped straight to the top of our to-do list. They have a huge manned cloakroom there which meant I got a break from carrying the scooters round which was a relief.

I love nautical themed things especially art work and the Maritime museum was great for taking photos to document our visit. Everywhere you look there is something interesting to learn about (and then use as a backdrop in your pictures). We both loved the ships figureheads mounted on the wall and Opeie managed a cheeky face swap to send Mommy at work (I'm trying to start this as an ongoing game, but I'm yet to receive anything in return... spoil sport!).

When we first arrived at the museum I wasn't sure if there would be anything for Opeie's age group but there is so much for younger children to do and we both had a great time. Opeie got to sail a virtual ship, unload and reload cargo, see what it was like to live on a ship and there was drawing and colouring that he could proudly display. We had so much fun that we ended up losing track of time and had to rush back to the car because of the parking being up.

(Oops, there I go again! come on Mrs. M join in!)

Inevitably, the morning/afternoon of scooting and visiting museums was too much for my little side kick and he had clearly reached his peak when we got back to the car. It was time to head back to our friends house for a relaxing evening with good food and great company (and an early night for us both). Another amazing scooting adventure in London.