"A Pirates life for me..."

If you are a regular reader you will be fully aware of how much of an impact a certain brick has on my relationship with the boys. I've been in complete awe of Lego for so many years. This is a company that shaped a huge chunk of my development and is now doing the same thing for those two very special boys of mine. The last few years though have been the most exciting, being able to blog for Lego is obviously like a dream come true and being able to share what I know and the passion I have for LEGO with the boys and help to unlock their imagination is truly amazing too. Aside from those things, one of the huge reasons for this excitement is the vast variety throughout all of LEGO's awesome themes. There really does seem like there is no end to what this unstoppable company has to offer. Lego's own creations like Mixels, elves and Nexo knights etc are keeping kids everywhere (and us older geeky builders) entertained and well stocked with new parts and ideas, and new TV and Movie themed kits seem to be popping up all the time, which personally I cannot get enough of. Who would have ever though that the Ghosbusters would get a firehouse headquarters! (I can't stop pining over this kit haha).

With the new angry birds movie hitting the cinemas I was not at all surprised that LEGO would be in on the action and when I first saw the kits online I knew I needed a closer look at these interesting Angry Birds kits and bizarre Minifigures. Like me, the boys love anything LEGO so Opeie was really excited to see the Piggy Pirate Ship in his room waiting to be built. We've got to that point now where Opeie is really independent and wants to build on his own, which although, selfishly is a little disappointing for me because I love to be involved, is great for Opeie's development. Learning how to follow plans confidently at his age is a great skill to have.

The Piggy pirate ship is one of the larger kits from the range so I knew that Opeie would need a tiny bit of daddy help but he got stuck in and surprisingly built the entire kit pretty quick. I'm always on the look out for interesting parts when these new themes and kits come out and I watched eagerly as Opeie excitedly connected each brick.

The finished ship looked great and the fact that the oars and paddle wheel move when pushed really added to the play fun. The only downside to the kit for us was the Minifigures, as they are single piece figures (apart from hats). Opeie's favourite part of building a LEGO kit is putting the Minifigures together so I think he was a little disappointed with that missing. That didn't stop his imagination and creativity kicking in though and he knew exactly what he wanted to do with the ship as soon as we had completed it.

Our LEGO building recently has been all about the trains and with the release of the Disney Minifigure range (which are fantastic), Opeie requested that we build a stitch themed train. They have had track running around their room for the last few weeks so I wasn't at all surprised that the Piggy pirate ship recieved an upgrade of train wheels to the base. Thats what I love about LEGO, where kids often lose interest in many toys when it comes to LEGO every build and creation can be transformed in to something new with only a few extra parts.

 We didnt move from this spot for a huge chunk of the afternoon, with the pigs and birds sailing the plastic rails being chased by Disney's finest. The catapult included in the kit was great for blowing the trains off of the tracks and with swords and shields at the ready there was tons of swashbuckling action to be had. We changed the crane boulder to lego magnets too and had them picking up all sorts as Opeie drove them around. There is no toy quite like LEGO, its versatility makes it (for me) the most intelligent building toy on the market with endless possibilities.

With 6 kits released in the Angry birds range, The Piggy Pirate Ship has got us looking at other kits from the range and we have our eyes on the Pig City Teardown and Bird Island Egg Heist , both of which would look great added to the boys latest LEGO train set up. 

 

"If you can dream it, you can do it."

I love a good family game night. When I was younger it was a game of frustration or mousetrap and although we all still love to sit and play board games of some sort we are definitely products of our era and most of our family game time is console based. The game keeping me and Opeie entertained the most recently is Disney Infinity 3.0 Play without limits. I did that stupid thing years back where I listened to what another parent told me about the earlier games and decided to give it a miss, I never usually do that and I am kicking myself now as the game is amazing.

With an ENORMOUS amount of characters to play with, levels to unlock along the way and a huge free roaming world to play in, I can't see us ever getting bored. Opeie, like many 4 year olds is a big Disney fan and the thing that is so amazing about this game is that pretty much every Disney movie you can think of has been covered character wise over the release of the Disney Infinity games, from the classics like Sorcerer Mickey and Aladdin all the way through to the new releases like Spot from The Good Dinosaur and Inside Out. As far as I am aware all of the characters from the previous Disney Infinity games work with the 3.0 edition but it is important to know that the level packs do not, as we found out recently when Opeie asked if he could get the Guardian of the galaxy pack.

Aside from all the classic characters available, for in game play, 3.0 for me screams "Come and play with me dad" being Star Wars, so me and Opeie have been having so much fun playing together. I am hoping to pick up some more of the Star Wars Characters for the game over the next few weeks and Opeie is working on a 'Good sleep Sticker chart' to hopefully get the Inside Out level pack.

Obviously with 3.0 being Star Wars themed there is plenty of brawling which is great as it is not something I would have expected for this kind of Disney game, parts of the game play remind me of the Kingdom hearts games, which I have loved since playing them many years ago first on the PS2. The game isn't all brawling though and if you are the kind of gamer that is into creating and design then you can let your creative juices run wild in the toy box and create an entire world using your imagination which you can then destroy and rebuild. there really are no limits.

fancy trying out other peoples toy boxes? then there are plenty of downloadable worlds created by people all over the world meaning there are endless ways to play.

If all of this hadn't been exciting enough, Opeie had the little girl round from next door to play last week and it turns out she has the Disney Infinity 2.0 which means we now have Elsa, Repunzel and loads of other fun characters to be playing with for the next few weeks. I would have loved this sort of game as a child myself as I was really into swapping and sharing. Disney Infinity 3.0 is a never ending fountain of fun which will be keeping us entertained as a family over the festive period and for many months to come.

UPDATE!!!

Its been a few weeks since I wrote this post but since then Opeie has been sleeping excellently so as a reward we got him the Inside out level pack which we have been playing over the last few days. The level see's Anger and Joy set out on a mission to bring peace back to imagination land. The gameplay is completely different to Twilight of the republic on this level pack which was a really nice surprise and Opeie is now eager to get hold of the three other characters from the movie (Fear, Disgust and my favourite Sadness).

Gifts from the Pirates in Orlando - Disneys Magic Kingdom Parade

Just a post of shots from the Disney Magic Kingdom Parade. For more on our visit to the Magic Kingdom Click here.

Gifts from the Pirates in Orlando - Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom

When we came to Orlando last year we decided not to go to Disney which probably sounds like a strange decision to make when planning a vacation to the home of Mickey Mouse. Being such huge Marvel and Dr. Seuss fans though and trying to keep the cost of the holiday down after buying flex tickets for universal studios we thought it was the best idea. This time round though, thanks to Visit Orlando we were able to visit all of their parks as press and experience the amazingness of Orlando.

I guess if you are going to come to Orlando then it's something you just have to do. We've all seen and love enough of the films so we knew from the get go that it was going to be a great experience. Disney is so different to any of the other parks. As soon as you start getting close to the Disney area in Orlando the roads start getting busier, the car parks are heaving and there are people EVERYWHERE!! The place is HUGE and once your parked there is a shuttle to get you to your choice of transport to the actual park, that being either Ferry boat or Monorail. We chose the boat to get there and Seth insisted we travel back by monorail. I definitely prefered ferry but it was great experience both.

We picked up our tickets at the main desk and as with all the parks they gave Seth a 'happy birthday' badge. The holiday was booked to celebrate Seth's birthday after all. As you are walking through the park wearing a birthday badge literally every member of staff (the cast crew) says "Happy Birthday Seth" which is really great, I don't think you would get that in the Uk.

Magic kingdom is truly magical, the castle is beautiful (which Opeie recognised straight away from the start of many of his favourite movies), there are characters, colour and smiling faces everywhere you turn, it's such a happy place. Being so late in the year it was also great to see that the Christmas decorations had been going up and with giant wooden soldiers as soon as we entered the park it was all looking very festive.

After taking a few snaps of the area and some pictures in front of the castle we headed towards the frontierland the cowboy themed section of the park. We wanted to stick around that area for the parade. Seth had nothing but roller coasters on the brain so while him and Mrs M went on splash mountain, me and Opeie went on a boat ride, or the 'steamboat willie ride' as Opeie liked to call it (he loves that old Mickey cartoon).

By the time the boat had come full circle (roughly 20mins), our little Mickey fan was flat out, so we headed towards Mrs M and Seth who were still on the ride. They loved it and because of the parent swap tickets they have I was able to go on with Seth later in the day without queuing. Mrs M took our sleepy boy for a walk and myself and Seth went on the haunted house, I'm not sure that haunted is a fitting description, I've had scarier rashes in the past but Seth really loved it. It was soon parade time, which Mrs M was really excited about and I'll have to admit was really great. It gave us a chance to use the new lens again and because of it Mrs M got some great close up shots considering our distance. We took so many pictures of the parade that I will put up a post with just of shots in the next few days but here's a few for now.

The parade lasted about 15 minutes and had so many characters from the classic and newer disney movies. Opeie was screaming out the name of every character as they walked by, both boys were really excited which was so lovely to watch. The organisation of the Disney staff was amazing, they were right at the back of the parade taking the barriers down as they passed and before you knew it the streets were back to normal heaving with Disney fans.

Lunch time and we were all pretty hungry from the excitement, as none of the parks before this had been able to cater for our dietary needs we had again packed a lunch (it's probably handy to know that you can take your own food into the parks). Tummies filled and full of energy again we ventured to a different part of the park. RIDES!!!! Seth needed more rides so we devoted the rest of our time there to getting on as many rides as we could. Most of the rides had big queues but you can collect fast passes and come back at a certain time to cut down your waiting times, because of that and a very helpful member of staff explaining the Disney iPhone app which tells you queuing times so you know where to go next we managed to squeeze in quite a few rides.

Our friend Vikki had told Mrs M that she had always wanted to go on the 'it's a small world' ride so we thought we would go on to see what she was talking about. It's such a cute ride and I believe it's one of Disney worlds very first rides. The Peter Pan ride was great even if the first part of the ride which we thought had some broken track (until we took off and started flying) had me and Mrs M a little concerned. The ride has now kick started a new love of "pirate hook" with Opeie (very cute).

Magic kingdom was great because a big bulk of the rides were aimed at younger children and families, not the scary roller coasters that Seth was hoping for but they were both having the time of their lives. It was great that Opeie was enjoying himself. I was never really a fan of the little mermaid but the ride was amazing, the giant Ursula was fab and Mrs M was loving every minute of it.

In Orlando the sun is out one minute and next its dark, it happens so quick. Before we knew it it was dark and the Magic kingdom was lit up. Despite it being dark it was still quite early and we had plenty of time to squeeze things in. Me and Seth were itching to get on space mountain so we headed in that direction. While we went on Opeie concentrated on throwing some shapes with some Disney characters, he loves to dance. The boys then spent some of their holiday money on Toy Story toys which surprisingly even at Disney were considerably cheaper than toy shops in the UK.

One of our favourite parts of the day was the Monsters Inc Laugh floor, you sit in a room and Mike Wazowski comes on the big screen and talks to the crowd, picking people out and making fun of them using cameras in front of your seats. It was so funny and they kept picking on this one poor chap who was there with his family. It was so cleverly done (much like the Finding Nemo Crush attraction at Epcot, which I will write about soon).

Mrs M was really hoping to stay for the fireworks but as the boys were starting to get tired and because of some ill informed bad news earlier in the day from back home she just wanted to head back. The Night time parade started as we were leaving and it looked amazing but there were so many people there pushing and practically climbing on each other that it was probably a good idea that we were heading back. One of the security staff was having problems getting people to move and it was a little dangerous for the boys. It was an amazing day out and it made me wish we had been last year too. There is so much to do at the parks that if we come again there's still lots of things we hadn't done.

I can't recommend Disney's magical kingdom enough its by far the best of all of Disney's parks and will have your children (and probably yourself) completely in awe!

To view more pictures from the parade Click here!