"We make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones."

 

                                                                       Day 1... (part 2)

With another 4 weeks of national lockdown starting now, I'm feeling like the only way through this is back to daily activities concentrating on creativity. The creative lockdown project really helped to keep us in a Calm and focused headspace while the whole world was falling apart. So for the next 4 weeks our home-ed will be focussing solely on a variety of creative activities base on a word of the day. It's been a really tough month emotionally and I think we both want to be feeling better about the path that we are on. I'm kicking off our project with our LEGO Halloween build for this year, an explosion of black and orange.

Stay safe people and keep on creating.

"Use your imagination, not to scare yourself to death but to inspire yourself to life"

It's got to that time of year again where we go into a craft frenzy. There is something so satisfying about decorating the house for Halloween and Christmas and we couldn't wait this year to get going with the spooky fun. Halloween is so much more fun when you have children and I like to think we take full advantage of these cold wet autumn days by filling them with fun activities. Me and Opeie have been researching fun Halloween craft ideas and while out doors hunting for branches, leaves and pine cones to make an Autumn wreath for the front door, we also decided that we wanted to create monster wreaths for the doors inside the house. We wanted to make a fluffy monster wreath and speant a week popping into charity shops looking for something suitable to cut up for cheap. We had no luck and was feeling pretty deflated until I was searching for one of Opeie's toys under his bed and found a huge box of pompoms and lollipop sticks, BINGO!

We cut out a big cardboard ring, fired up the glue gun and started sticking. With lots of bright coloured fluffy pompoms to choose from, Opeie was thouroughly enjoying the craft activity, sitting outside despite the cold. There was a few moments where there was a freak gust of wind and he was chasing pompoms around the street but it just added to the fun as he ran around laughing. With the cardboard ring completely covered and looking very bright and fluffy, we added big polystyrene balls for eyes and some black teeth covered in green slime and Hey Presto! our monster wreath was complete.

Not 100% happy with what we had achieved though and eager to continue our fun Halloween activities, Opeie opted for another wreath because apparently there are alot more doors in the house to decorate. We looked around the house for something else colourful and found a basket full of Play doh lids that I had saved while cleaning out the boys room a while back.I had no idea at the time what I was going to use them for or why I was even saving them but the bright colours sucked me in like some sort of magpie.

I had already cut out a second cardboard ring (clearly I knew he would want to make a second one before he did), so the glue gun made another of his weekly appearences and we got sticking. Im not sure my parents would have let me use a glue gun at the age of 5 (I could just imagine myself pretending I had Han Solo's blaster and making a mess everywhere), but Opeie is calm, loves craft and is really responsible so the gluing was left up to him. Opeie made some lovely bloodshot eyes and mad fangs from lollipop sticks and in no time at all , another door in the house was looking fabulous.

Weve got so many ideas planned for the school holiday with Seth that the house is going to be filled with lots of spooky things. The great thing is, when they all come down, theres no need to feel sad as we can start on the Christmas decorations then! being a dad is AMAZING!

"Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later."

Its been a blast playing with this new series and I'll stick by what i originally said, for me

LEGO Series 14 Monsters Minifigures are my favourite series yet. They are going to have to pull out something pretty special for Series 15 to win me over, for now though, trouble at the garden centre...

"Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it."

Two more posts to go (excuse the pun).

LEGO Series 14 Monsters Minifigures

"Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort."

Another LEGO Series 14 Monsters minifigures

post and two friends enjoy the extra hair on their faces...

Gimma a 'B' , Gimme an 'R', Gimme an 'A', Gimme a, 'I', Gimme a 'N', Gimme an 'S', what does that spell...?

LEGO Series 14 Monster minifigures 
Strange goings on at Cheer camp this year...

"I have a different constitution. I have a different brain; I have a different heart; I got tiger blood, man."

Things are going to be looking pretty LEGO heavy on the blog with our week of LEGO Series 14 Monster minifigures Posts. Post three and people can fall in love at the strangest of times, even over spilt radioactive waste...

"Love is like a virus. It can happen to anybody at any time."

Day two of LEGO series 14 monsters and meeting the right person can be difficult no matter what plane of existence you are on...

'The product was provided by LEGO GmbH without any obligation in regards to the content of the review’

"Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character"

Since becoming one of the LEGO family bloggers we have been sent some amazing things to review. Recently after returning from an awesome day out adventuring with the boys we arrived home to find one of the most exciting yet. Ever since Opeie had watched the unboxing of a whole box of series minifigures on Youtube (yes he's even more of a geek than me), he had longed for the excitement of having a box ourselves. That day, as we opened the front door, there on the sofa, was one waiting for us.

The boys got stuck in straight away, feeling up the bags and trying to guess which ones were inside. I'm a HUGE 'monsters' minifigures fan and loved the Monster fighters range a few years back so for me LEGO Minifigures Series 14 was a series I had been counting down the days for. With such an amazing line up, for me they are the best series yet.

I wanted us to be a little more creative with these and rather than write a post about them all, showcase them in their own posts. So there will be a series of posts coming up this week where we have had fun with each one (yes we love LEGO that much). Plus we had lots of spares after our unboxing so stay tuned for what we did with those too...

Enjoy!

'The product was provided by LEGO GmbH without any obligation in regards to the content of the review’

"they did the mash, they did the monster mash"

I feel like today we have reached our LEGO blogger peak, We received a message from Mrs M while me and the boys were out adventuring to say that there was a package waiting for us and when we got home there was a whole box of series 14 minifigures waiting for us. We've been sent some amazing things since writing for LEGO but this case has been the most exciting for so many different reasons. The LEGO horror and monster figures became my favourites after the release off the monster fighters kits a few years back. I've always been in to B-movies and zombie flicks so these are right up my street.

Since finding out about this series I have been waiting patiently for their release, so having a full case to play with is going to be a lot of fun. Stay tuned for some minifigure fun, I sense some form of zombie apocalypse just around the corner.

"It is better to create than to learn! Creating is the essence of life."

You cant beat a good LEGO competition, we have them all the time at home, it usually starts with one of seth's cunning plans, 'i need lots of vehicles for something I'm doing so...' "Hey everyone! lets have a LEGO competition... who can build the best vehicle!". This time though a team building exercise, limited to three bags of the series 4 Mixels and the aim was to build an ultimate mixel. If you combine 2 or more Mixels it becomes a Murp!!

After emptying all the bags out over the table we discussed our ideas and came up with something a little different. When series 1 of the Mixels was released i tried desperately to get the boys interested, the parts were the big appeal to me and the fact that they were such a good price for what you got in each pack. By series two though they could see what i could and they were hooked.  The fun part about creating your own Mixel for me is the eyes and teeth because it doesn't matter what you create you can just attach eyes and teeth and instantly it becomes a character, genius.

Our Mixels creations were well thought out though. Opeie's main specifications where that he had fire coming out of his hands and bottom. He also informed me that he was a snowboarding Mixel and set about building a Snowboard to ride on. We also thought it would be fun if we could turn the Mixel around and see a completely different character on the back. That's what i love most about LEGO, the versatility. You can come up with an idea and if you have the patience to sit and work out the dynamics of it, literally anything is possible. Because our Mixel has two different heads Opeie decided that the most obvious name would be headbanger.

 Unfortunately Headbanger didn't stay erected for very long and Seth pulled him apart and made a Mixel of his own. No need for a name here though as Seth informed me that he is in fact a mysterious Mixel and no one knows his name.

Get to the shops and pick up some LEGO Mixels, these little monsters are seriously addictive.

"A man's manners are a mirror in which he shows his portrait."

Every day I'm feeling more and more obsolete, Opeie is becoming so independent that at times like this I'm at a bit of a loose end, it's good for the writing though especially on days like today as Opeie runs about the soft play area desperately trying to befriend everyone he comes in to contact with. He does say 'come on daddy' every now and again but once i start following him he's off again happily talking to other children.

Opeie is such a loving and thoughtful little boy for his age and people always comment on his politeness and manners when we are out and about. As I sit here writing this I can hear Opeie saying 'what's your name? I'm Opeie (or Hopeie as he pronounces it). Opeie clearly needs to be around children his own age more now so (despite it being very upsetting because i makes us even more aware how quickly the time has gone) we've started looking at nurseries. 

It's great when were out and he talks to new children but some of them like a little boy today can be really quite mean. Today Opeie met two boys (cousins), Charlie, a sweet little boy around Opeie's age, happy to just be running about and William, a child I can only describe as a spoilt little brat with a terrible attitude who was probably a year older.  This little monster got the hump because his cousin wanted to play with Opeie so started saying things like 'go away' 'we don't want to play with you' and 'stop following us' he even tried to block Opeie's way out of spite. Opeie doesn't understand thankfully and was happy just running about but honestly I just wanted to trip the little monster over.

Kids at the age of 3 and under shouldn't be like this. They are supposed to be innocent and want to be friends with everyone they meet. What annoyed me more was the mom could hear her son yet said nothing, she seemed like quite a well to do woman as well. Apart from me telling the boy that I thought he was very rude and shouldn't talk to people like that I managed to bite my tongue. The last time we were at this soft play area I told a boy off for purposely pushing Opeie over with quite an aggressive look on his face. To be fair though the dad dragged his son out of the place and wouldn't even look me in the face. It's not my place to correct other people's children but if their parents can't be bothered I'm not having anyone be abusive to my boy. If I heard Seth or Opeie talking to anyone like that I would be devastated, but they have been brought up to show respect.

Opeie started to look tired and i was needed once more for cuddles (good to know i still have some uses), my very sweaty haired boy needed some sleep. I may be needed less and less as the days go by, he makes it clear he can brush his own teeth, feed himself and put his own shoes on but I will always be there to protect him and fight his corner, were a team and I'll always have his back, no matter what.

"A boy called george had an excellent plan, To go and discover the Yeti. He put in his backpack a warm woolly hat. A map and a tin of spaghetti"

I'm a sucker for good rhyming children's books. Although I love reading stories to the boys (and trust me we get through a lot of books), personally there's something much more entertaining about books in rhyme. So when we were very kindly asked to review Spaghetti with the yeti by Adam and Charlotte Guillain, I checked with the boys first (which I always do before reviewing anything for them) and they loved the title so I happily accepted.

We were off out a couple of nights ago after school to have a picnic and make the most of what's left of the semi warm weather. Our new book came with us as entertainment as it had arrived that day. I asked Seth where he wanted to read said book and he chose a random tunnel made of plants and vines (apparently the sort of habitat a yeti would live in if suddenly the snow melted).

The book really was a great read for children and the boys were hooked from the moment the first words left my lips. The book follows George...

 ...a young adventurer, who is on a mission to find the mythical beast, the yeti. Armed only with his sense of adventure and a tin of spaghetti. Along his yeti tracking journey he comes in to contact with many overly hairy and quite unpleasant looking female monsters to get to his prize (kind of reminded me of my own journey to finally meet Mrs M).

 I love that the boys were more and more eager to see the Yeti as i read each page detailing the yeti's dinner time preferences (Lobsters, crabs, goats and bones). They also had a good chuckle at one of the monsters and said that she looked like Mrs M in her flowery shower cap.

The book was great for Seth to read too which means he can read it to Opeie (i love it when Seth reads to him). We would definitely recommend this book and would be interested in any future releases. A big hairy thumbs up from Giftsfromthepirates.com.