"You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win."

Inspired by the recent Golden Brickies and secretly being entertained on an unhealthy level by Mrs M's competitive nature I thought it would be a fun idea this week to have a build off. We had popped to the toy shop to get Opeie something for his good behaviour. Initially he chose a LEGO Ultra Agents kit (which I know will make Mrs Ultra agents very happy), but as he rounded the next aisle the kit was handed back and replaced by the LEGO Disney Princess Rapunzel's Creativity tower. (He's a lover of pink and bright colours just like me).

We had the LEGO City Auto Transporter Sitting at home waiting to be built so I challenged Mrs M to some fun in the bedroom. LEGO being the fun and the boys room being the competition venue. 

The competition kicked off with Mrs M complaining that she had 'more little pieces' than i did and it was going to take her a lot longer to build, but she soon ripped the bags open ahead of me and started getting stuck in. Clearly she wanted the head start because she very quickly asked me to go and put some music on while we were building, which was followed ten minutes later by 'can you put something different on please'. It was Mrs M's usual dirty tactics.

With the auto transporter having 350 pieces, Rapunzels tower coming in at 299 and me being the pro builder i thought the competition was about even so i took my time and played with Opeie as i was creating the LEGO masterpiece. Mrs M had the look of sheer determination on her face and there was no way she was letting me win, she was in it to win it. 

I love the LEGO City kits so i was taking it all in building. The City kits always take me back to being a child. As a little builder back in the 80s, it was a police station, along with lots of road base plates that really started this fascination with LEGO that i still have today. The auto transporter comes with two cars and while Opeie built the two minifigures included, i breezed through making them. But i spent a lot of this time watching what Mrs M was doing. I love the Disney Princess and Friends kits, so much colour.

I was soon on to bag two and Mrs M followed close behind, it was shaping up to be an excellent LEGO battle. Mrs M usually isn't a fan of our beloved bricks but she was building like a pro and had her eyes on the prize. I think Opeie's excitement playing with Rapunzel and Pascal was all the fuel she needed to get the kit built quickly so they could play.

Part of me wished i could have filmed the whole thing as Mrs M's competitive streak had reached its peak. and one point Opeie said 'mommy I've hurt my finger!' the response "I'll have a look at it in a bit". Nothing was taking her attention off the build (that's focus). Not to worry though i tended to Opeie's finger and was back from A&E within the hour (just kidding).

The competition was starting to heat up and Mrs M needed a towel to mop her brow. I think she was feeling more pressure than a day at the office.

Bag 3 and i was on the home stretch but Mrs M's tower was starting to look pretty glorious. To be honest i had decided quite early on that i wish we had swapped kits, I'm a sucker for a bit of pink. While we were building me and Opeie had an in depth conversation about the LEGO Frozen Elsa's castle that's coming out soon and what he wants to do with it if we get it, so cute.

It seemed i had taken Mrs M's building skills for granted and with the trailer still to build while she casually sorted out the towers awesome amount of brightly coloured accessories it was obvious that i needed to up my game before she wiped the floor with me.

It literally came down to the dying seconds, but who won???

Yes I (the household master builder) was beaten, by the family member that claims she doesn't like LEGO. It was a dark day but i held my head high. mainly because i wanted to just get past the gloating so i could play. As my forfeit it was my turn to get tea on while our very own princess put her feet up and played...

Ready for food delivery around 6 o clock!

(oh no!!!! i put the sticker on upside down haha!! i should be ashamed.)

"Hey, I just met you, And this is crazy, But here's my number, So call me, maybe!"

Opeie tends to have many imaginary phone conversations during the week. Usually it is Nanny Roo that gets all of the weekly gossip unbeknown to her, but yesterday it was our friend Katie who was deep in conversation while she was supposed to be at work. The conversation was hilarious and ended with a one sided in depth discussion about the time she inserted an ice-cream into our good friends bottom following a Minifigure we made of her the weekend and some photos they sent us.

Personally I think it is ridiculous to give a child a mobile phone too young but at the ripe old age of 3 I thought he was ready for the commitment. So we sat down together and discussed what it was he wanted from his new handset (it was like an immature sales pitch from a car phone warehouse representative).

What do you want it to look like?... LEGO! , colour?... Pink! (No problem). Everything is awesome!!! Okay??? Spinney things! Well I can never say he doesn't know what he wants. So I got to work while Opeie created me the handset I've been pining after for years, guess I won't be needing that upgrade now and we can keep in contact wherever we go (as long as it's in the house).

"Silver white winters that melt into springs, these are a few of my favorite things"

We had had a couple of weeks of excellent behavior from Seth after the incident three weekends back so we decided to give Seth the thing he had missed out on due to his out of character lack or appreciation, obviously we hadn't sent it back but it was important to teach Seth that he needs to be aware of the effort we put in as parents and to make him realise how loved he actually is.

Since getting the Micro Scooters a couple of months ago Seth has become an addict and had been working on his behaviour so that he might get a scooter of his own. Seth had his eye on the pink Sprite Which I thought was great as there is no gender colours issue with the boys. Even though Seth had received some grief off his friends at school when he told them he wanted a pink scooter he informed me that he simply retaliated with "my step dad is big and has a massive beard and his favourite colour is pink!" Yeah... Go Seth!!

Well the day had come to give Seth his scooter and this time round we received the very appreciative response we should have got a few weeks back. Unfortunately the weather decided to throw a spanner in the works for a couple of days but as soon as it had cleared (despite the floor still being wet) we took our wheels over to Nanny and Grandads with the promise of some long smooth walkways that run for miles.

 There's something about Micro scooters that turns any new rider into a hogger and there was no exception with Nanny and Grandad. As soon as they had felt the wind at their ankles there was no stopping them. It was great to see them getting involved with the boys new hobby but it was everything I would expect from Mrs M's fun loving rents. Here you can see Grandad who is very skillfully balancing using only his tongue (The mans a genius!!).

The walkways were pretty quiet so we got to race up and down almost Undisturbed. Seth had a couple of small tumbles but it's all part of the learning curve, it was good to see him brush himself off and get back on, he was so excited about his new scooter and said 'I feel really cool'. Seth has been learning to skateboard which understandably has been slow going, with restricted mobility and less sense of balance it has been difficult for him to stay on the board but the great thing about Micro Scooters is having those bars in front to steady himself mid transit. The scooter has given Seth so much confidence and it's lovely to see him fly by with a smile on his face. 

While we were scooting i was thinking how awesome it would be to get a scooter with chunky wheels so when we got home i had another look on the site and spotted the Monster Kickboard Scooter. This scooter looks great and id love to have a try of the steering on this model as it is a lot like Opeie's scooter. Our scooting adventures definitely need a personal blog related touch so stay tuned and watch this spot.

After seeing Nanny and Grandad whizzing around on the scooters and getting into it I think Mrs M is feeling a little left out and wants to join the team. She's got her eye on the little flowery number. Who knows you may see that famous scene from the sound of music with the Von Trapp's on bicycles, recreated on scooters, a modern day take on family foot powered travelling.

"i can do it myself daddy"

Seth has started his next big craft idea which so far is looking great (even though its only had about 30 minutes work on it). I will write about it when it's finished which could be some time away. As part of his new creation he needed some old fashioned wooden clothes pegs. I thought they were going to be a nightmare to find but luckily I found them in the forth shop I went in to, good old Asda living.

He needed white paint too and before I knew it I had a basket full of craft bits and bobs. It wasn't a great day weather wise so a craft session for me and Opeie was just what we needed. As soon as we got home we set the table up and began creating. Because Mrs M works all week we try and make plenty of cards to say thank you for taking care of us.

Using foam letters and getting them straight with a 2 year old is difficult but we managed it and it looked great. Opeie told me that he wanted to make one for nanny and grandad too so we quickly got to it.

After all the tag team precision foam letter placing, Opeie grabbed himself a new piece of paper and freestyled himself his own creation, which definitely had more character than the ones we created together, proving once more that "i can do it on my own daddy" (his new favourite saying).

"The purest and most thoughtful minds are those which love colour the most."

I generally try and pick one thing a day to concentrate on with Opeie's learning. Some days it letters others its numbers but over the last few days me and Mrs M have been working on his colours which is going really well. While doing her usual window shopping on amazon Mrs M spotted some colour flash cards that were perfect for Opeie and and great for us too.

Both being quite arty and coming from a creative background we have both used pantone referencing in the past so these pantone flash cards are great. On the one side of the card is solid colour with the colour name and reference code and in the other side is cute drawings relevant to colour and description (very cute).

  

These have been stuck all around the house and we ask Opeie throughout the day what each colour is. He's getting a lot better at knowing his colours now which were really pleased about. I love watching Opeie develop and he seems to have changed so much over the last few weeks with his speech. Its great to know everything is moving in the right direction and he's not struggling to much with anything.

"Pink isn't just a color, it's an attitude!"

Hello, It's Mrs M again!!!

I wanted to write a quick blog about an amazing offer I found on Lego, Duplo kits & brick sets yesterday! Boots are doing Lego Sets 3 for 2 at the moment, which is really good value! The 3 for 2 actually spans over lots of brands of toys and is a real money saver for Christmas!

I have been saving my Boots advantage points for ages, and I was also given quite a few thousand extra a few months back for being a loyal Boots customer, so I thought i'd put them to good use and buy some bits of Lego for the boys and Papa as Pauly has been wanting some for a while!

I bought 6 boxes of Lego using my Boots points, which in total cost me £0! A brilliant bargain!

 I think Opeie loves Boots as much as me!

The 3 for 2 lego! We also bought a box of blue lego for Seth for Christmas... Pauly said he wanted to start collecting the Pink Lego because he really loved the blue, green, purple and orange shades you get within the boxes... I totaly agree , the colours are beautiful and it is really lovely to look at visually!

I decided to treat Opeie to a couple of boxes of Duplo with my Boots Advantage Points, as he only had a really small collection of Duplo, about 30 bricks, and it was hard to make and build something with a very limited amount. So these are technically part of Opeies Christmas presents , but he's had it early.

The boxes are clever as the lids click tight on, and you can stack them perfectly too.

Opeie really loves playing with bricks and I think he finds the Duplo easier due to the size.

The boys had fun playing today and made a very colourful house for their Duplo bunnies.

 As I said before I love the colours of Lego bricks, and the Pink brick boxes are really lovely. Pauly being a big fan of green & pink combos is really in his eliment.... when we popped into Toys R Us earlier to pick up The Sun's free Lego Offer the store manager said he'd been to the Manchester Lego shop & how amazing it was.... apparently you can make Christmas baubles there & fill buckets with bricks of your choice! I think we will be going there at some point soon......