"Even the largest avalanche is triggered by small things."

Day 25:

We've reached that point in our self isolation already where lying under a pile of soft toys is seen as a worthwhile activity to pass the time. Well whatever it takes to get us through these crazy days I guess. 

"Get out of my way, you Cakesniffers!"

Its been a tough few months with our lives changing so much with the split. As I said in the last post I feel like I've really lost myself in all of it and I know the boys are feeling the same way, Opeie especially. With his mom not being around I've been trying as best I can to keep him busy and in the company of the people that love spending time with him. This has not been difficult at all because we have the best group of friends around us and they definitely more than make up for our lack of family. 

Over the last few months we've spent a lot of time hanging out with our friends Charlotte and Rich, usually walking the streets of Shropshire in search of Pokemon. To continue the love of all things Pokemon and our blossoming friendship, they invited us round to theirs today to bake cakes and decorate them in a way that only Pokemon enthusiasts know how.

As the saying goes 'A baking session isn't successful unless you've messed up a couple of batches first'. No you're right, no one has ever said that, but as we all had a good laugh about the mess we made and Rich pointed out that the one batch looked like it needed vegetables and gravy with them, it was clear that the muck ups really add to the memories of the afternoon.

We soon had a decent batch to work with though so we set about adding some flair to our cupcakes. While we created our masterpieces we chatted about all sorts and I was reminded yet again how in awe I am of that amazing 7-year-old of mine. He loves being around other adults and is such a confident kid when it comes to general chit chat, everyone seems to adore him as much as I do.

With the first couple of cakes finished it was time for an action shot, Pikachu... I choose you!

The cakes ended up taking so much longer than we expected but thats the great thing about being around amazing friends, you get lost in all the fun and the time just flies by. With the cakes finished the only thing left to do was check to see if our creations tasted as good as they looked...they totally did.

These may be some of the toughest months we've been through but being surrounded by such amazing and caring people has made us realise that we really are the luckiest three boys.

"I want to be the very best, like no one ever was..."

Back when we first started writing for Nintendo I would write a lot of my posts from the car as I spent a lot of time waiting around for Mrs M and Seth, picking them up from places, so my 3ds went everywhere with me. It's not been that way for a while but yesterday, Because we couldn't get an extra ticket for Seth's nativity, I found myself in that perfect gaming situation again. It couldn't have come at a better time really, because at Seth's request I've embarked on a new Pokémon adventure with the latest installment Sun and Moon and I was itching to pick up where I'd left off.

There have been some amazing games released this year from Nintendo but for Seth, Pokémon Sun and Moon has been the most anticipated! He was a huge fan of Omega Ruby and Since he found out about Sun and Moon he has been counting down the days to its release. Despite my ongoing love affair with Nintendo which started around 30 years ago, I have somehow never played a Pokémon role-playing game. Seth was adamant though that I needed to join him so that we could both play together. His excitement was infectious so I jumped on board and we've both been playing for the last week.

When it comes to gaming I like the classic Mario way of doing things. 8 worlds, various levels that aren't too long etc, as I find it easier to fit that kind of gaming between other things that I'm doing. I'd love to get lost in a game but I find it difficult to make the time so it doesn't happen often. Sun and Moon surprisingly has been the sort of game that made that time as I was fully engrossed in the game within the first 10 minutes and I've literally been squeezing in bursts of gameplay every spare chance I've had. Seth has been loving it, as even though it is not a multiplayer game we've been sitting and playing together while checking out each other's Pokémon.

We had downloaded the demo a few weeks back so were both excited that we could take Greninja over to the full game. it was a great addition to the team (despite not being able to control him at the moment). We also added Munchlax to the team from getting the game around the release date. The early bird catches the.... Munchlax apparently! As I said I've not played a Pokémon game before, but Sun and Moon appears to be mapped out like the previous Role playing installments from what I have read. The story draws you in early on and being able to roam around battling and catching wild Pokémon in all the grassed areas scattered about is great. Because Seth knows so much about Pokémon I thought I was going to be terrible at playing but the story explains everything clearly and you feel like a Pokémon master in no time, knowing when to use a grass or water type Pokémon etc. 

The story so far has been really well written as you battle your way through the islands. Despite being extremely annoying, I kind of love how the bad guys (team skull) irritate me so much. When you bump into them while moving around the Alola region and they start talking that cringe worthy 'Gangster wannabe slang' while wearing those skull scarfs around their faces I instantly want to destroy them. Always a great feeling when you are playing a game as the hero.

The aim of the game is to move around the islands to advance and grow as a new trainer. With strong adversaries to defeat, including kahunas and Trial captains on each island. The battles get increasingly more difficult as you progress. It's not all battling though, there's a lot of focus on how you treat the Pokémon you catch too and your little army can get a lot stronger through affection and taking good care of your team mates, which is a great lesson to add into a game for younger players.

I've played Sun and Moon a lot over the last week, which for me has been really surprising. The game is amazing but what adds to that is how happy it makes Seth that I'm playing something that he loves. It's been great bonding time for both of us.

If you are looking for 3ds gift ideas this Christmas then Sun and Moon is a must and with Mario Maker coming out this week too, this years festive period seems like it's going to be dominated by that Gaming giant that has grown with me for many years.

And now I am off to bed to squeeze in another hour of play. Ive 'gotta catch em all' after all.

"Follow your inner moonlight; don't hide the madness."

Micro Scooters have been a huge part of our lives for the past 3 years and there have been a crazy amount of adventures had in that time. I've said it so many times over the years but being able to whizz around with the boys and be a part of all the fun is one of the things I enjoy most. They've given the boys so much confidence and have also taken the pressure off Seth's muscle condition at times when we've been out walking.

In all these years though I've NEVER been out scooting alone, until last night! Mrs M had work that needed to be done and I had nothing I needed to do so I packed a backpack, chose some tunes (DJ Yoda's how to cut and paste country and western edition for starters), popped in my headphones and embarked on my own moonlight adventure. There was of course another reason for my solo trip out (because I never stop being a dad!). The boys have been playing Pokémon GO recently and I figured I could scoot from ours to the town park (where there are an abundance of Pokéstops and plenty of those little critters to catch and hopefully take over some yellow and blue gym's along the way). GO TEAM VALOR!

It's amazing just how quickly you can get about when you haven't got two little ones stop starting every 5 minutes, and switching off and going into my own little world was so much fun. I did have a chuckle to myself at one point when it clicked that I was a 36 year old chap scooting around, battling Pokémon and taking down Gym's, but I knew the following morning Opeie and Seth would be excited if they had new Pokémon added to their collection. As I arrived at the town park the sun had completely gone and the darkness made me realise that if I'm going to do this more often I really need to invest in some form of lighting before I end up breaking my neck.

After spending an hour hitting up all of the Pokéstops in the park and loving every minute or my solo scoot I decided to head home. The music and the scooting complimented each other perfectly and the warm evening breeze made the scoot even more enjoyable. I had to scoot down a very dark lane on the way back which to be fair was pretty daunting, if it hadn't have been for the torch on my phone I'm not sure how I'd have done it. I really need to get some lights sorted.

By the time I had got home I'd scooted 12 kilometres and was feeling pretty great about my little adventure. Opeie woke up this morning excited to see 3 new Pokémon in his Pokédex and despite there being a dull ache in my calf muscles the excitement of going up a level had Opeie eager to get out and scooting again this morning. There is something so relaxing about a solo scoot in the moonlight and if my legs let me later It might be me, my iPod and my Micro Scooter hitting the streets once more.

"Creativity is contagious, pass it on”

As part of Daddy school, a lot of our time is taken up by creative activities. It's so important to let your little ones explore their creative side, especially in the early years. Opeie loves drawing, if he sees pen and paper lying around then he'll start doodling and if there's one thing I'll take from studying art at university is that mark making, in all its amazing forms is an important start to any creative endeavour. The boys have access to a huge range of artistic media and although I'm partial to pencil, paper and hands-on craft, it's really important to be open minded to art via technology. I'm useless when it comes to using a computer this way and sadly always turn to Mrs M when it comes to creating the things I need. 

Technology plays s huge part in our day to day lives now and the last thing I want is the boys to fall behind just because it is out of my comfort zone. Seth is starting to show interest in coding and photoshop and Opeie is desperate to get involved. I'm a firm believer in gaming in education and I use lots of different games for various aspects of his learning, the obvious being reading, writing and mathematics, but also for learning strategy. There are great gaming titles out there that cover learning technology. Pokemon typing adventure has been one of my favourite for teaching Opeie keyboard skills early on and the art academy range has been great for what is almost a very basic style of Photoshop, learning to use various icons to create a masterpiece.

We reviewed Pokémon Art Academy last year and being huge Pokemon fans, the game gave Opeie a great introduction in how to create his favourite characters using shapes and techniques. Whatever we draw together I try and break down what he is looking at into a selection of simple shapes to work from. The art academy games back up my approach to teaching but digitally.

With the release of Disney Art Academy, Opeie's inner digital artist has yet again been awakened and he has been in his element recreating has favourite Disney characters. It's frustrating when you are young and struggle to draw the characters that you love. For me it was Basil the great mouse detective, I'd spend days trying to draw my favourite characters from the movie and it's where my love of drawing stemmed from. Disney art academy breaks these well-loved characters down to their most simple form making them accessible to anyone that wants to know how to draw them and this is what makes the game so special. By Taking the budding artist through each step of creating a character, their form, colour scheme and expressions, the game is building creative confidence. It's a great way of teaching that in life if you want to achieve anything you first need the confidence to attempt it.

With over 80 character drawings to attempt and a huge amount of techniques to learn along the way this game is as educational as it is playful, the perfect game for the younger generation of future artists.

"Gotta Catch 'Em All!"

I'm not usually one to get caught up in the latest craze so when the boys started talking about Pokemon GO they didn't really sell the whole concept. But being the kind of dad that I am I knew I had to get involved or I wouldn't hear the end of it as I had an excited Pokemon fan who wanted to play. After some reading and writing today I figured I should take him out hunting, so we headed out looking for Pikachu and his friends.

It didn't take long for my inner geek to come out when Opeie said 'Dad! I can't catch this Zubat!'. From the moment I flicked that first Pokeball I was hooked. I was a big Pokemon fan back in 1999 I even shamefully gave myself a Pokemon name and had it tattooed on the back of my neck (no I'm not adding a picture). We've just got back from an after tea Pokemon hunt and over the past 2 days Opeie and I have walked roughly 15km looking for these adorable little creatures, above everything else it is great exercise.

The reason for the post though was the raised concern of a 5 year old walking around with an expensive phone. We've already had to replace two laptops because of child related accidents and I didn't fancy being without a phone, so while I had a spare hour and the boys were playing with their friends, I turned to my old friend, (LEGO) and built a Pokemon case fit for outdoor Pokemon fuelled adventures.

The boys, as expected loved it and while we've been searching we've had some interest from other Pokemon hunters out and about. As happy as the boys were with the case, Opeie had his own idea and informed me that it needed the word 'GO' on the back in blue. I love the extra little ideas the boys come up with so I was happily oblige.

If you've not played Pokemon GO yet, get it downloaded to your phone. Its very addictive, its great exercise and overall it gets you out with the children, fun, FREE, outdoor family bonding! Perfect for the summer holdiays.

"Physical wounds can be treated without much difficulty, but emotional wounds are not so easy to heal."

I asked Seth if he wouldn't mind writing this post, firstly because I am awful at fighting games. Its always been this way ever since I first played Street fighter 2 as a kid. I don't know what it is about them, I just find them so frustrating, I literally can't beat the boys. Secondly Seth is a HUGE Pokémon fan so it seemed like him writing it was the obvious choice. Anyway that said, over to Seth...

Hi It's Seth. I just want to start by saying I love Pokémon games. My favourite Pokémon is Dragonite because he is a dragon type and he is cute. As well as liking Dragonite I like Jiggly-puff. I wasn't sure about Pokémon at first but I tried watching Pokémon indigo league and then it all changed. I asked Pauly if I could save up for Pokémon omega ruby and he said "I have got it up stairs on my 3DS" so I sat down and started to play . That is how I got into Pokémon games. To add onto this I LOVE!!!!!! Nintendo more than any other computer gaming brand. My favourite console is the Wii U. 

One of the things I enjoyed on omega ruby was the battling so I was really excited when Pauly told me about Pokkén tournament. I was really excited as I also love a game called Marvel vs Capcom it is a super hero fighting game and Pokkén tournament is a Pokémon fighting game were I can use some of my favourite characters to battle.

 My favourite part of Pokkén tournament is when you mega evolve and you can turn into a new evolution. To mega evolve you have to get a few hits and wait for a bar to go up and then you press two buttons to trigger off mega-evolution. You can also play multi-player which is lots of fun. A few days ago my next door neighbours and us had a tournament and I won it. You can also play in single player mode. In the single player mode you can play against the computer and level up  your Pokémon to make it stronger. On Pokkén tournament you have extra characters that you can send in and help you.When they help you they will only help you for a few seconds and then you'll have to wait a while before you can call for backup again.

I play mostly on two player but I hope when I play on one player that I can unlock more things to use or play as. My favourite character on this game is Charazard because he is easy to control but I also love Lucario. On Pokkén tournament the controls are easy. Opeie really likes playing as Machamp and sometimes it is really hard to beat him because he just keeps smashing us and Mega evolving.

 As well as mega-evolving there is a massive selection of arena's to battle in. There's a Dojo one and lots of others for battle. The magma one is my favourite.

    By the way I'm really excited about Pokémon sun and moon on the 3DSbecause they are brand new Pokémon games and I love being able to take my Pokémon games out with me on my 3DS. Pauly said that when it comes out we can maybe get sun and moon so that we can play together, I am excited about that the most.

"Man is a gaming animal. He must always be trying to get the better in something or other."

When I was younger around Christmas time there would always be at least one Nintendo game I was hoping for. I remember one year really wanting Super star Wars and Mario paint and another year desperate to get my hands on Zool the Ninja Ant. Playing our Nintendo console back then was fun time spent with my family and things haven't changed when it comes to me and the boys. With so many great Nintendo games released this year here's my top 5 that should be in any Nintendo fans Christmas stocking.

Although it isn't my favourite game of 2015 (It's my second), Super Mario Maker in my eyes is most definitely the biggest. This game is huge and rightly so. Being able to design your own courses is amazing and although the game is only single player, being able to create levels for your friends and family really makes this a great family game. With thousands of levels to play, created by other gamers all around the world, there is no end to the amount of fun you can have playing this game.

Yoshi's Woolly world was the game I was looking forward to playing the most. I love cute games and this one takes cuteness to the extreme. Woolly world is a colourful none threatening game but one that can take quite a lot of skill at times. For me personally, the best game of the year and one me and the boys will be playing a lot over the Christmas break.

I am all about the 3ds, as much as I love the Wii U, Handheld gaming fits in better with my days and The Legend of Zelda Tri Force Heroes has been entertaining me while I have been parked up waiting for Mrs M or passing the time waiting for Seth to come out of school. The 3 person multiplayer that can be played from one cartridge is the main attraction for me, with both of the boys having 2ds' but it is also great to take two random gamers from anywhere in the world on missions with me too.

I'll be honest, when I first played Splatoon it didn't really appeal to me, but the more I played it with the boys, the more they got in to it and that excitement is contagious. Splatoon is an amazing multiplayer rumble and I could happily sit with the boys for hours playing this as it is a really fun and competitive game. As far as family games go this is definitely one to be on your Christmas list or a great way to spend that festive cash you get from a distant relative.

I cheated a little on number 5 as it wasn't released this year but the game is still huge so Super Smash Brothers has made its way to my top 5. With an enormous selection of Nintendo characters spanning over many years of Nintendo's history this game really packs a punch. Ive not played the Wii U version of the game but I hear it is amazing. The 3DS game though has been great for me as I can fit a bit of brawling in here of there. I was always a huge fan of the fighting games when i was younger and being able to battle using many of the characters I grew up with is amazing.

There have been loads of new titles released this year, these are just my personal top 5. To find out about other titles and future releases head over to Nintendo.co.uk. I hope you all have an amazing game filled Christmas, I'll be using the quiet time to work on completing these 5.

"Everybody's out there wrestling like a robot."

When it comes to Nintendo I love the classics, Super Mario for me as a kid was the best and when Yoshi was thrown in to the equation I was in my element. Although I have followed the mustachioed plumber through his glorious career and plan to continue until I am old older and grey, I think its awesome when I am introduced to something I'd not heard of before like the new Chibi-Robo! Zip lash game. I am however a little disappointed with myself for not realising that the game is a follow up to the earlier release on the Gamecube many years ago (I did own a Gamecube when it was released but sadly girls were also a part of my life at this age so I may have missed a lot).

Chibi-Robo Zip lash is a platform game where the hero adventures through each 6 level world using his trusty power cable to progress, while trying to stay charged. The little robot who whips his way through each level is also big on cleaning up mess along the way and picks up litter that is left about to give to his friend at HQ to gain extra points. 

Opeie was the first to point the game out when we were having a mooch on Nintendo.co.uk and said that the game looked really cute. This is one of the things that will always be a huge factor in why I love Nintendo games so much. Most of their games appeal to all age groups and Chibi-robo is definitely no different. I did think after watching the video that it may be a little difficult for Opeie being only 4 but this mini hardcore gamer of mine flew through the early levels with the greatest of ease. I love that the boys are in to gaming and I will always embrace that as it is something that was big in my life as a child, I do limit them though as I think anything they do should be done in moderation. With each game we play though I do try and find the educational advantage in each (there always is one). The legends of Zelda / Pokemon (strategy), Mario Maker / Animal Crossing (design), Super smash Bros... how to brawl? (I jest). Chibi-Robo though gave me a chance to give Opeie a Nintendo themed home school lesson in 'angles'. As the levels progress you need to bounce your power cable off of angled walls to get to higher sockets and Opeie was getting a little frustrated by not being able to advance. The game is great as when you aim your power cable at an angled wall it shows you the trajectory by dotted line to help you along your way. So my lesson in angles showed Opeie throwing the power cable at different places on the angled wall caused the plug to take a different path, Genius!

Chibi-Robo Zip Lash has been great for taking with me everywhere I go helping to bridge that boring gap when I am waiting in the car (which happens a lot). The levels are short and not too testing, although I am only 3 worlds in and there are fun extras as you progress, my favourite so fare being  'The Adventures of Skater Bot' Where Chibi-Robo! dons a skateboard and whizzes through the level shooting his power cable at sockets while moving

The game is fun, effortless play, the only downside for me (and this is just personal preference) was the product placement throughout the game. Console gaming is frowned up on enough, which I can definitely understand if it is not done in moderation. I don't think that any computer game for children though needs to be advertising confectionery throughout the game, it took me right back to Mcdonald land released in the 90's.

That aside though the game play is a lot of fun and being a lot cheaper than many of the other latest 3ds releases you really cant go wrong. I love the Wii U but I seem to get much more time for handheld gaming as it fits in to all my quiet moments and Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash has become another great Nintendo title to add to our ever expanding collection.

There seems to be a fun amiibo section of the game too, sadly we couldn't find out more about that as we are playing the game on the older 3DS. With all the games being released with amiibo extras I'm starting to think that we definitely need the New 3DS XL.