"Miracles can happen, even to those who are small, flammable, and dressed all in black."

Its a family tradition on Christmas eve before bed to read a new Christmas themed book together as a family, which tomorrow we will be enjoying together on our Christmas eve. Tonight though it would have felt wrong to not have read a festive book, despite the fact that Seth wasn't with us. So tonight, as we tucked Opeie up in bed we read my second favourite Christmas story.

THE LUMP OF COAL by Lemony Snicket isn't your average Christmas story, there are no happy elves and a clear lack of the usual cheer. The story though is beautifully written and is everything you want in a festive story, leaving you feeling all warm inside.

 the lump of coal wants nothing more than to be an artist and spend his days creating abstract art. If that's not possible though he would settle for helping out on a Barbeque, cooking vegetables and meat. This story is set in winter though and a good BBQ is hard to come by. Sadly the people that cross his path end up being quite rude and attempt to shatter his dreams until he has a chance meeting with a pharmacy hired Santa clause handing out coupons, who sends him on a new path.

 A present in the stocking of an naughty child doesn't sound like the best place for an artistic piece of coal to live out his days but that chance meeting sets him on the path to happiness and the Lump of coal fulfills all of his wildest dreams. The lump of coal has a great message and is a brimming with some of the magic which surrounds this exciting time of year.

Our bed time story added a little extra excitement for Opeie and we're all looking forward to the big day. Merry Christmas all.

"IT ALL BEGAN when Floyd got his kite stuck in A TREE. He tried pulling and swinging but it WOULDN'T COME UNSTUCK"

I love how a child's imagination can take an insignificant task and instantly turn it in to a fun mini activity. I'd love to be able to think like Opeie for a day he is so much fun to be around. This afternoon while I was starting lunch Opeie wandered in and asked if he could help, so I found him a big tray and handed him a big piece of broccoli and a plastic knife so that he could chop it up for me.

Within about 30 seconds he was getting pretty hacked off with the knife not cutting through the broccoli (safety first though right?) but then he randomly started laughing. He's got a really infections laugh and it grabs my attention straight away, usually because its something really fun (he's got a great imagination).

Opeie was holding the broccoli laughing and said 'look daddy it's like the book 'stuck'". Well that was it, the food came off the hob and we went looking for things to get stuck in Opeie's broccoli tree.

We went straight to the LEGO and Opeie knew exactly what he was looking for, a boat, a bicycle, a ladder and a fireman. We couldn't find a whale so that was replaced with a shark, a deer and a polar bear. Opeie threw item after item up his broccoli tree...

I had soon forgotten all about lunch and i was dragged in to Opeie's exciting world where he just comes up with something and instantly puts it in to action. I eventually had to go back to my mundane task but Opeie was more than happy stuffing things in to his Broccoli tree giggling to himself. It looks amazing to be 3, i wish i could remember anything from my childhood back then.

The little boy who lost his name... Gifts from the pirates review

It seems really difficult to find tasteful personalised gifts for children, which is why when it comes to the boys we tend to create our own. It seems that most products on the market that i have seen are just generic items with a child's name stuck on there. For  the past year i have been working on two personal books for the boys but finding the time to complete them is annoyingly difficult. I love the boys having things that are personal to them, i have nothing from my childhood due to a difficult relationship with my family. So when i was asked a few weeks back if i would be interested in reviewing a book that would be made specifically for the boys i jumped at the chance. Who honestly is going to say no to that.

The little boy who lost his name (also the little girl who lost her name) has been created by a group of dads and is a book aimed at 2-6 year olds. It's a fully personalised adventure based soley around your child's name. Each book starts and ends the same but the adventure inside depends on the letters in your child's name. If the thought of a personal book for the boys wasn't enough the other thing that sold it for me was the illustrations. It's usually the reason i agree to review children's books.

We had only read a few pages when Opeie realised that the letters were spelling his name which was great for a three year old especially because he still doesn't understand which letter is which despite knowing his alphabet for quite some time.I love how the animals and characters you meet along the way find items that are the shape of your letters.

The books have become a firm favourite with the boys and have made their way to the list of books that are always asked for when we go to bed or have our reading session on the trampoline in the sunshine. the quality of the book is exceptional, in fact i don't think we own another book with such a nice finish. Its the sort of book that as children get older you want to pack away safely to bring out years down the line. Its a really nice item to keep and ours will be cherished for years to come.

The book itself is a little more expensive than most children's books but then you are paying for a custom book that is created for your own most loved creations so it is worth every penny. A 15% discount code has kindly been sent to us too, use AWESOMEDADS15 at the checkout.

I think I'm definitely going to be buying these for peoples birthdays. A great idea, perfectly executed by a group of devoted dads, i love it.

"One sunday morning the warm sun came up and - pop! - out of the egg came a tiny and very hungry Caterpillar."

The time has come to make use of the conkers we collected last weekend. Earlier today Opeie pulled out The Hungry Caterpillar as one of his pile of afternoon reading material and it gave me an idea for the booty we had collected on Saturday.  I fetched the bag of conkers and together me and Opeie drilled holes in some of them in preparation.

Next we went looking for some string and after making a knot in one end Opeie threaded the conkers on all by himself. Opeie then told me it looked like a caterpillar, I knew it wouldn't take him long to cotton on to what was going on.

We tied the other end and went on a mission looking for googly eyes to attach to the face. There you have it a simple autumn craft session that Opeie loved every minute of. I could see that he wasn't ready to end our little activity so we started something else in keeping with our afternoon reading. Can you all remember what that hungry caterpillar turns in to after stuffing his face.

We had some string left and plenty of pre-drilled conkers so we made another body like the caterpillar only a little shorter (I tried to pick conkers that went up in size gradually).

Last year Seth had opted to be The Hungry Caterpillar (butterfly) at his schools world book day so myself and Mrs M spent an evening making him a costume and his wings had become a decoration on his ceiling. After completing the conker body we attached it to Seth's card and tissue paper wings. Two more drilled holes and some pipe cleaners and the butterfly was beginning to look as beautiful as in the book, but we were out of googly eyes (oh no). Luckily in these sort of situations you can always rely on Lego. Two Lego eyes and voila, One Hungry Caterpillar and his beautiful colourful conker made counterpart.

"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.

"They look like fish fingers to me, and i would never eat a fish finger."

Blogging has taken second place over the last few days as Opeie hasn't been feeling too great and neither has Mrs M. Because of the weather on top of that we've not really been out anywhere. After dropping Mrs M off at work this morning and Seth at school I brought the snotty nosed one home and asked him if he wanted to read some books. He said yes and then proceeded to take his clothes off, this is Opeie's little book reading ritual, he has to be completely naked while reading books in our bed. Am i allowed to be dressed? No! I have to join the nudey gang for ultimate relaxation. We went through the boys bookshelf and as usual he picked around 30 for us to plough through.

After about 10 books grandad phoned for a chat and while I had a little break from the books and chatted I looked for things for Opeie to nibble on as he hasn't touched much of his breakfast due to losing his appetite a little. Opeie continued to read the books he knew well to himself in his own very cute way. After my phone call I got back in to bed to continue our reading session. Opeie handed me a Charlie and Lola book that I don't remember reading all the way through and I'm glad he did. The book was all about food and I though I would use Opeie's excitement to my advantage.

After getting through all but three I think of the books he had chosen it was lunch time. I decided that Charlie and Lola would be the theme of our lunch and used the book to get Opeie to eat by cooking him carrots, peas, mash and fish fingers. Good old Charlie and Lola! The lunch went down quite well and opeie managed to eat a good amount. Because of all his allergies and food intolerance's it can be quite frustrating finding fun new things to eat and it can be really difficult when he is ill and has lost his appetite. We tend to have to think outside the box sometimes when it comes to his eating. One time we even had to have him flying round the room like superman swooping down to each mouthful just to get him to eat. Today's great result has got me searching through his books looking for new ideas, needless to say i wont be trying 'Green eggs and Ham' just yet.