"It will never rain roses: when we want to have more roses we must plant more trees."

This morning I told Opeie we were going to do a spot of gardening, he looked through the back door at the rain bouncing off the slabs and the grim look on his face said it all.

But today's gardening didn't include getting wet or cold. There was no need for wellies or gloves and no unforeseen weather was going to stop us in our tracks.

Today's gardening was going to be a virtual experience! 

When we were asked to review Gardening Mama: Forest Friends I thought it would be the perfect game for Opeie. Bright fun colours and a game with a sense of purpose. I've been desperately waiting for summer to arrive so we can add a bit of colour to our garden, Gardening Mama gives Opeie the sense of what needs to be done to tend to a pretty garden.

Gardening mama takes you through all the steps you need to have your garden in full bloom in no time, without relying on an equal ration of sunshine and rain. You get to pick the flowers, vegetables or fruit you want to plant in your patch and as you progresses through the game more seeds and bulbs become available to you. Gardening Mama isn't a 'chuck some seeds down - throw some water at it' kind of game. It's up to you to be sure that your plants aren't over watered or picked to early. If your garden is not tended to properly you will lose your crops.

I didn't think this game would interest Seth that much but thinking about it I should have known really, considering how much time he spends playing Tomodachi life while doing his physio, Seth loves a game with purpose and especially one where he can go back and expand with each play.

Gardening Mama Forest Friends isn't just tending to crops though, there are a great selection of fruit, vegetable and flower related mini games and tasks, which on completion help you to advance through the game , unlocking new crops. There are also lots of incoming messages from your animal friends asking you to complete tasks so that you can earn garden points to spend on new seeds and bulbs.

Your garden is fully customisable and there are a variety of accessories you can add to get your garden looking amazing as you progress. Fancy some playground equipment? Maybe a bench to relax on and look at what you've created? There are sculptures, water features and pergolas all at hand as you advance to help you to create your perfect garden.

 Although we are yet to use it you can also receive extras using the spot pass on your console.

I'll be interested to see how the boys interactive garden blossoms over the coming weeks. If interactive gardening isn't your thing be sure to check out Mama's other recent release, 3ds Cooking Mama: Bon Appétit!

"Daddy, whats inside a Sprout?"

I don't know where the Christmas holiday went, one minute I was binging on mince pies and the next minute Christmas was a distant memory. Seth went back to school today, that's when you know Christmas is over. After dropping Mrs M off at work it was back to being just me and mini me.

I'm ashamed to say that over the holidays the TV had been on more than I'd like and because the boys got new games for Christmas the consoles were on a little to much too so today was going to be a tv/ipad/ds and laptop free morning, plus I put my phone to one side too as I'm a bugger for checking and replying to blog related emails throughout the day.

First on our morning agenda was drawing and painting. As opeie has become a huge Nintendo fan over Christmas he requested that I draw him Luigi and Toad so that he could paint them which he did a sterling job of.

After painting we picked a few of Opeie's new books from Christmas and sat down for a cuddle and story time. Our friends Sam and Jamie brought him 'Bear's song' which he loves as he get to search for baby bear on each page who is hiding. We also read Hugless Douglas, Zog and Happy Birthday Santa. I was kind of hoping the reading would send him off for a nap but no chance of that.

After reading a few books and my unsuccessful attempt at getting him down, we practiced his alphabet for a bit using his Bigjigs alphabet board, I'm trying my best to get him to remember which letter is which but its taking its time. He definitely knows which is 'A' and which is 'Z'.

Before we knew it it was time for lunch. Since the Opening of Opeie's diner on Christmas day Opeie has been really getting  involved with the food prep at meal times and today was no different. he happily sat with me at his table hacking away at vegetables while i sliced some up to make pasta sauce. The hacking away then led to a very curious Opeie asking 'daddy whats inside a sprout?'. I asked him what he thought, which was interesting and then i explained that there was only one way to find out and handed him a sprout.

Opeie happily sat for about 30 minutes with a look if intense concentration on his face and peeled that sprout until it looked like a tiny bean. "so Opeie whats inside a sprout?".... "More sprout!" he said with a very disappointed look on his face.

Well it kept him occupied while i made lunch (which was delicious) and then it was time to pick the princess up from work and give her all the love and attention she deserves. Opeie finally had his nap although with the time he went to bed this evening i think it may be a good idea to try and phase his daytime naps out. I need to get back in to the swing of finding fun things for me and Opeie to do during the days now because he'll be starting nursery soon (which is filling me with dread).

Now to search the internet for something fun to do tomorrow, Goodnight.

Gifts from the Pirates in Orlando - Eating out and Dinner at Ethos Vegan Kitchen

Eating out in Orlando became increasingly difficult throughout our entire holiday,  for a place thats so huge and boasts insane amounts of eateries i really expected more. Not being a vegan myself or having any food allergies there were plenty of restaurants i would have loved to have eaten at but when 50% of your family are extremely limited to what and where they can eat it kind of throws a spanner in the works. We attempted to eat at a few of the well known restaurants and i got really fed up of hearing the words "we can offer you a salad?". The hard rock cafe couldn't even offer Mrs M and Opeie a Baked potato. What kind of restaurant doesn't have potatoes? Crazy!

Any way because of Mrs M's blog naturalveganecomom.com we spent plenty of time in the supermarkets (mainly wholefoods market) looking for interesting and new things for Mrs M and Opeie to include in the packed lunches we were having to take with us every time we left to go out. On one of the evenings we did get to eat out at a restaurant that Mrs M had heard about through a friend of hers that works at Wholefoods Orlando. 

I'm a meat eater and I've always said that i couldn't be vegan but after eating the meal i had i think it pushed me that one step closer to 'could i walk away from it all'. I chose the 'All American Burger', in any other restaurant in Orlando this would 9 times out of 10 guarantee you a huge slab of juicy meat between two halves of a bun. What i received was a meat free burger like nothing i had tasted before served with blue corn tortilla chips, it was amazing.

It probably sounds crazy to most people but it was so nice to be able to go out and eat a meal together like a normal family, unless you or your family have severe dietary issues then you cant imagine how frustrating it is trying to dine out.

Needless to say i wasn't the only one that thoroughly enjoyed my meal, everyone wolfed down the lot, it was beautiful. The thing that gobsmacked me the most about this very tasty meal, amazing friendly service and upbeat surroundings was the extremely low bill at the end of it all. For four meals and two bottles of natural vanilla cream soda the bill was a mere $31 (£19). 

The best part about the meal was finally seeing Mrs M eating something she wanted to eat with a huge smile on her face. It must be so difficult for her as many of her dietary issues are because of Opeie's breast feeding. She has given up a lot to give our boy the best start he can and i will be forever grateful for that.

To here what Mrs M thought of her lovely meal then CLICK HERE.

If you are interested in visiting Ethos vegan kitchen then here's the menu for you to have a mooch.

Ethos Kitchen Menu

Thanks Ethos for a great meal and fantastic friendly service i can't recommend you enough.

Searching for bugs and wildlife at Attingham park.

I try and write about things as soon as they happen, sometimes though i half write posts and then get wrapped up in other things, my bad. Last week we all had a morning out at Attingham park, our friend Chris had stopped at ours the night before and we managed to kidnap him for the morning and took him along with us which the boys were very excited about. Mrs M had been before but even though its not far from ours I had not been. We managed to get out of the house at a reasonable time, even if Chris did have a lie in (lie ins are unheard of in our house).

We arrived at our destination and after flashing our new National trust memberships we headed on to our adventure. The grounds were beautiful and although there was a chill in the air and Mrs M needed my shirt to keep warm, the sun was shining and was desperately trying to warm the place up. The boys were in their usual excited mood, laughing and running about.

There was a 'searching for bugs and insects' activity on which the boys couldn't wait to join in with so armed with a magnifying glass, tray and sheets with pictures of wildlife to search for, off we went turning over rocks, rummaging through bushes and checking the skies.

It wasn't long before we made it to the orchard which I think was what kicked off the last two weeks of apple scrumping (which I will write about very soon). The walled garden around the fruit and veg being grown was like Mrs M's personal heaven and she walked round in awe of all the crops and was even more excited when she saw the beehives (one day we'll have that self sustaining life that she dreams of).

The flowers there were stunning too...

Seth was desperate to get to the play area and I was parched so we headed there next. Clearly the boys had even more energy to burn off and who were we to deny them that. The play area was great, lots of climbing things handcrafted from wood and long dark tunnels built into hills, great fun for any inquisitive child, although the tunnels were slightly to small for grown ups and me and Chris ended up with neck cramp.

And then it was time to head back for lunch and i suppose we needed to let our hostage go back to his wife. So we headed back to the car. It was a great way to spend a couple of hours before Lunch the adventure got me wondering where our next National Trust adventure will be, any ideas?