"You can plan a pretty picnic but you cant predict the weather"

I'm a sucker for collecting things, its a little obsessive and and extremely compulsive i cant help it Ive always been the same. Today we decided to take the boys to Dale End Park for a picnic. We haven't done our 'big shop' this week yet so i had to pop to Asda to get supplies.

While in there i found myself venturing down the baby aisle (again) and a new drinking vessel for Opeie caught my eye. I had been in last week and brought some items from the i monster Nuby range and hadn't noticed the 'No Spill Cup' that compliments the other items, so it made itself into my basket along with the Monster cutlery Set which to be honest was a bit of an impulse buy.

I returned home and we packed our food along with the other Nuby items and off we went. Probably wasn't the best day to be going for a picnic as the ground was still pretty wet so inevitably we all ended up with a soggy bum. The new cup of Opeie's thank fully didn't leave him soggy, weve brought no spill cups before and they haven't really lived up to the hype but this one was the real deal which is what we need with Opeie as he tends to catapult things all over the place.

It was nice to spend some time together in the park and Aunty Lotty joined us too which was a lovely surprise. Had a bit of drama when our frizbee broke in half though, Seth got rather upset but we managed to calm him down by telling him that Grandad Gary could weld it back together for him. He'll have a good chuckle when he's older and reads that back.

"The first virtue in a soldier is endurance of fatigue; courage is only the second virtue."

Around the house there's lots of toys that don't really belong to a collection. They might be one toy that's on its own or just a couple that don't seem to fit anywhere and just stand alone. I had brought these Playtown learning curve wooden Marvel figures a long time ago. Long before Seth and Opeie and they had always just been placed on a shelf usually away from the other toys. 

I had wanted to include them in a post for a while but it had seemed that Captain America had been 'missing in action' nowhere to be seen until last week when we decided to move the boys room around. I had assumed that he was off fighting his nemesis the Red Skull (Being the super soldier that he is) but it turn's out he was hiding under a chest of drawers with a Batman and a Penguin that we were also missing (they had probably been launched across the room by Opeie).

I'm really glad i have them all back as i have been wanting to show them to my friend Alice, she writes bigmilkthing who i mentioned in my last post as she and her boys really love wooden toys and they are also loving Spider-man after the surprise package from the wall crawler himself.

I remember getting quite excited when i spotted these as they were something a little different, kind of like a wooden marvel version of the Fisher Price DC Little people range. Only downside to them is that they only released the 4 characters, I'd have loved a big collection of them or even 4 villains would have been great.

Anyway I'm glad that Cap is back with the gang and Opeie is loving playing with them again although as you can imagine Spider-man gets most of his attention.

"Giving is true having."

Last week i heard some very disturbing news, there are two little boys called Elliot & Sam who love Spider-man but don't have any Spider-man figures?? how could that be i hear you ask? They have got a lot of great toys but it seems that Spider-man has managed to slip through the net. That just didn't sit well with me. I couldn't be having that and clearly i needed to do something to right this terrible situation. 

Mrs M has known Alice (Elliott & Sam's mom) for some time online and i have recently been talking to her a fair bit myself, she also writes a blog called mummy, not big milk thing which the boys get involved in as well mainly jumping on front of the camera and posing (which is what us parent bloggers need).
 

The Spider-man and friends pre-school figures will always be my favourite toys of the boys. I had them before the boys were even here and they were displayed proudly in my flat. I had quite a few duplicates of the figures so i thought i would send them.... erm... i mean i thought Spider-man could send them to Elliott and Sam. So he wrapped them up, in spider-man comic of course (he's so vain) and sent them on their way along with a lovely note (I'm actually surprised he could make time from his busy super villain fighting schedule but that's why we love him so much).

Well it seems that the toys went down very well, Sam's favourite was the Thing and Elliott favoured Wolverine who he said is apparently Batman (clearly I'm going to be needed again for more super hero education). I also sent mommy something too as she had been talking about Wonder Woman a few days before and it seems that the boys will be getting the Little People Batcave for Christmas.

I love sharing our toys for other children and its so nice when they are appreciated. I have a feeling our friend Spider-man will be sending another package in their direction at some point soon and im sure he is very happy about his new Amazing Friends.

"The more help a person has in his garden, the less it belongs to him."

Had a few days off from writing posts, sometimes i just need a break from the computer. Yesterday we went to see Lotty Mrs M's sister. She is house sitting for an older couple that she knows and they have the most amazing garden and house that backs on to Buildwas Abbey. The house was built by the guy that lives there and the enormous picturesque garden is very well kept by them themselves.

Mrs M's parents came over too which was great, not having much of a family myself i really enjoy spending time with these guys. They have always been so kind to me and we all get on really well. I love the fact we can all be quite sarcastic and take the mick out of each other and no one takes it to heart, they all have a great sense of humour.

After having a chat, several cups of tea and being well and truly dragged around the garden by Opeie now that he's up on his feet we went for a walk around the abbey which was a really lovely walk. The weather was fantastic which really added to the lovely sights and i got to take plenty of photos.

Mrs M is always happy to see a field of sheep, their one of her favourite animals.

After the stroll we headed back to the house for even more tea and great conversation. Opeie again was determined to drag us all round the garden, its so cute how he just wants to walk everywhere now. He's certainly making good use of his new shoes.

I dont think Mrs M enjoyed me taking the pictures very much. But she always looks yummy.

Before heading home we walked over to some stables down the road to see Lotty's pony Percy. I don't like horses i never have done but despite this i decided to go anyway. He was a lovely looking horse (if you like that sort of thing) but I'm just not an animal person at all.

It was a really lovely afternoon, the only thing that was missing was Seth. we always feel a little guilty doing things when he's not there but that's just the way things are i guess. Weve told him we will take him to see Percy one of the nights after school though. According to the Met Office it'll be raining for the rest of the week so I'm glad we got to do something nice this weekend.

"Make new friends, but keep the old; Those are silver, these are gold."

Every now and again in life someone does something really nice and it replenishes my faith in humanity. this morning i had a package that was sent by one of our readers. Mary is a mom to 2 daughters Abbi and Chloe and she wrote us a lovely letter telling me all about the troubles she has been having with her teething sweeties. I told her all about the Amber necklace that Opeie wears which we think has definitely helped.

After reading the recent post i wrote about opeies eating habits, Mary decided to send me a gift as i had mentioned about Opeie's back teeth coming through. I was genuinely touched, you really don't expect gifts from people you don't know but as she said in her letter "i love reading about what you all get up to and in a way i feel like we have been friends for many months" well we are certainly friends now. Opeie loves his present and it has certainly kept his attention off his teething for the moment.

I had mentioned in the post that i was interested in the Nuby teething ring that i had seen while looking about for suitable tableware for the little mess maker, so was quite excited to give it a try. We have tried Opeie with various different things but he's never seemed that bothered apart from Sophie the giraffe but this has worked great so far. Ive even given it a good chew myself on more than one occasion (well you have to see what the fuss is all about, i had Mrs M's milk in my tea and on cereal within a week of Opeie being born i guess intrigue just gets the better of me).

Well I'm very happy to have made a new friend and after the week we've had here its really put a smile on my face, couldn't have come at a better time. Mary has been thinking about starting a blog herself about the girls and life in general, I'm so glad i started this one as it will be something really great for the boys to look back on. So watch this space as i will be the first one writing about the blog and singing this kind readers praises.

Thank you Mary you have really made our week here and the teeth marks on each bead suggest a very preoccupied little boy.

"Dare to wear the foolish clown face."

Hello everyone its Seth, today im going to be talking about the Jokers Funhouse. i have wanted the jokers Funhouse for about..... from when we left Florida. When we were on holiday we went into a shop and i saw the Jokers fun house and mommy and Pauly said i could have it,but when we looked at it it didn't have a joker and it was missing some bits. mommy went and asked somebody in the shop is there anymore but there wasn't so i got 2 Lego sets instead one was Catwoman and batman and the other was Lex Luther, superman and wonder woman and his big robot.

Pauly said that when we got home we could look for it but we couldn't find it anywhere. On Wednesday this week we went to the toy shop which was smyths to look for something for William. I asked Pauly shall we go to the batman aisle first and he said we could. When we got there we found the Jokers Funhouse. i felt really really happy but i didnt think Pauly would buy it because i thought it was expensive. Luckily a few days before mommy had put some money in mine and Opeie's money box. i was hoping there was enough money in our money boxes to buy it.

Pauly didn't have his wallet with him so he had a clever plan to get the jokers Funhouse. we went home and Pauly got some money and went back to smyths i thought it wasn't going to be there anymore and i was worried. there was only 2 on the shelf and i thought someone was going to buy them but luckily they were both there. We looked for something for William as well but i couldn't find anything cool.

Then we went back home we took the Funhouse out of the box. Opeie tried to get hold of it. Pauly why does Opeie always do that? do you think he wants to join in and be involved? do you think we will finish the blog tonight? do you think my tooth will come out tonight? will you be shocked if it doesn't come out? Pauly what are you writing? (Seth started on a barrage of questions then so i thought i would just keep typing).

The Jokers funhouse is really cool, when i opened the front doors there was a red car in there which is for the joker to drive about in and find batman  and when he finds him he can put him in the jail in the funhouse of course. my favourite bit of the funhouse is the hammer that moves up and down so you can put batman, robin or superman under and squash them.

I asked Seth which he prefered, the imaginext funhouse or the Lego one i built him?

Hmmmmm......tough choice,  your Lego one because it has funky bits in. i like the table with all the weapons on and the imaginext one doesn't have many rooms, it doesn't have ANY rooms actually. but i do like the fisher price one because it goes with all our other batman stuff.

Id still really like the big Batcopter that i have seen and also Pauly would like the big Mr Freeze base which is really cool and i would like the Batboat too but I'm going to have to be really good.


Seth was so excited when we rounded the corner at Smyths and saw this, he literally couldnt catch his breath. If i'd have known it was going to be there i would have filmed his reaction. Weve been after this since March and it was the reason i eventually decided to build him the one out of Lego, which to be honest i actually think is better (and thats not just me blowing my own trumpet). Seth is getting so much more into the blog posts and before he had even finished this one he was talking about what he wants to write about next so please keep reading it really motivates Seth that people out there are interested in what he has to say. 

Seth were very very proud of you. x


 

"The first step, my son, which one makes in the world, is the one on which depends the rest of our days."

Today we took Opeie to Clarks to get his First pair of shoes. His walking is getting a lot better and he is so much more confident on his feet. I'm not sure if it was for my first pair of shoes but i definitely remember my mom taking me there when i was little for some shoes. The measuring device always seemed really exciting but i guess Opeie is to young to understand at the moment.

The great thing about going to Clarks is the fact that you get your photo taken for your first pair and its a great little reminder for him and something that i can put in the box of things to give him when he's older. It'll be in there with the diary that me and Mrs M write for him, his shriveled up umbilical cord (who wouldn't want to be handed that!!) and items of clothing that we want to keep etc.

Ok so i may have told a little porky.... this is actually Opeie's 2nd 1st pair of shoes from Clarks. Im quite sure theres many parents out there that have done it. We were a touch over enthusiastic buying the last pair, he wasn't even up on his feet so he didn't get any wear out of them but at least we still got our 'first shoes' photo.

He's not that far off size wise from wearing his Spider-man Reebok trainers i brought him a while ago and then he will have his Captain America Reebok trainers to look forward to (which was one of the first posts i ever wrote).  My boy is going to have the coolest footwear, I'm a bit of a shoe fiend myself. I'm quite sure there will be many more 'first' shoes from Clarks it would be rude not to take advantage of the photo opportunity after all.

" Pauly & Seth's BATMAN JOKER'S FUN HOUSE Lego-Style! "

One of mine and Seth's favourite blog's is the Bat-Blog, its a great source of information and inspiration for all things batman. without it we would never had written our post about Card Craft. This week we were lucky enough to be mentioned on there and it was very exciting for Seth to know that other people are taking an interest in what we do.

Since reading this we managed to get hold of the imaginext Funhouse which Seth was writing a post about last night so hopefully that will be published this evening. Thanks Bat-blog for the mention we look forward to sending you a picture of our next Batman creation.

"a joke is a very serious thing"

A few days ago Seth brought up the subject of 'joke shops', not quite sure what spurred on the question but he wanted to know whether i had been in one and what sort of things they sell. You don't really see them about these days and there's nothing like that local so its not like i can just take Seth there. When i was younger there used to be quite a few about but i guess with the way the country is financially there's not much call for them.

I told Seth about devil bangers, guns that fire a 'BANG' flag (like the Joker), Plastic pooh, Whoopie Cushions, Glasses with springy eyes, chewing gum that has a mini mouse style trap in them, finger in a matchbox and Mexican jumping beans.

Speaking to my friend Chris at gingerjamphoto.com he was having a clear out and wanted to know if i wanted anything. He also said that while he was sorting some bits out for the charity shop he found some mighty beanz and would Seth be interested (quite bizarre i thought seeing as we had only been talking about them a couple of days before).

Well they popped over a few days later and brought the 'Beanz' with them and surprisingly Seth has hardly put them down. he is completely blown away by the fact they move on their own. I also learnt an interesting fact about Mexican jumping beans and the Moth Larva that lives inside (thanks Michelle).

Weve had fun trying to stack them on top of each other (we can only manage 3) and doing the tricks in the booklet which we failed at but we tried. Seth's favourite one is the Orca Whale. Now that he knows about the beans he wants me to find a hand buzzer like the Joker has and also a flag gun that says 'BANG'. So that's what i will be purchasing today.