"He has knobbly knees, and turned-out toes, And a poisonous wart at the end of his nose."

The weather has been glorious today and we made the most of the sunshine this morning by searching for that elusive mythical beast the Gruffalo. They have been popping up all over the country at Foresty commission sites in celebration of the books 15th Birthday.

We were house sitting for our bestie Chris this weekend and before heading out to his place, his sister Stephanie posted a picture online of a Gruffalo not far from where we were staying so we knew we had to go. So while Mrs M did some work related things this morning I took the boys adventuring, searching for one of their favourite book characters.

The Gruffalo was hiding somewhere at Birches Valley Forest Centre. We had never been before so we were looking forward to adventuring somewhere new. The place is beautiful and was perfect for a hot sunny day as the really tall well looked after trees were the perfect cover stopping me from burning my head. Well we took that walk through the deep dark work but the first thing to grab the boys attention was the playground which was lots of fun, timber climbing frames that were asthetically pleasing and fit well in to the forest surroundings.

There was so much to look at as we walked along the paths looking for our friend with his orange eyes and purple prickles all over his back. Lots of lovely wooden carvings and art pieces kept us entertained along the route and the boys wanted their pictures taken with all of them.

Opeie spotted the back of the Gruffalo from quite a way back but then he does have the best spot perched on daddies shoulders. Before heading over to see those knobbly knees and turned out toes we had to walk through Fernley Thickett, which was a magical mini area of the forest with cute hand carved tree trunks with miniature doors where the fairies live. Opeie was hooked and before leaving that day we must have visited that area at least five times, I wish we had had our minifigures of us, it would have been great for LEGO photo's.

And then there he was, with his terrible claws and terrible teeth in his terrible jaws. As expected though there was nothing terrible about this very lovely looking beast and Opeie (with no fear of splinters) couldn't wait to give him a big squeeze. I would absolutely love one of these for our pack garden, it would look amazing.

I was busy taking a selfie of me and Opeie when i heard Seth shout 'Bases!". Stephanie had let us know about an area of the forest that had lots of huge branches for making dens and it was great to see so many built, the forest looked like so much fun so we made our way in and started adding branches to the dens. Seth surprisingly had other ideas and started looking for certain branches that we could take home as he has an idea of something he wants to make. More on this to follow.

It wasn't long before the Gruffalo hunters started to get hungry, I offered them 'Roasted fox' and "Scrambled Snake" followed by "Gruffalo crumble" with a side helping of "Owl ice cream" but as expected they wanted mommies lunch as she makes the best meals according to Seth. So we headed back to Chris' for a bite to eat. I loved walking around Birches Valley and its got me now thinking of visiting the other Forestry Commission sites harbouring that lovable beast.

Also the trip to Fernley Thickett and a picture in Chris' bedroom has given me a great idea for a new weekly feature on the blog so stay tuned.

Until next time adventurers....

For me, every day is like fathers day.

Fathers day is my favourite time of year, not because i crave the attention, i get all the daddy attention i need every day, but because its a day that celebrates everything i hold dearest to me. Being a dad has completely changed my perspective on life and it is bettering me as a person more and more as the days go by. After craving children for so many years it so lovely to feel like I'm exactly where i am supposed to be now. it is lovely also to wake up to Opeie though waving a card he has made and shouting 'happy daddies day'.

This year Opeie's card was me if i was an Octonaut.

The card was brought to me in a box made of Duplo that lasted about 20 seconds before crumbling before my eyes, bless his wobbly hands. And a special gift inside a Custom Lego box which also put a big smile on my face especially when Mrs M informed me that it took her an hour and a half to make. 

I feel like the luckiest guy on the plane, I hope all you dads out there had an amazing fathers day.

"Painting is just another way of keeping a diary."

This great weather we have been having makes all the difference to how we plan and spend our days. When the weather is bleak we can easily waste an hour or two in the morning deciding whether to venture out or not. When the sun is out though as soon as we've dropped Mrs M and Seth off we either head out on our adventures or we're making the most of the garden.

A couple of weeks back we met up with Opeie's friend at Cosford air museum. While we were waiting for our friends we filled our pockets up with stones from the rockery, oops. Opeie had been asking to paint rocks for a couple of days and these were just the sort of rocks we were looking for. So by 9am yesterday we were in the garden and all set up for a morning of painting and craft. I asked Opeie if there was going to be a theme and he said 'Mario'. The little Picasso knew exactly what he was doing and began to flick paint around everywhere.

I on the other hand was guided by Opeie explaining exactly what he wanted out of me (he's a very demanding artist). The weather was glorious and it was such a lovely creative morning. Opeie painted a Yoshi rock and I painted Mario's overalls on a rock.

Opeie then told me I needed to paint Mario's head while he painted a rock white to create Drybones. Ever since working with Nintendo Opeie has become a proper little Mario nut. It's always lovely to see the things I love rubbing off onto him, he's a real mini me.

"My common sense is tingling."

Having Seth as my Lego right hand man makes building so much more interesting. I love hearing his ideas, seeing what hidden details he comes up with and seeing the look of excitement on his face when we are discussing our construction. When we are planning a bigger build I like to get Seth to draw a sketch of the plans to work from, it's one of my favourite parts of the build. 

Back at Easter I wrote a post about our Lego Easter hunt, rather than bombard the boys with chocolate I bought the Lego Deadpool kit and seperated it between empty plastic eggs. It was something they really wanted and personally I'd rather get them something like that than uneccessary amounts of chocolate. The kit spurred on our next big build and Seth got sketching straight away, designing the schematics of the building.

Once Seth had fully explained his vision we got to work, putting together a large base plate and the front fascia first. We always tend to start with the front as it gives us a good idea of how big the thing is going to be. We built this in a similar style to the Joker ice Cream parlour that we built last year because having the big open top area is great for the boys when playing.

Seth wanted the fascia to look like the head of the Lego Deadpool minifigure but with a drawbridge style door and a hidden entrance in the neck, a great start to our build. The idea was to build Deadpools armoury. A haven for badguys to get hold if all the weapons they need for whatever badness they are unleashing on Super Hero City.

Dr Octopus was the most likely choice for sales assistant due to all those arms. Seth designed a weapon cabinet for behind the till and wanted cupboards with drawers in for weapon storage.  

To the rear of our creation and the more fun part to build was Deadpools living quaters. Seth had so many great ideas for this part of the build that shamefully we had to miss a couple of the things out because of lack of room. Apparently Deadpool needed an area that he could keep an eye on his shop as we all know bad guys can't be trusted.

This section of the build was where Seth let his creative juices run wild. It all started at the rear of the build and with Deadpools bedroom. Seth wanted it to look like a normal bedroom but with a couple of hidden doors into other sections of the build.

My favourite part of the build is the bed, Seth knew exactly what he wanted and came up with an genius way to make that happen. He remembered the bed from his very first Lego kit a few years back, the Lego city police station. the bed in the cell raised up and underneath there was a crowbar hidden ready for a little prison break. Seth wanted to make something similar but instead of a hidden item, an entire hidden room, a base of Operations for his beloved minifigure. I was tinkering around with lego ladders and stairs trying to make them fit when Seth handed me a much more interesting idea that he had made himself.

As part of the bedroom Seth also wanted to add in a sliding bookcase for a quick getaway.

the next room over from the bedroom is the kitchen/lounging area and a way for Deadpool to keep an eye on his business.

 

 And then next door to that, something Seth adds in to every building that we build, toilets. This time his and hers matching toilets 

And with each Lego toilet that we build, they also come with trap doors into jail cells below.

 Of course its always the Super hero girlfriends that get caught and locked up. Poor Pepper Potts and Mary Jane Watson left to live out their days in a holding cell. Luckily Seth being the gentleman that he is added an escape hatch in to the build...

The boys were close by though and with a quick costume change they were off to save their ladies..

Seth made sure that there was a garage in the build as he told me how important it is to always have a get away vehicle close by when you are a baddie.

 With all the illegal goings on happening within the shop it was obvious that eventually things would start to get out of hand, especially seeing as Dr Octopus left the gun cabinet unattended..

Luckily in Super hero City wherever theres a villian there are heroes just around the corner waiting to do what they do best...

We had so much fun building this and it has already spurred on another big idea which i think we will start building soon, I'm going to need to get Seth sketching his ideas first. The great thing about this build is that it is so strong and the boys can happily play out their stories without fear of it falling apart. Lets just hope Seth doesn't fall on this one like the great Jokers Lego Ice Cream Parlour disaster of 2013.

And when we had finished with our characters we had built a storage box on top of the fascia to put all our minifigures away (yes when it comes to Lego we think of everything).

Stay tuned for more of our creations...