"THERE WAS SOMETHING odd about the tour guide. She was tall, with long hair, and she seemed to know a lot about Chinese history - as she should, working in a museum. But as Steven Lee listened to her, he couldn't shake the feeling that she wasn't quite what she seemed."

I never did enjoy school trips when I was younger, but for Steven, his school trip to 'The New China Heritage Museum' would change his life forever when he decides to act on his hero like tendencies and follow the unnerving screams from a museum door and an intriguing tour guide named Jumanne acting very out of character. Steven follows the screams down a creepy staircase to an underground cave filled with mysterious pools,

Here he sees a man floating above the pools who is addressed by three scientists as Maxwell. The underground pools contain powers connected to the Chinese zodiac and Maxwell and his army 'The Vanguard' are attempting to consume the powers of all 12 zodiac signs. Had Steven stumbled on this place by chance? or had fate brought him there? and was there anything behind the nickname his grandad had given him growing up "little Tiger".

While saving the Museum tour guide (who he finds out is actually named Jasmine). he unexpectedly consumes the power of the Tiger giving him increased strength and the reflexes and agility of the wild cat. Steven manages to escape the capture set in motion by Maxwell and his army and his world is completely turned around when he joins Jasmine and Zodiac expert Carlos in attempting to stop the vanguard, an evil organisation desperate for the powers of the zodiac.

Growing up with Stan Lee's amazing stories over the years I have connected with so many of his characters. I'm a super hero fan through and through and his amazing writing style, taking people with super human powers who can scale buildings, lift tanks and fly around in iron suits while having to deal with all the real life issues that we all deal with makes him stand out well above the rest. His latest venture 'The Zodiac Legacy - CONVERGENCE' continues this moreish style of writing that gets me hooked every time. I'm only half way through the book but I'm eager to read more and that's the kind of book I want to be reading. As with any book, if it doesn't grab my full attention in at least 5 pages then the book isn't getting read.

If the excitement of a new Stan Lee book isn't excitement enough, it's only signed by the man himself isn't it!!! aaaaggggggghhhhhh!!!! Geek overload!

Convergence, written by Stan Lee and Stuart Moore with art by Andie Tong is the first book in The Zodiac Legacy series and i cant wait to get stuck into the next installment.

 

A cloudy day is no match for a sunny disposition.

The sun is out!!!! and I couldn't be more happy about it. I'm a perky guy even if it is cold and gloomy, a bright sky though makes all the difference to a home schooling parent as it means even more adventure outdoors. I cant wait for the summer this year as I want to pack in as much midweek camping as I can with Opeie and then Seth can join us during the summer holidays too. That's all I've got to say for now. Enjoy the sun while you can it will most likely be gone tomorrow.

"The power of imagination makes us infinite"

We've been out a lot over the last few months visiting different places and adventuring. Sometimes I feel like we don't spend as much time at home as we should. The evenings are our down time though and that's when we do most of our gaming. There has been a few games keeping Seth occupied during his gaming time recently but for Opeie there is only one he is interested in playing.

Disney infinity 3.0 has got to be the most played game in our home and with the enormous selection of Disney characters to choose from spanning over decades of those movies we all love in some way, I can definitely see the appeal.

After buying Opeie the inside out level pack he was even more hooked and eager to get his hands on the remaining three characters. Since Christmas though I have been more aware of the amount of cool stuff that the boys receive through the blog and I don't want them to forget what is important, so we have set up games and tasks and Opeie had to earn them through fun tasks and activities. The great thing about this was that not only did he get something that he really wanted but that he was full of pride for achieving each one, Go Opeie!

Disgust, Anger and Sadness are a great addition to the Inside out levels. With each character having a different ability or skill, having the other characters to play with makes progressing through the levels that little bit smoother.

Disney Infinity is going to be about for some time, that's clear! It's lovely to have something that me and Opeie can sit and play together and I really believe that our co-op strategic playing together adds another level to our awesome relationship. Since earning these too Opeie was bought the recent Hulkbuster character on a shopping trip with Nanny Roo too which is one of my favourites to play with. With Opeie's birthday just around the corner he now has his eyes on Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde from Zootopia and I wouldn't mind getting my hands on Vision and Ant-man, Awesome!!!

"Mommy you are AMAZING"

Mothers day! the most important day of the year in our house for me and the boys as Mrs M really takes care of us all and although I like to think that we show her how we feel about her every day its nice to have that one very special day of the year where we can really make a fuss of her.

She's not my mom though so its only right to let one of the boys write this post and our eager 4 year old was quick to step up the the plate as he wanted to write about his lovely mom (in his own words) and pick some great pictures...

Opeie just asked me to add on the end "I think mommy is beautiful!"

"Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud."

Back in November I wrote about Opeie's news paper 'Happy Times', which started out as a fun activity one afternoon, thought up by Mrs M. They took photos of Opeie's toys and came up with funny stories to go with the pictures. Opeie got so excited making it that we decided to incorporate it in to his homeschooling and back in Decemeber we started the second edition which Opeie decided was going to be titled "The rainbow edition".

The news paper has been great for both Opeie's reading and writing, we've used this for all sorts of different activities and it has really helped with keeping him motivated with this side of learning. On top of all the other positives its great for keeping me coming up with new places to go, its all about the experiences.

When I asked him a few days back why he loved writing Happy Times? He told me that he thought it was like the blog, but on paper which I thought was really lovely. Its great to see Opeie so confident with what he is creating too. Whenever we have people over he is eager to get it out and show it off.

I'm really hoping that when he is older this will be something great to look back on, to show him all of the great things that we got up to during this homeschooling adventure. It has been interesting for me as we have gone through the pages to see the clear development in the penmanship and the confidence in his writing.

'Happy Times' is here to stay and as his writing progresses I'll look more in to the structure of the sentences he is writing to help him further with creative writing. Even though I am loving the home education I still have days where I worry that I am maybe not doing enough but then I see him producing work like this that he is excited about doing and it completely backs up our decision to keep Opeie home and educated in a way that is suited to his needs and development.

"Why fit in when you were born to stand out?"

As a stay at home dad/blogger it can be really difficult sometimes to review a product if I need to be in the photo myself. If these rare times crop up I have to rely on Mrs M to be about because she is the only person I know will get the shots right. There's not a lot of chance of that midweek because she's hard at work and the weekends are usually so crammed full of fun activities. This weekend though we got the chance to head out in the sunshine to get pictures of the thing that is bringing me so much entertainment with the boys at the moment.

Back in December I came home to a surprise package, beautifully wrapped and screaming 'OPEN ME!'. It wasn't quite Christmas but I thought What the heck, (I always was a bit of a rebel). I had mentioned in a post last year that I was really intrigued by the Micro Scooters Pedalflow and after removing the ribbon, there staring up at me was a new toy, Christmas really had come early. When you see the scooter I think its impossible to not be intrigued. The Pedalflow looks so much fun and once you've got over the initial few seconds while you try and adapt to a completely different style of scooting it really doesn't disappoint. You wouldn't believe how many strangers have had a go on this after seeing me pedaling around.

So yesterday we planned to take the scooters down to Ironbridge for a family scoot and as we were just scooting away from the car to head towards the park we spotted Auntie Lottie walking towards us. Shes always up for a spot of adventure and luckily there was a spare set of wheels in the boot for such a scooting adventure, so the five of us made our way towards the park.

With large chunky air filled tyres and a much more beefy frame than any of their other scooters, the Pedalflow would seem like it would be weighty and harder to manoeuvre but once you get going and pick up some momentum this thing is AWESOME. I love using the Suspension scooter everywhere we go and it is great if it needs to be folded and carried about. The Pedalflow is nowhere near as easy to move about but for shorter journeys and for attempting crazy tricks on, this scooter is the best. When I was younger It was all about my BMX (which I took everywhere). The Pealflow gives me that same kind of feeling and is great for jumping of curbs and low walls (don't tell MRS M though, I'll get told off).

This scooter is a head turner and when I am out and about on it, it gets people talking. As I said before I have been stopped many times for people to ask questions and Ive let more random people give it a try than I can remember, a true attention grabber. As expected Auntie Lottie couldn't wait to give it a try, I personally wouldn't attempt riding this in heals (although with by beard I may pull it off) but she threw caution to the wind and jumped on. The only negative about this scooter (pointed out by Lottie too) is that it is difficult to get up a hill if you are starting from a stationary position, but then if you are the scooting equivalent of a boy racer like me you hit that hill with avengeance.

The Pedalflow could be a great addition to physical training or weight loss. In the words of Micro themselves "Riding the Pedalflow will strengthen your thighs, glutes and hamstring muscles. In addition the abdominal and spinal erector muscles act as stabilisers promoting core strength." I can honstley speak from experience that a good session ridding on this makes you feel like you've had an all over workout, which is great.

This pedalled beauty may be heavier and a little more clumpy than all of the other scooters from Micro but it still folds down and fits perfectly in the boot. Adding to all of the other positives that this scooter has to offer.

The pedalflow is not by any means perfect for long distance commutes or lugging around by hand (I'll be putitng that to the test around London soon though) but personally for me so far this is the most fun scooter we own.

"The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless."

A month or so ago me and Opeie were having one of our many LEGO sessions, which usually involve him coming up with something and us trying to build it together. This time though he wanted us to make a spy phone each, as he told me that he thought "there are baddies everywhere and they need to be defeated". I thought this was adorable so we began building right away. Usually when we build something together he breaks it up before we've even put the LEGO away, but this time was different.

The phones were finished and we instantly started receiving phone calls from a mysterious person known only as 'The Boss'. Each call comes with the most bizarre missions. When the Boss calls Opeie, no one knows where we will end up or what the day has in store for us. In London this week we captured an evil Owl, a villian named Tiny Joe (who can get in to buildings through the key hole), various London pigeons and an army of Taxidermy ducks. 

When the boss calls me I use the mission for exciting home schooling exercises. If we are at home one of Opeie's toys might get kidnapped and we are left with an activity sheet at the door of every room in the house. To search for his missing friend he must complete the activity to progress through the house. The phones have given us a never ending amount of entertainment.

The great things about these phones are you can get reception anywhere, we've not been conned into a rolling contract that keeps getting more expensive and there's no need for insurance, because if they break we just get more LEGO! (take note EE).

"RING RING....." Sorry guys adventure calls!!!