"The true secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life."

A month or so back me and my little sidekick took Mrs M to a business meeting in Stroud, I'd never been before and had no idea what was there so the prospect of heading in to unchartered territory as always was exciting. We love just wandering around places we don't know and taking everything in. When we arrived Mrs M went off to do what she needed to do and we went adventuring. I thought it would be fun to get Opeie to point out all the things he could see that interested him and I'd take pictures. I'm not sure why but the post never got written but a few days back we had to go to Stroud again so we played the same game and well, here's some of the pictures from both trips.

It was nice to see that a lot of the things that interested Opeie were from nature, trees, berries etc...

We stumbled in to a little toy shop and found a little fox to come home with us. The Gruffalo and little brown mouse were very happy about the new addition to our family and 'foxey' as we're calling him now has become a 'book fox' and reads with us every afternoon...

Opeie seemed quite amused by the 'lady with an iPad head' in one of the bank windows, So she was added to Opeie's items of interest. It was so much fun listening to Opeie get excited about things and then say 'Daddy take a picture!'.

"Wow daddy look! a big number 1!" i love how excited he gets about everything...

Fox!!!!

Opeie was really missing mommy and we thought it was cute when we found this book in a charity shop to read while we were having snacks...

More Foxes!!!

Opeie was really excited when we found a book with his friends name on the front.

yeah, you guessed it... Fox!!!

And there you have it, the things that grab a 3 year olds attention. It would be lovely to have his innocence for the day and only see the beautiful things that are in our eye line. As a dad (although i did pick up on the many things Opeie did), i was concentrating more on a cyclist that almost hit us, Selfish smokers blowing smoke our way and an array of people effing and jeffing as they walked by with no consideration that there were young ears present. Never lose that innocence Opeie in many ways i crave it daily for myself.

“Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.”

Opeie has started getting in to his drawing a lot more recently which is great, its one of the things i loved to do when i was a lot younger and is still something i enjoy today when i have the time. Embracing your creative side is so important and personally i think it is as important as the academic side of learning. With every new shape drawn and mark made Opeie is developing exactly the way we wanted him to and his excitement recreating the people he loves most is infectious, One of his most recent creations is a dedication to the beautiful one in our family, mommy. I think he's captured something here that perhaps we don't all pick up on.

So here she is, Mrs M in all her glory,  Excellent work Opeie...

"Time flies over us, but leaves its shadow behind."

This morning we had a long drive over to the hospital where Seth goes to see his consultant regarding his muscles. Mrs M took him for his appointment while I (as always) did my best to entertain mini me. It's great that the sun has decided to reappear over the last week or so and was actually the driving force for this post.

As we walked across an empty car park (we were looking for a pig on a farm we had driven past on the way in) Opeie noticed his shadow and decided to start racing it. We've had plenty of fun over the years with our shadows but today Opeie was asking lots of questions "when I turn around why does my shadow chase me?" And "where's my shadow gone now" (as we waked past a tree). I asked him what he thought and he said "because it's dark from the tree" (so i explained in more detail) clever boy!

We had some fun making interesting shapes and Opeie asked if we could make a two headed monster.... Tadar!!

We were still looking for that big fat black pig we had seen and decided to walk along the side of the road. Opeie seemed concerned about the safety of our shadows due to the traffic coming from behind but looked amazed as we stood still to see what would happen as a car passed us, our shadows leapt onto the side of the car, amazing!!

Still no pig! We did see an emo looking horse though but he didn't seem all that impressed by us so we carried on looking for shadows, holding things in front of the sun to see what happens. It was a simple way to fill our waiting time but an activity that kept opeie entertained.

After the hospital we dropped Seth at school and found some other things to keep us entertained When we picked him back up we continued our afternoon of Shadow discovery and went for a walk around our local lake...

I love being a dad, every little thing you do on a daily basis can be turned in to a learning activity, if your creative and don't just see a walk as a walk then you can mentally stimulate your child and get them asking question after question.

"Having hit a wall, the next logical step is not to bang our heads against it."

I am all about great quality sustainable toys that can be packed away when they have been outgrown, ready for the next generation of tiny feet and it's one of the things I love about writing for Bigjigs toys.  When it comes to children's play things, youngsters will always see the appeal for classic wooden toys.

This month we were sent the Wooden Wrecking ball to review, taken from their selection of wooden vehicles. Opeie wanted to make sure he had some friends with him to witness what he had planned. You can't fully appreciate a wrecking ball unless you have something to destroy and this was the basis for Opeie's plans to build a house.

With a large chunky structure and bright vibrant colours you can see why their products are so popular with children. I don't remember having any wooden toys when I was younger and it would have been nice to still have a classic wooden toy that I had played with to pass on. I'm sure the boys will have plenty to pass on when they are ready.

The house didn't go down to well so he built a wall instead in hope it would come down a little easier. With the wall built it was time for Opeie to put the wrecking ball to the test as his cuddly audience watched on...

If your children are anything like I was when I was younger then this toy would have gone straight outside in the dirt, which is another great advantage to good quality wooden toys. Opeie would have played with this none stop a year or so ago but sadly I think it's a little too young for him now to keep him interested. It's definitely something to pack away for future generations of our pirate family though.

As always it was a great quality toy from the Bigjigs ever expanding selection of fantastic eco friendly toys, for more vehicles to accompany the range click here.

"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.

"There's nothing safe about Pollutonium. It's everything toxic in the world concentrated into a single substance"

Remember that villainous bad guy Adam Acid from the LEGO Ultra Agents Riverside Raid? Not the nicest of chaps but we managed to defeat him and save the day (and the president). It was another victory for the Gifts from the Pirates boys... 

What happened after that day sent the boys in to an almost emotional meltdown. Adam acid escaped from their custody and instantly turned on the attractive one in the family while we were not looking. Mrs M was helpless and using some sort of toxic mind control the villain sent her in to a trance...

Episode 2:

Since the transformation in to this villainous vixen the citizens of Astor City have not been safe. She has been on a rampage dumping toxic waste and sludge at every chance. While i went hunting for my toxic green wife to be, the boys enlisted the help of our friend Chris to build the lab, cure mommy of her problem and find a permanent way of safely disposing of the sludge.

With 465 pieces to work out and put in their correct place, and with Toxikita destroying the city the boys were racing against the clock. Half way through the build tragedy stuck, it was time for us to leave Chris' but our lab wasn't complete, would Toxikita ruin everything if we didn't deal with the situation right away?

 Image taken from the LEGO Ultra agents iPad app...

Mommy Toxikita saw her chance to start building herself a toxic helicopter to spread more dangerous rubbish over Astor City (this was so out of character for Mrs M she's usually more like the Lorax). Despite there being some interesting pieces and although it was an intricate build It wasn't long before she and her toxic henchman had built their ship ready to unleash all manner of horrors over the city (and in pretty amazing matching colours too, it's like I always say it's all about accessorising).

Back at home the boys began work again on the lab and there really was no time to spare. Toxikita was out of control and needed to be stopped, was this the end of Astor city? (Of course not I know you are all hoping for episode 3.)

With the lab finally complete the boys put on their ultra agents fancy suits and helped Agent Curtis Bolt To rescue mommy (hang on! what happened to me? Wasn't I at the start? Clearly I'm just the narrator these days).

After a dangerous and heated chase through the city the boys and Agent Curtis Bolt Had Toxikita and her henchman cornered. The stand off didn't take too long though when Agent Bolt Pulled out an interesting bit of secret agent kit designed by the lab geeks and stunned the two menaces.

They managed to get the two trouble makers back to the lab and prepped for toxic removal. 5 minutes later and a virtually painless procedure and Mrs M was back to her old self. It was only fair to sort the henchman out too.... "Dad!" (Well me and Mrs M do like to do everything together).

It was a very stressful few days in the lab but the nerds came up with a way to store all the toxic waste safely and made it possible to use it to power Astor City, which was starting to get back to normal after the near toxic disaster.

Despite Mrs M being under the control of Adam acid the courts still held her accountable for the cities damage, it was a desevestating blow for the Gifts from the Pirates boys. 

Luckily she escaped serious jail time as long as she aggreed to attended her bad guys anonymous meeting once a week until her rehabilitation was complete

The End... 

*As always LEGO have made another fantastic kit and the LEGO Ultra Agents range have a great selection of kits with new characters, parts and a gripping story to go with the characters of Astor City. There is no end to the fun you can have with LEGO, all you need to go with any of their kits is a little creativity. Stay tuned for the next epic adventure and see who the boys battle next. If you cant wait that long the boys have just informed me its going to be the Nedbot 3000... Terrifying!!

Until next time happy building LEGO addicts.