“Riding bicycles will not only benefit the individual doing it, but the world at large.”

I am loving this bike building with Seth at the moment, the pedals we ordered arrived yesterday and the look on his face when he opened the package was priceless. Seeing the boys get excited about things they are creating is really moreish. His new bike (for when he's that little bit taller) is really starting to come together now and it's making me want to build one for myself.

Since starting the build Seth mentioned that he would love his own tools for tinkering with his bike so he was really chuffed when we received a package from Rex London after being included in their 12 dynamite daddy blogs. that included a bike multi-tool and a puncture repair kit. It is always lovely to hear what people have to say about the blog and I'm touched to come in their top 12. Thanks to the great package all Seth needs now is his own mini tool box.

Again Seth did a great job of attaching the pedals himself and they look great. We've also now ordered brake pads and some skyway handlebar grip's to go with his swanky wheels. All that's left on Seth's BMX list is brake levers, calipers and a saddle and then we can concentrate on designing decals, which I think he is excited about the most.

We had talked about replacing the brake cables with something a little more colourful, but then Seth came up with the idea of making use of the remaining patterned duck tape from our Pedalflow. While he played with his friends outside a few days ago I sat in the garden and wrapped his cables, it was a really nice touch and a great idea by Seth.

This bike is all Seth and I'm really proud of how interested he has been during this build so far. It's important to have hobbies and as I've said many times before it's great to have a couple of projects on the go with your kids. These are experiences that they will remember forever.

"It is not the ship so much as the skillful sailing that assures the prosperous voyage."

Part 2 of our London trip, because clearly the Gruffalo took full control of that last post. After finally getting into London and getting over the initial 'what the !@%£ is with all this traffic', we made our way to our friend's house and it was clear that like myself, Opeie didn't have any energy to do much else that evening, so we took it easy. Visiting Sam and Jamie is amazing, they are such lovely people and when we visit, it is like having a couple of fantastic tour guides on hand. We spent the evening discussing where we should go and narrowed our day down to the Horniman museum, because we only spent 30 minutes there on our last visit, Greenwich Observatory and Richmond park. We had the Micro Scooters loaded into the boot ready for action and we set off early to make the most of the day.

When we arrived at the museum it was closed for another half an hour so we made the most of the beautiful surrounding gardens and whizzed around on the scooters. The smooth winding path around the grass areas was great for picking up some speed and we could have happily scooted there all day.

When we entered the museum I looked to see if the lockers were scooter friendly but they were tiny so I carried mine while Opeie casually scooted around. Thankfully no one asked him to get off of it so we were left to our own devices. The Horniman museum is a great resource for our home education adventures and it is great for Opeie to see animals that he's never heard of even if seeing them like that is a little eerie. Opeie thought that the wall of dog heads was "really cute" until he realised they were real heads and he moved us along quickly with disgusted look on his face.

On the way out Opeie picked up a new fashion accessory which he ended up rocking for the remainder of the day. Even as a bug he is still absolutely adorable!

After the Horniman museum, we scooted back to the car and then made our way over towards Greenwich observatory. The weather was lovely and we were both itching to get back on the scooters as soon as we saw the winding paths running from the top of the hill. We've scooted so many amazing places over the years but this had definitely been one of my favourites, we were scooting so fast. The great view and huge grassy area gave us the chance to stop off and have some lunch, lightening the load in my backpack, phew!

We hadn't planned on going to the Maritime museum and I had no idea that it was even there but as soon as Opeie spotted that giant ship in a bottle as we scooted by, it jumped straight to the top of our to-do list. They have a huge manned cloakroom there which meant I got a break from carrying the scooters round which was a relief.

I love nautical themed things especially art work and the Maritime museum was great for taking photos to document our visit. Everywhere you look there is something interesting to learn about (and then use as a backdrop in your pictures). We both loved the ships figureheads mounted on the wall and Opeie managed a cheeky face swap to send Mommy at work (I'm trying to start this as an ongoing game, but I'm yet to receive anything in return... spoil sport!).

When we first arrived at the museum I wasn't sure if there would be anything for Opeie's age group but there is so much for younger children to do and we both had a great time. Opeie got to sail a virtual ship, unload and reload cargo, see what it was like to live on a ship and there was drawing and colouring that he could proudly display. We had so much fun that we ended up losing track of time and had to rush back to the car because of the parking being up.

(Oops, there I go again! come on Mrs. M join in!)

Inevitably, the morning/afternoon of scooting and visiting museums was too much for my little side kick and he had clearly reached his peak when we got back to the car. It was time to head back to our friends house for a relaxing evening with good food and great company (and an early night for us both). Another amazing scooting adventure in London.

"The secret of life? Just enjoy the ride."

The weather in Shropshire this week has been all over the place, with strong winds, torrential rain, hail, snow, and the occasional bright sunshine breaking through. We've not really known what to do with ourselves. Today was one of those days, so... me and Seth decided to continue building our bike. 

After some good behaviour and him clearing out some unwanted toys to make some money for parts, myself and Mrs. M decided to put the rest towards the wheels he had his eye on and surprised him with them. So that afternoon we put some sheets down in his room and started to assemble the bike with the parts that we had.

Seth attached the wheels and we put the crank back after taking it all apart to clean up. It's great doing this kind of thing with Seth as he asks lots of questions about what the use is for each part. He is clearly getting a lot out of building his bike from scratch and I'm really loving the father/son bonding. I do a lot with Opeie throughout the week so this has become mine and Seth's special thing.

After sorting the crank out, Seth fitted his stripy chain that he had sat and made himself and he was looking pretty pleased with what he had achieved. I loved doing things like this when I was younger and having that pride in what you are doing is really important. The plan was to use the 2 left over pedals from the custom Pedalflow job I had recently done but it didn't cross my mind to check the thread size on the pedals and they were, unfortunately, the wrong size. Seth was a little disappointed (I've ordered some more though so he will have those this weekend to tinker with, shhh!).

 
Seth's BMX is really starting to come together which is great but more importantly Seth is really getting to know the ins and outs of his bike and how everything works which if you really enjoy riding, is a great thing to know.

"There are no lines in nature, only areas of colour, one against another."

It's science time again and we've been making water walk! No! we're not crazy but like myself, my little lab partner is very inquisitive and when we stumbled across this experiment online we knew we had to give it a try. When looking for experiments for a 5-year-old it can be difficult to find the right level of interest. I don't want to set up an experiment that is too simple so his attention sways but I also don't want something that he can't fully understand or get involved in. Walking water is the perfect experiment for a 5-year-old. 

You start off with an odd number of cups, preferably the same size. We used 7 but the experiment could work perfectly with 5, even 3 cups depending on the amount of food colourings you have to hand. We filled every other cup with water (around 2/3) and then mixed different food colours to the cups with water in (Red - Empty - Yellow - Empty - Blue - Empty - Red).

We then took 6 squares of disposable kitchen towel and folded them up, placing one end in the coloured water and the other in the empty cup, forming a chain along the 7. All that was left to do then was to wait, which was probably the most difficult task for Opeie as he wanted the magic to happen there and then. I knew that this was going to be annoying for Opeie so I set up another experiment while we waited, to teach Opeie how to test density (which I will write about very soon).

Well... I'm sure you can imagine what happened, no need for me to explain. The experiment turned out amazing! and was another great activity explaining the basics of colour theory!  Most importantly though the experiment was a fun and stimulating activity for my ever curious mini lab partner.

"A mouse took a stroll through the deep dark wood..."

We had a lovely week last week with Mrs' M being off work and we've really made good use of the extra time that we have had with here. Sadly the writing had taken a bit of a hit because I was lazily enjoying being tucked up on the sofa with her every night, watching TV and cuddling. So now I am playing catch up a little. I would love to have time to write about every little thing we get up to as a family, but we pack so much into our weeks that if I did, I would be constantly writing.

Me and Opeie recently had another one of our London adventures and this time headed to some new places that our friends Sam and Jamie had told us about. We decided to drive to London this time, which isn't that great for Opeie being stuck in the car for three hours so we decided to detour when we were close to Buckinghamshire and visit Wendover woods as we knew from previous visits to Foresty Commission sites that there was a Gruffalo lurking somewhere in the woods. We had had so much fun visiting the ones at Wyre Forest and Cannock Chase that we were both eager to find another.

The sun was out and we were ready for adventure. It was great to find that there was a Stickman trail there too, Julia Donaldson is fully monopolising our UK forests. As expected the boards along route were the same as the other sites but it was lovely to take part in the activities in unexplored surroundings.

We built a tower of sticks....

...Rode on a bear and built a den (which to be fair I was really impressed with). We kept well and truly entertained as we searched for the star of the show...

...and then there he was! not lurking in the woods at all but standing in the sunshine looking out over sunny Buckinghamshire. There is something really magical about these large carvings out in plain site and Opeie has gotten so excited during every visit when we have found them. Our favourite though is still the sleeping Gruffalo in Wyre forest.

This was intended to be a post about the whole London trip but it has been dominated by our 'little' detour, so I will have to write a part 2. Wendover woods was a great diversion and really made a huge difference to the 3 hour drive. If you have a forestry commission site nearby, they are definitely worth a visit and if it is one of the homes of the elusive Gruffalo then it is even more special visiting that deep dark wood.

"Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do... but how much love we put in that action."

A few months back Mrs. M picked up 4 frames from the cheapo corner in Ikea and she knew exactly what she wanted to do with them. It wasn't until this week though that she explained her idea to Opeie. The big plan was for him to use his creative flair and draw a picture for each of us to go up in the hall. Opeie jumped at the chance to get his artwork up and got started straight away. I love seeing what the boys come up with when they are being creative, children's drawings are so innocent.

The concentration on his face was intense and when it came to the self portait he requested a mirror from Mrs. M as he was unsure what he looked like.

There was no surprise that both him and Seth would be riding on their Micro-scooters, thay may as well have them surgically attached at this point. The pictures turned out amazing (obviously we expected nothing less) and they have been lovingly mounted on the wall by the front door, to greet all of our lovely visitors. I think it is so important to make a huge deal of your childrens creations and having them on show add's to our already warm and welcoming family home.