"The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain."

It's been a pretty bleak few weeks with all of us being ill at some point or other. I still feel really awful myself and I'm surprised I'm writing this instead of curling up on the sofa under a blanket. It's typical that we would all feel like this during Seth's summer holiday and Mrs Ms week off last week that she had booked for a long time seemed like a bit of a waste.

This morning I didn't feel to bad (that didn't last) but the weather had other ideas about us getting out and doing anything. It was absolutely thrashing it down and with Mrs M going back to work today the two kick started the day on a bit of a down note. On the way home from dropping her off we chatted and decided to write a list of activities to do today and tick them off as we go along.

First up make a mask! I've been introducing the boys to more cartoons from when I was younger, they love hearing stories from my childhood and I think they feel a part of it when we are watching old shows. Opeie's latest retro cartoon obsession is Bananaman, so Opeie made it quite clear that on this drizzly day he wanted to be transformed in to the banana eating hero. Seth as always wanted to be the bad guy so he decided on Appleman. I love craft activities like this as they are quick and we can move on before they lose interest.

Next we built a base which soon became  two bases so that we could combine that  with 'play fight' off the list. The Boomco guns came out and within minutes there were darts flying round everywhere.

Next up was 'play on the Wii', which suited me perfectly as it gave me the chance to clear up the battle arena quickly without either boys hanging round my legs. It also meant that I could get the lunch on early in hope that I could get Opeie down for a decent timed nap.

It turned out that I didn't need to worry about that though as the adorable big brother had it covered. We took Opeie to bed with a pile of books and after I'd read a couple Seth offered up his services which resulted in a very relaxed Opeie and a poorly Pauly getting about 10 minutes myself, Oopsy.

While Opeie was asleep we moved on to LEGO and Seth continued working on something pretty awesome which I will write a full post about very soon. I'm so proud of how creative he's getting with his building.

By the time Opeie had woken up the rain had stopped and the sky was relatively clear so we jumped at the chance to get our shoes on and venture out in hope that the weather was going to play ball. Mrs M had mentioned that she needed some apples and Blackberries so we hit all the hotspots from last years scrumping but our haul was a little disappointing.

Opeie soon had enough so we headed home to play some more LEGO. It wasn't long before it was time to pick Mrs M up again so we were all excited about seeing that beautiful face of hers. It was great actually being out of the house for a bit and I had high hopes for tomorrow but as Mrs M has just had to ring our out of hours doctor for an appointment this evening I think I'm going to need a little more than hope. Guess we'll be making another list in the morning and fingers crossed Seth can get me down for a well deserved afternoon nap.

"A slug is always on its own. It's a lonely insect."

I'm two weeks behind on my weekly LEGO project photo's, i seem to have so many other things going on with Seth being off school, not to mention them both being ill on and off and Seth now having Tonsilitis. I decided to use a picture i took a couple of weeks ago when i saw a slug making its way across our path outside.

Poor Mrs M slimed by a big fat slug, enjoy...

Check out our previous posts...

Week 1: Meeting the Queen

Week 2: Raindrops keep falling on my head

Week 3: Fun at the beach

week 4: Hunting for Snails

"London calls me a stranger, A traveller..."

Sometimes I have posts that take me forever to write. This is usually because we've done something or been somewhere and have taken a ridiculous amount of photos. I've been putting off writing this post for weeks now because of that reason. A few weekends back we had an amazing weekend in London, visiting friends and taking in the sites. Seth had been going on about London for quite sometime so he was so excited especially at the thought of seeing Big Ben.

The drive down was shattering as I had been up quite early and it was hot. We picked Seth up from school and headed straight there. We were staying with our good friends Sam and Jamie, I love hanging out with them both they are such great people and having some experienced London tour guides always makes visits there that little less stressful. By the time we arrived it was a little late and everyone was hungry so we had some tea and then Jamie offered to take us out for a drive to see the city under the moonlight. As soon as we walked out of their front door there was a fox standing in the street waiting for us but I couldn't get a shot quick enough for our next fox post. It was lovely to be in the passenger seat for once and the boys were really excited about seeing the palace and the London eye etc all lit up.

The following morning after a great well deserved sleep (for me anyway) we got ready to go out, Opeie hadn't slept brilliantly so we popped out to buy a pushchair as it was obvious he would want to sleep within the first few hours of being out. He never uses a pushchair so I didn't pack it (it turned out to be quite the lifesaver). Mrs M was working so me and the boys ventured over to the museum of natural history with Sam and Jamie as Seth had missed out when we visited a few months back.

After a couple of hours pottering about there we went next door to the science museum. One of the things I love most about London is that in many areas there is so much going on and all so close together, you can spend a whole afternoon not far from where you have started but manage to see a few attractions. The boys had a great time and were really excited about all the buttons they could press and levers they could pull.

After the science museum we made our way back to pick Mrs M up, she looked shattered so we made our way to Sam and Jamie's for food and a relaxing night in. Jamie gave us a crash course in juggling and we showed him the wonders of the 3ds. It was so nice being somewhere where there was no clutter, it's amazing how much your house fills up when you have children, Sam and Jamie's place was so relaxing.

On the Sunday morning we had arranged an open top bus tour with Golden tours as it was something Seth had wanted to do for quite some time. Seth was so excited about being on a double decker bus, which to me seemed odd as being brought up in Birmingham most of the buses are double decker, here in our part of Shropshire though you don't generally see them. We hopped on a train to get to the bus stop which conveniently are dotted all around London and it was so nice not having to drive as I get a little frustrated driving in traffic around London. The bus was already there waiting which was great and we sat upstairs at the back of the bus, the sun was out and it was really relaxing driving about. Everyone had big smiles and looked really at ease it was a great way to spend a Sunday morning.

While taking in the sites I remembered that LEGO had put up and Bus stop outside Hamleys and I really wanted to get some pictures of it, not before we visited Wholefoods though (Mrs M's mother ship). The great thing about the London tour buses is having the flexibility to hop on and off all over London for the day. The bus stop was amazing, really cleverly done, everything you would expect from LEGO, I'd love something like that in the house it would be a great talking piece.

As we were outside Hamleys we thought it would be rude not to go and have a look around. The guy blowing bubbles outside (what a great job) told us there were some special LEGO characters on the top floor. Mrs M's eyes lit up when she saw who it was.

And then it was time for us to get back on the tour bus and take in the rest of London's sites. while waiting for the bus something quite frightening happened, our bus arrived and Mrs M, Seth and Sam stepped on when out the corner of my eye i saw a motorcyclist lose control of his bike cross lanes and head towards me and Opeie, luckily i managed to get us out of the way before the rider ploughed in to a shop window, if the bus hadn't have arrived and we were all standing there we may not have been so lucky.

Frightening as it was we didn't let it ruin our day and we took full advantage of the Golden Tours route.

The tour guide was great and the trip was really educational. The story we heard about Selfridges kick started a new obsession for Mrs M with the TV show Mr Selfridge.

 After a couple of hours riding about taking in lots of things that London has to offer the boys started to get a little tired so we headed towards Seth's favourite part of London, the tube...

We made our way back to Sam and Jamie's for a bite to eat before starting the journey back home to Shropshire. It was the perfect weekend away with close friends and being in London has got Seth so excited about our next visit. Mrs M also came away with big smiles after spending the weekend with her best friend and who can blame her both her and Jamie are so much fun to be around.

"Sometimes that light at the end of the tunnel is a train."

Since our recent purchase of a big mystery box of LEGO and our new found love of LEGO trains, we ended up building a DC Comics inspired Joker train which I wrote about last week. Our track was looking a little bare and while me and Seth were out scooting on friday we walked across a level crossing and feeling inspired he rushed back to build one for his track. I love how he went on Google for some ideas and then sat and built it while we were making lunch.

I wanted to make something fun for the boys to play with too, to add to their new track so while the boys were in bed last night I started to build them a platform based again around their favourite comic book characters, the minifigures have got to get on and off somewhere right?

With some great colourful characters to choose from and base shops and stands on, I had so much fun building. I wanted to build a couple of shops/buildings based around specific characters and their colour schemes so that the boys could use them for their usual creative role play. I started off with one of my favourite DC minifigures 'The Flash' who is manning the Stations information desk and ticket sales. Best man for job of a fast paced railway station I say.

When we purchased The Riddler Chase kit a few months back, I thought it was a little random that he came with a banana but it gave me all the inspiration I needed to build him a Deli/Pizza stall. I love builds like this as you can go all out with the smaller details and with this amazing timeless building toy there is is no end to the possibilities.

I wanted to make use of the large printed, single piece Batman doorway that we got when we brought Opeie the Batman easy build Defend the batcave kit. I love these kits for the larger printed pieces as they are great for younger builders to build around but also look great on custom builds like this. I think it worked perfectly for the exit from the station.

I had no idea who to base the space that was left on as I wanted to build something colourful but then I remembered the custom iPhone cover I built a while back and the character that was sitting In the back of it. The remainder of the platform definitely belonged to Aquaman and it had to be a newsagents. I love the orange, green and yellow colour scheme and it ended up looking great.

A few benches, bins and CCTV and we were ready to add all the other DC characters in or collection. Luckily Mrs M had some work on last night so apart from the rummaging of bricks it was a quiet night making the most of one of my favourite and more creative hobbies.

If your a regular reader to our LEGO posts then you'll know that I like to include ourselves in most of our custom builds and this one was no different, wearing fitting outfits of course.

The boys were super excited when the got up and saw what was waiting for them and they couldn't wait to start adding to their new piece of LEGO railway. This has by far been the best kind of train toy we have had as every piece of it is fully customisable if you have the patience and creativity.