we built this city.... we built this city from le....go bl....ocks.

One of mine and my sons favorite past times is Lego, when i was young i used to spend a huge chunk of my time building things out of Lego too (usually robots). I just love the way you can build a master piece then destroy it and build something completely different. Although we love building the kits....

......there's always so much more satisfaction from building something from scratch, Plus i always love the look on Mrs M's face when she see's our final creations. Last year we  brought 18kg of Lego for the boys (well i say for the boys but secretly...)

The day the Lego arrive we decided we should make something for mommy, as she loves giraffe's we thought that would be the best choice.

He now lives in the lounge and wont be taken apart (no matter how desperate we get for yellow and black bricks)

We tend to build quite a lot of random things

Each thing that is made,is made to my sons very specific idea's, (and trust me some of them take a lot of time to work out). I like to think of them as commissions. 

One of our recent builds came about when my son saw the Beastie Boys video Intergalactic. 

His specifications were:

moving eyes

moving cogs in the chest

chest should also have windows where you can see scientists working inside

360 degree body movement

claws for hands that move

arms that have 2 joints in each

jail cells in the legs to hold bad guys

A wind up cog on the back

And a detachable foot that is a ski car

Some times it shocks me that these sort of things come from out 5 year old

Any way here is the finished piece....

Well the little man was very happy with the outcome but now wants a girl robot to keep him company so watch this space.

I love the fact that Lego can keep you and most importantly the kids occupied for a long time,although there are times i should really be getting on with the house work! oops!

My youngest is desperate to join in with us and get in on the action but at 10 months and happy to stuff anything he can grab hold of into his mouth i don't think its a great idea (i will soon be stocking up on megabloks though).

It doesnt stop me making things that he likes though and it wouldn't be right unless i made some thing Yo Gabba Gabba.

This weeks 'commission' was of course super hero related,i was asked very nicely for a Captain America shield made of Lego.

Ta...Dar!!!

This year for Christmas the only thing that our son REALLY wanted was the Lego City police station, which he pretty much built himself. (i was very impressed)

Unfortunately since building the police station it has been taken over by the imperial forces..

It seems that the Lego city general public are more concerned with the drunken chef on the roof that is about to fall (during our Lego playing there always seems to be a drunken citizen causing trouble)

My son finds it really funny that when ever we play with his Lego city sets Darth Vader just rides a round happily clutching a diamond and a key to the jail cells, he never has any relevance to the story were playing, he just likes to have him riding around laughing (gotta love a child's imagination)

I'm quite sure there will be many other blog entries with our creations and Lego adventures,so until next time....

"A drawing is simply a line going for a walk".

As the weeks go by i am becoming more and more impressed by my son's drawings, i find the way children view things and the markings they use to express what their seeing so interesting. id love to be able to draw like him but im never going to be able to see things from his perspective.

Recently he has been drawing a lot of super hero's (surprise surprise). 

I love the fact that i don't even need to write who they are as you can clearly tell which hero he has drawn.

You can ask him to draw anything, at first he will say "i can't draw that" but once he gets going theres no stopping him. Me and Mrs M are both creative people and even met studying Art at university so we do everything we can to encourage the boys to be creative with many different mediums.

This is definitely my favorite of his super hero drawings (so far).

There's something really touching about your child coming to you clutching a piece of paper and saying "ive drawn a picture of you".

For example, this is me and my son having a food fight, he has chosen the classic tomato (im assuming over ripe for maximum effect on impact) i myself have chosen a slice of cucumber (im not sure what i was thinking that day but its quite clear who would win that battle).

This would be me again, cleverly on his part he has decided to draw this portrait showing both my front and rear. apparently i am naked and my bum crack goes all the way up my back?? more importantly i am anatomically incorrect (nothing beats being de-masculated buy a 5 year old). The pink spot on the back of my head is my brain!! (oh how i love my boys mind).

Both mine and Mrs M's favorite all time picture was the one he pulled out of his school book bag a couple of weeks ago. I love the thought of him sitting in school drawing pictures of us. Its clear he loves us as much as we love him.