"A Pirates life for me..."

If you are a regular reader you will be fully aware of how much of an impact a certain brick has on my relationship with the boys. I've been in complete awe of Lego for so many years. This is a company that shaped a huge chunk of my development and is now doing the same thing for those two very special boys of mine. The last few years though have been the most exciting, being able to blog for Lego is obviously like a dream come true and being able to share what I know and the passion I have for LEGO with the boys and help to unlock their imagination is truly amazing too. Aside from those things, one of the huge reasons for this excitement is the vast variety throughout all of LEGO's awesome themes. There really does seem like there is no end to what this unstoppable company has to offer. Lego's own creations like Mixels, elves and Nexo knights etc are keeping kids everywhere (and us older geeky builders) entertained and well stocked with new parts and ideas, and new TV and Movie themed kits seem to be popping up all the time, which personally I cannot get enough of. Who would have ever though that the Ghosbusters would get a firehouse headquarters! (I can't stop pining over this kit haha).

With the new angry birds movie hitting the cinemas I was not at all surprised that LEGO would be in on the action and when I first saw the kits online I knew I needed a closer look at these interesting Angry Birds kits and bizarre Minifigures. Like me, the boys love anything LEGO so Opeie was really excited to see the Piggy Pirate Ship in his room waiting to be built. We've got to that point now where Opeie is really independent and wants to build on his own, which although, selfishly is a little disappointing for me because I love to be involved, is great for Opeie's development. Learning how to follow plans confidently at his age is a great skill to have.

The Piggy pirate ship is one of the larger kits from the range so I knew that Opeie would need a tiny bit of daddy help but he got stuck in and surprisingly built the entire kit pretty quick. I'm always on the look out for interesting parts when these new themes and kits come out and I watched eagerly as Opeie excitedly connected each brick.

The finished ship looked great and the fact that the oars and paddle wheel move when pushed really added to the play fun. The only downside to the kit for us was the Minifigures, as they are single piece figures (apart from hats). Opeie's favourite part of building a LEGO kit is putting the Minifigures together so I think he was a little disappointed with that missing. That didn't stop his imagination and creativity kicking in though and he knew exactly what he wanted to do with the ship as soon as we had completed it.

Our LEGO building recently has been all about the trains and with the release of the Disney Minifigure range (which are fantastic), Opeie requested that we build a stitch themed train. They have had track running around their room for the last few weeks so I wasn't at all surprised that the Piggy pirate ship recieved an upgrade of train wheels to the base. Thats what I love about LEGO, where kids often lose interest in many toys when it comes to LEGO every build and creation can be transformed in to something new with only a few extra parts.

 We didnt move from this spot for a huge chunk of the afternoon, with the pigs and birds sailing the plastic rails being chased by Disney's finest. The catapult included in the kit was great for blowing the trains off of the tracks and with swords and shields at the ready there was tons of swashbuckling action to be had. We changed the crane boulder to lego magnets too and had them picking up all sorts as Opeie drove them around. There is no toy quite like LEGO, its versatility makes it (for me) the most intelligent building toy on the market with endless possibilities.

With 6 kits released in the Angry birds range, The Piggy Pirate Ship has got us looking at other kits from the range and we have our eyes on the Pig City Teardown and Bird Island Egg Heist , both of which would look great added to the boys latest LEGO train set up.