A Lego winter wonderland

Eric's challenge was to turn the top of the Lego trolley into a Lego winter wonderland…

Before

After…

A Big Day and A Trip to The Doctor!

Ebi-kun is 8 today, a whole 8 years old, how the heck did that happen? We had a party at the weekend, I will post about later. This morning we got up like a normal school day so that daddy could see him open his presents. We also had Nana and Papie on Skype - I love how we can include family who are the other side of the world!

The traditional I am '8' t-shirt, I started this when he was three, he gets a numbered shirt each year.

And of course lots and lots of books...

and Lego! You really can't go wrong with Ebi-kun if you get him books or Lego, maybe he hasn't realised he could have other things for his presents!

His gift from us was a new bike, he has been riding the same one he had when he was three so we thought it was about time he had a big boys bike. Sadly the weather was being mean but he still had to try it out. It also had a compass, watch, 7 gears and a speedometer - I'm not too sure about that bit! As if boys need any encouragement to ride dangerously hmmmm.

Giving his new wheels a spin....

After presents, daddy went to work and we had breakfast, Ebi-kun didn't each much. About an hour later he is complaining of a headache, I feel his head and he is burning up. take his temperature and it is getting higher by the minute. So I bundle him into his raincoat and we walk round to the doctor, luckily only 5 minutes away. Of course he didn't want to go because he said he shouldn't go to the doc on his birthday, pretty rubbish, poor kid. 

We came back with some fever reducing meds, I manage to get him to eat a bit of lunch then he crashes on the sofa and asks to watch a film, Lego partly built.

I think the meds have helped, he has perked up a bit now and built some more of his Lego, he has requested broccoli soup for dinner instead of birthday pizza. We will have that later in the week!

8 years ago I cuddled a tiny bundle for the first time, I got lots more today. Happy Birthday Ebi-kun you are a rock star and your jokes are rubbish (in a good way!). Here's to many more birthday and cuddles 💖

Tokyo Lego Discovery Rocks!

On Saturday we went to the Lego Discovery Centre in Tokyo and met up with our friends, we had a great day and we all loved the discovery centre.

The first part is a short history of Lego and explanation with hands on parts on how it is made. After that is a ride where you have to shoot skeletons and trolls to free the princess, the boys loved this ride and I think we ended up going on 4 or 5 times!

After the ride, there is the room with models of buildings in Tokyo, including the Sumo dojo and you can make the skinny sumo wrestlers actually fight.

I didn't take photos of everything, there was a jungle gym type of place for the kids to burn off some energy and an AMAZING movie theatre, I won't spoil what happens in there but it was brilliant. There was also another ride that they boys went on alone. 

The boys got totally engrossed in the make it and test it room, there were lots of tubs of Lego and then a variety of ramps so you can race or test how well your vehicle works.

The only disappointing part was the cafe, there was very little choice, a few sandwiches and a couple of not very enticing bento's and you are not allowed to take your own food in. That said, I saw more than one person with a big McDonalds bag in there.

They have classes with 'Master Builders', you need to book a time slot then the master builder shows you how to make whatever it is - this was the parrot class.

We were in there for over 5 hours and could have easily stayed longer. Of course, when you leave you have to go through the shop. Ebi-kun had some birthday money so he got himself some more ninjago Lego. We will definitely be going back but it takes us about 1hr 30mins to get there which is a shame. If we lived closer we would get a yearly pass. 

Are your kids Lego fans? We love it ! 

How to help kids make a stop motion animation...

A while ago I download the free Lego animation app that was released to go with the super heroes Lego. Yesterday we actually got round to using it. We don't have any super hero Lego but we do have plenty of ninja Lego so a ninja fight it would be.

The app is very easy to use and has a handy grid and onion skin so there isn't too much shaking of the camera. I ended up holding the camera (iPhone) as Ebi-kun set up the shots. I think we took about 80 frames and the finished piece is only 23 seconds long, it is a good lesson for kids to learn how long these stop motion animations take to make.

It was a two person job really so if you have two kids I think you could keep them quiet for quite some time :o)

Of course this isn't the first time Ebi-kun has tried his hand at stop motion, he did a Montessori style video when he was four, I will re-post it just in case you missed it first time round..

Do you have a favourite app for entertaining the kids? Please share in the comments section..

Seven, you will be....

So, yesterday was Ebi-kun's birthday. We decided to have a quiet day, no shopping, no housework just relaxing, opening presents, eating, building Lego and watching the Olympics. We started off with cake for breakfast....

Yoda cake of course, I will do a post on how I made it, it turned out to be one of the simplest cakes I have made so far. It was a bit like Christmas when we have to decide who is getting a leg, instead it was who is getting an ear!

Next up was the present opening ceremony... can't hide the excitement on getting another Beast Quest book...

Just in case you forgot how old he is, the number T-shirt tradition continues...

The 'biggie' and it took all afternoon to build it, it was such strenuous work that I was forced to take a nap. We missed the first part of the opening ceremony for the Olympics so it was fun to watch that as well, James Bond and the Queen were brilliant, in fact it was all really well done, proud to be British!

We finished the day as we had started, eating Yoda, I think maybe I should stick to fancy cakes, my Yoda pizza wasn't quite as I had hoped!

Now, I am hoping to get some work done as Ebi-kun is busy battling ninja's and skeletons......

Excited...

Yesterday we spent the day at Design Festa - more on that later, when I have sorted through the squillions of photos I took! Anyway as we got home, just as we turned into our street we could see the delivery man at our door, which could only mean one thing.... LEGO

Ebi-kun really wanted this Earth Dragon to go with his ninjago Lego but I refused to buy it and told him he needed to save up and then he could buy it himself. He had been doing odd jobs around the house and he already had some money in his money box but then Baa-chan sent him some money to buy books with. Of course he thought he could use Baa-chan's money to buy the Lego but I didn't want him to do that since it defeated the object of him earning the money! 

So, Friday he got his money out and counted how much he had then checked the prices on Amazon.jp - it had been reduced so he had enough without Baa-chan's money and still had some left over! As soon as daddy-ebi got home, Ebi-kun was on at him to get it ordered! So when it arrived he was SO excited.

He had time to open it before dinner but not to build it, we said he could build it if there was enough time after he had finished his dinner, now anyone who has met Ebi-kun will tell you that he is the slowest eater in the world, taking over an hour at meals times is not unusual - it drives me insane, but not yesterday, he was done after half and hour and ready to build. I am glad we stuck to our guns and didn't let him use the money Baa-chan had sent for books, he now has his eye on a different set.... let the saving begin!

I remember the first thing that I saved up for, it was a teddy bear that was £4.99 and on offer on the back of Rice Krispies cereal, I was so excited when it arrived and it took me, what seemed like forever to save up for it, I think you needed x amount of tokens too, do you remember the first thing you bought with your own money?

Gift Guide - our top choices

I know all kids are different but I thought I would give you a run down of our most played with toys ...

(in no particular order)

LEGO - He got the castle and some small sets for his birthday, first time round me and daddy built it for him, I think he was overwhelmed with it all. Since then he has build all but the drawbridge by himself. It does tend to stay built and then he plays with it as a castle rather than rebuilding it as something else.

WOODEN BLOCKS - these still get lots of play, from building robots to cities, I have blogged about these before over here.

SCHLEICH - dinosaurs and knights. When I first came across these I admit my first thought was 'how much'? But daddy bought a couple when he was a business trip last year and they have been played and played and played with, the paint hasn't chipped at all, in fact they all look good as new, amazing considering the amount of jousts and battles that go on around these parts. The other thing I love is the attention to detail, we are so impressed with these toys that we have ordered more for his main present this Christmas. I ordered through HappyHappySue, the service was great and the toys a bit cheaper than most places.

*** edit - I am no longer happy with 'Happy Happy Sue' after putting in a second order, they apparently sent it to Japan although I requested it be sent to my moms address but it never turned up and so they eventually refunded the money. I attempted to make the order again since it was supposed to Ebi-kuns main present and then I find out several days later that they can no longer ship to Japan. Shoddy, very shoddy.

TOMIKA - toy cars, Tomika is the main toy car manufacturer here so most of his little cars are Tomikas. We don't have any of the accessories, just a selection of cars. They are the toy of choice to go on train trips and the back of the car.

ART AND CRAFT SUPPLIES - in all shapes and forms. He would rather have blank paper than coulouring books, he does like activity books though, dot-to-dot and mazes. He prefers felt tips pens and coloured pencils to crayons, he does like the Japanese oil pastels.

DRESS UP CLOTHES - like many kids, ebi-kun loves dressing up and make believe. We have a treasure chest from Ikea which is where all his dress up clothes live, I am hoping to pick up a couple more bits and bobs to add to the collection when we get to the UK. last Christmas I made Spotty his faithfully steed using a Melly and Me Pattern, it is really easy to follow and Ebi-kun LOVES Spotty.

and finally....

BOOKS - in every subject! It doesn't matter the language, Ebi-kun devours books, luckily for him, his parents are book lovers too.

Merry Christmas

to all those who celebrate it, we had a lovely day, I managed to cook the full turkey dinner without any disasters. Babyebi was really excited, Christmas eve we went up to bed, I was reading him book when we heard a loud "Ho Ho HO" so we looked out of the fukinuke window and there was Santa-san putting presents under the tree. I was surprised he actually went to sleep after that but he did and Christmas day was lovely. We took our time opening the presents and we left his main pressie - dinosaur Lego until last, needless to say that is all we have played with since.

I also managed to make some new Christmas place setting, getting them finished just in time.

Boxing Day was a bit odd as always, at home we have a big family party, eat too much, drink too much and play stupid games, not quite the same here. We did have an internet chat with the folks back home but with the time difference they were just getting up and we had already eaten dinner and had a glass of sherry or two, it was lovely to see everyone though.

I should warn you that I had three great new books for Christmas...Last-minute Fabric Gifts, Amy Butler's in Stitches and Simple Gifts to Stitch so I will be sewing mad once I get a minute to decide what to do first. I have decided that everyone will get homemade gifts next year, or mostly homemade because there are some awkward cusses out there hahaha.

Well, I am off to make some Staffordshire Oatcakes for lunch, a local dish from home that I REALLY miss but luckily I found a good recipe to make them myself....now my tummy is grumbling........

I'll try and pop in again before New Year but we are off to the in-laws for a few days so I won't be around much, so have a lovely New Years and see you in 2008, if not before.