A few months ago Minty from Water Birth Please asked if anyone in the Northwest was interested in putting forward their little boys for a Lost Boys photoshoot with dj archer photography. A few questions later and we were certain it was the Peter Pan Lost Boys rather than the subliminal cult classic starring Keifer Sutherland and, secretly slightly disappointed,  I put our names down.

My little lads enjoy nothing more than running about with sticks, so it sounded like great fun, and luckily we were chosen, along with 2 boys we actually already knew - Grumpyishmum's sons. 

The weather here has been really sunny recently, but as soon as you plan something like this the weather invariably decides to remind us of it's power, and it really did!


First thing in the morning it was gorgeous and sunny, but by noon it was drizzling. This is Manchester, we're used to that, it didn't phase us at all. We were due to start the photoshoot at 1pm, and as we set off at 12.30am the rain started. By the time we arrived at the shoot location it was belting down. We all sat in the cars for half an hour sand eventually it relaxed, so we decided to go ahead with the shoot.


The boys got to run about with all kinds of props and really did have an excellent time, but within an hour the temperature started to drop, and the clouds came back...


There was an awful lot of 'keeping warm' between shots...



Although the boys all did spectacularly well, with one of the 'props' becoming incredibly useful for shelter, when it started hailing and sleeting the bigger ones only just coped and the little ones were done.


Even though the photographer had more shots he'd wanted to take, we just had to call it a day. Hot chocolate and biscuits weren't even enough to keep everyone going. I think there was relief all round really...


Naturally by the time we'd walked across the field to the cars it had dried up and the sun was breaking through again, but we needed to go home and get the little ones into the bath to warm up.....and then have a birthday party...however we will return - when it's a lot warmer!! 

And it was lovely to be able to get out in the fresh air and enjoy nature - even if it did decide to throw everything it could at us! 

We're rather proud of the LEGO cake we made for our 4 year old's birthday based on the head of Benny The 1970's Spaceman from The LEGO Movie and he loved it. It was really fairly simple and here's how we did it....


You will need a hemisphere (half a ball) cake mould or any smooth metal or Pyrex style bowl you can safely bake in, or an incredibly steady hand to shape the top cake. We used a 16cm medium hemisphere mould (3 egg cake mix) we bought from Lakeland.


You will also really struggle to colour the icing unless you get gel food colouring - I bought ours from ebay and paid about £2.50 each, but they last a long time and will save you money if you use it all as you need such a small amount compared to liquid food colouring.

The cake mix we used was your basic sponge. Using classic sponge is tastier. It's a little harder to work with and doesn't last as long, but I'd rather make something that tastes delicious, rather than using a 'construction cake' recipe.  You will need to make 3 sponges. 2 round (or square and cut them like I did), and 1 hemisphere.

Ingredients (per cake)

3 eggs
Weigh the eggs, get the same quantity of Sugar, Butter and Self-Raising Flour (it'll be somewhere around 180grams)
Teaspoon Vanilla Essence

Method

Preheat the oven to 160c/320f/Gas Mark 3
Grease your pans and line the flat tins if you wish
Cream together the Butter and Sugar
Add the Eggs bit by bit, mixing in between
Add the Vanilla Essence
Add the Flour

Cook for around 25-30 minutes for a flat cake,  50-55 minutes for a hemisphere cake. Stab it with a skewer to test - if it comes out clean then it's done. If the top starts to burn cover it loosely with foil.

Putting together the design

Ingredients

The 3 Cakes
Ready to roll Icing, or make your own with icing sugar
Blue, yellow and black Food Colouring
Butter and Icing Sugar mixed together to make Buttercream
Apricot Jam

Method

Take the 3 cakes and pile them on top of each other. Cut them to shape as below. Mine are different colours as I ran out of white sugar and changed to brown!



Then take them apart, then rebuild with buttercream in between, and cover with buttercream.


I was a bit over-generous, you only need a thin layer of buttercream so that the icing sticks. You can use apricot jam instead if you wish.


Make your blue icing. You'll need elbow grease to get the colour even throughout. This temporarily adds air, which makes it look slightly lighter than the end result will be.

Roll it out big enough that it'll cover the cakes completely.


Choose which side you want as the front and drape the icing over the top being careful not to pull, stretch and break it. You'll have to cut off the spare icing at the back and smooth it together as best you can. Then place it onto the surface you'll be using. Smooth the surface with clean, warm hands. Don't stretch the icing, give it a bit of love.


If you're using a board you can ice that if you wish - we made ours red.

Cut out a template from greaseproof paper for the face. The hole in the spacesuit helmet  is larger than you might think and wraps around the face. I can't give you an exact dimension because your cake won't be exactly the same size as mine!


We used cocktail sticks to hold it in place, and 'dot' around the template carefully, then use a knife to cut out the gap for the face. If you press the icing slightly with the edge of a knife you can make it seem thicker than it is. Don't forget to draw a line in the blue icing to be the broken chin strap!


Use the same template (or one exactly the same shape and size) to cut out  the face from yellow icing. Roll your yellow icing as thin as you dare. Cut 1mm larger than the template all round - just bigger than the template.


Carefully position your face into the gap. If you press it in then it gives the illusion it's further back, and an actual face behind the mask. The buttercream has a little bit of 'give' to it.


My partner also cut out letters freehand to spell boy no.4's name.


Then you have to make the face using black icing. A bottle top (rum) seemed around the right size to cut out the eyes. Use apricot jam mixed with a little warm water to 'glue' the icing onto the iced cake.


Our mouth stretched as we positioned it. You can avoid this by starting at one end, and if it stretches, cut a little off the other end. Once applied, you can't take it back because the black icing stains the yellow icing.


And voila, you have a Benny cake....



The back of our cake isn't incredibly neat, but it wasn't going to be on display for long before it was cut, and our 4 year doesn't care. If I'd had it out for the whole party I'd have smoothed it more.



He thought it was great, and that's what matters most....

Remember the LEGO ad break?

Well, at the time we commented that it was weird Brian the Confused.com robot WASN'T LEGO. He was a model, but not a LEGO model. There was a challenge there, and Confused.com obviously thought so too because not long afterwards we spotted the Brian The Robot LEGO competition on Facebook.

Confused.com are asking Master Builders and Apprentice Builders to create Brian from LEGO and upload a photo, and they're offering some fantastic prizes to the winners. We can't resist a challenge like that, plus it's a load of fun, so here's our entry - courtesy of our Master Model Builder - Mr Brick Castle.

 
It was a great laugh, and we had a bit of fun with him....

If you want to enter, you have to get your model made quickly because the competition closes tomorrow - 28th March. Your entry has to be uploaded to the Brian The Robot Facebook Page, Competition Tab - which you can find here. Best of luck!

Our first big package from LEGO arrived last week and instantly our 5 year old bagsied the LEGO Batman: The Riddler Chase set 76012


The age range on this set is 6-12, so at 5 1/2 and with his experience he was more than capable of putting it together. It's designed for little hands with less strength needed to push together the bricks, no particularly tricky assembly and fairly instant gratification.


It's the most difficult set he's tried alone, with 3 bags and 2 books, but he had no issues at all and had completed it within around 90 minutes!


Bag 1 contains the 3 characters - Batman, The Riddler and The Flash, and the Riddler's Dragster...


I adore the way Batman's mask is taller so that you see the white band above his eyes through the mask, but when removed he does have actual eyes like any other LEGO minifigure...


The dragster has a bomb at the back which releases when you pull a wheelie, and 2 bags for loot.


Bag 2 is the chassis for the Batmobile...


And the final bag finishes the pretty cool Batmobile...



The Batmobile has a flip up rear which exposes the 2 hidden flick-to-fire missiles...


Note the yellow....and there was me thinking Batman only worked in black, and maybe dark grey...


I think the age range is spot on and it's a great set for anyone who likes the DC Comics Super Heroes. At £29.99 for a 304 piece set it's a fairly standard price as it's a franchise model, but as with all the Batman stuff I do think it's a little expensive, £25 would have been nicer.

As a basis for play you have 2 really sturdy models, and although the dragster comes apart when they're rough, it's quickly and easily rebuilt. You have everything you need to fire imagination and storytelling in a child, plus a new Batman and The Flash for the collector.


My boys are delighted with LEGO Batman: The Riddler Chase, it's been incorporated into all of their LEGO play since it was built, and Batman has of course also spent time living on our MetalBeard's Sea Cow....

Although I think I'd tut about the price, I'd buy it.

The PG-rated DVD has a running time of around 2 hours and features the  first 5 episodes from the second season of Nickelodeon’s CGI-animated hit series:

1 - The Mutation Situation
2 - Follow the Leader
3 - Invasion of the Squirrelanoids
4 - Mutagen Man Unleashed
5 - Mikey Gets Shellacne

Plus 2 special features - ‘Ninjas in New York’ and a Channel 6 Special Report entitled ‘Creatures of the Night’.


Voiced by Sean Astin (Lord Of The Rings), Jason Biggs (American Pie) and Greg Cipes (The Middle) among others, it's sees the 4 turtles back fighting crime and Shredder and protecting themselves and humankind from all manner of nasties.


I  used to watch TMNT with my brother when he was little, and then again with my 20 year old 15 years ago, so the format is familiar although the stories feel fresh and obviously the CGI format is far more up-to-date. I think it works really well actually and it was very watchable. My 2 boys certainly enjoyed it - they've watched the entire DVD 3 or 4 times already.


It's got the usual jokey aspect and is very light-hearted, and it's formulaic, but that's really what you'd expect and works very well for a show aimed mainly at children. What does disturb me though, there's far less pizza than there used to be....

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Season 2 Volume 1: Mutagen Mayhem is due for release on 31^st March from Paramount Home Media Distribution. It has an RRP of £9.99.