A ferry merry Christmas

This is actually a photo taken in Oslo, but Jake, his big brothers Alex and Zac and I were in such a hurry to get on board in Copenhagen that I totally forgot to get out my camera.

We weren't even sure we would leave Danish waters because four steps from the check-in, I looked at Jake's passport and thought...gosh he looks young in that photo. Suddenly realised I'd brought his old English passport by mistake. It ran out last year. His new one was at his dad's. Oops. Zac said just smile and we'll get through, after all if you drive to norway you don't need a passport. Luckily we got on board but Jake's dad was on high alert ready to fax anything required just in case! 

In fact we were so happy to get on board that Jack the Pirate Parrot got a hug!

The rest of this post will show some of the facilities on board for kids.

Jake's too old for the ball pit now really.

And these toys too, though...

...noughts and crosses is still fun, actually.

And down in the Bubble zone, the stones pillows are interesting to flop about on. 

There's a big model ship...

And another means of transporting youngsters into seventh heaven.

But we thought the hot tub area looked nice.

You pay 50 kr for adults and 25 kr for kids and have access
both the night you leave and next morning.
We didn't try these but we did try the one out on deck - on the way home.

As usual, I'll be posting more photos at about weekly intervals so stay tuned to see a T-Rex cast, where we stayed in Oslo and what we got up to and a our trip back, including the hot tub adventure.

Having a BIG birthday...

...is not so bad when you also have a BIG cake!

More pixels at the Pixelade exhibition (which closed on 9 Nov)

The special lighting at this amazing exhibition
was pretty unusual too as it kept switching colours.
Pretty challenging for a photographer!
Just as you get the photo lined up, flash!!!

It's all red. Hmmm.

Jake was so spaced out by the experience that when we got home
he was sure the cows were polar bears.

I'm not sure he was meant tostand on them,
though they did look like sheepskin rugs.

Piles of 'rainbox' cushions begging to be sat on.

That cow thinks 'green is grass'

Jake made a tower that didn't hurt at all when it 'fell' on my head.
Luckily the camera survived.

There were cards with instructions for games on one side and,
yes, you guessed it, pixels on the back.

Then after a while other kiddies started cornering all the cushions
for a castle, so we trotted off home, agreeing that it really was a tremendous exhibition.

Take your Pixel

Here are some lovely photos taken by Line Nielsen of the Pixelade exhibition created by Malene Bang og Katja Løgstrup-Hansen working with games developers from the Copenhagen Game Collective. 
Even if you look hard, you won't find Wally this time.

Pixelade

Ever sat watching your kids poke an ipad screen with 

just one finger and wondered what 

they’d do if they woke up inside a Minecraft game? 

Well now you can find out!

 First Nikolaj Church was converted into an

art centre some time ago. 

And now it’s been COMPLETELY TRANSFORMED 

into a huge pixel playground.

Holy cow! 

If you’ve ever felt like a square peg in a round hole
you feel totally at home in this quadratic landscape
complete with colourful cubic cushions and cows.
Yes cows. Why cows? Why not! Why are they snoring?
Who knows. But you can’t help smiling as you listen
 with your ear up close to their white furry tummies. Better get mooooving, though as the exhibition closes on 9 November.

We had fun playing hunt the pixel - like hunt the thimble.
1. While one person shuts their eyes, the other takes
a photo of a pixel pattern.
2. Then the hunt is on. Looking at the photo,
the second person has to try and find exactly the pixels in the photo.

It's not easy beacuse the lighting keeps changing :o)

From green, to red and then back to white.

Look closely and you can see the multi-coloured cushion cubes. 

They are great for building towers, castles, you name it!

And look even closer and you might see another cow
sitting up high on the steps.

You can also make patterns of your own on the light boxes
(which probably have a much more spectacular name really)

A very 'hands-on' experience.

Here is the room on its own...

And with Victoria (far left, we think) and her friends.
All these photos were taken by Line Nielsen.

MORE PHOTOS COMING SOON

as soon as I've dug the camera cable out from under the sacks of body parts in the back of our car.
We used them for Halloween decorations and a murder investigation around the neighbourhood.

Inspired by the pixel hunt, we hid a head, hands, feet, a stuffed jacket, stuffed trousers and a brain. Then the kids in Jake's class had to find them and take photos while out collecting candy. Once they had guessed the identity of the corpse and put together a jigsaw puzzle of his face (Michael Jackson you are our hero), they were allowed into heaven/hell to the strains of Thriller (what I would call a homemade Halloween disco but that's because I'm too old to know what discos are called these days).

Dr Watson didn't mind dressing up either!