Too many to mention – our favourite Lego moments.

If our children could pull down the house and rebuild it out of Lego bricks, they would. We have Lego everywhere: under the bed, on shelves, on the landing, occasionally in the washing machine. The two oldest boys are Masters of Spinjitzu, they can quote from the Legends of Chima at great length, they are Lego club members and forever coming up with Cool Creation ideas, spent ages searching for Mr Gold and you know what? We don’t mind – in fact we love it. I’ve just gone back through photos over six years, and pulled out a selection of favourite memories.

The first shot shows our kids’ reaction to snow – “Great, it’s snowing – let’s make a snow cave for the minifigure Eskimos”, and they did. We spent an hour in the garden, in fading light, trying out various shots, including a robber breaking into the cave and stealing a fish, and a police chase across the snow drifts. The photo of the minifigure Inuits cooking their supper remains my favourite.

The next picture shows the boys looking really pleased with themselves after spending a whole day collaborating on building a space launch centre. It was the first time I remember them properly doing it together, rather than the oldest taking over, or both of them doing separate creations – and the smile on their faces shows it.

Finally, who could not be delighted when their six year old comes up with a perfect example of the versatility of Lego, in the form of a giant lion he designed and made himself, that he decided to guard using Ninjas and a Centurion?

So many moments, here’s some more. There’s the first time any of them came up with anything complicated on their own, usually in Duplo:

Then there’s the transition to ‘little Lego’, and the request for us to take a photo each time they build something they’re proud of:

Or what about the signs of an all-consuming passion for Lego: the trips to Legoland, including spinning round the giant Ninja:

And I’d forgotten about the birthday cakes. We’ve made a giant Duplo brick with Duplo candle bearers, and a Ninja cake – all requested by the children. Then there’s the sheer randomness of what they come up with – a multi-storey zoo, a large TV set with stalls, a man asleep on top of the stairs, half a man on a skateboard – all followed by the phrase “Daddy, can you take a picture?”. Some of the creations below were made out of Mummy’s Lego from her childhood, still preserved in Granny’s house (Daddy sold his at a boot sale long before children were on the radar, and regrets it now).

But our most recent favourite memory is of the stop-go animations. Our kids wanted to try making short animated films, and their thoughts immediately turned to Lego. The first attempt was shot using a phone camera, and featured a Lego spaceman flying out of a hole in the ground and landing on a car:

The second attempt (by which time we’d got a decent camera and software set) was the same spaceman’s encounter with a dinosaur. So before you go and see the new Lego film (trailer below), be sure to check out our latest attempt on you tube!

This post was written by Paul as an entry for the Tots 100 Lego Film Tickets Competition. His children are convinced we will win, and if we don’t he is resigned to buying tickets for the local Odeon screening, and pretending we have….