This page last updated: 15
Leo made daddy a father's day card, where daddy seems to be synonymous with James Bond.
 |
|
Leo has been writing a James Bond comic. Rather than show pictures of the comic, we thought it better to let Leo explain it in a video so that you get the full benefit of his sound effects. Click on the picture below to see it.
We wouldn't normally put school work in here, but Leo was so enthusiastic about doing this (and eating the chocolate eggs from it afterwards) that we thought it worth displaying.
Leo has been busy making Lego vehicles for James Bond. The one on the left is a slightly modified Bond police van, next to it is a basic Bond car, next to that is a rather stylish Bond car (our favourite) with a dashboard full of buttons plus a compartment containing weapons and finally, on the right, is a car that has machine guns mounted on the front.
For the first time Leo has made a building to go with his Lego cars. It's a police station and is needed for his bank robbery film, which also involves James and Jake bond (007 and 008). Daddy was quite impressed that after Leo had deconstructed the really difficult-to-make police van, he managed to reconstruct it all by himself for this scene.
It was wet today and so Leo spent all his wet-play time doing a colour version of the James Bond chase sequence. James is in the middle and has already got the baddy car.
This weekend Leo drew a series called "Horror James, Stick Man
Version". It is all about James Bond fighting Zombies with a bit of Mad Max
and Frankenstein thrown in. Since he's never seen a Bond film, or Mad Max, or a
zombie or Frankenstein film for that matter, it shows a fair amount of imagination.
He says he took the tragic ending from The Red
Shoes; I blame mummy for filling
his head with film plots. Since we were visiting a
friend who produces TV programmes at the time, we suggested that he put ©
on each page to prevent his ideas being nicked. In his first draft (not
shown here) he decided it was much much better to put an 'm' in a circle, 'm'
for "mine". 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Leo made mummy a Love Tank for her birthday. Mummy is pictured sitting up on the turret.
Leo has teased daddy with a birthday "card" that is also a poster for the film he is planning.
 |
 |
 |
Leo has had quite a busy weekend. First he and Hazel went to a Saturday club where, amongst other things, Leo drew this picture of a pair of aliens flying in their saucers in a "no kissing" area (indicated by the spiral sign on the right). They are breaking the rules by sticking out their rubber extendable lips and snogging.
This morning he made a Doom Trap, part of Leo Land. A subject would walk onto the green mat and then onto the noose laid on the floor. The light green straw detects whether they are a goodie or a baddie. If they are a goody they can go on to the Safety X, otherwise either the laser shoots them or the green mat folds over on top of them. The tower on the right also has lasers, just in case the trap is attacked. You can see one unfortunate baddie lying in the noose and another on the green mat.
One day during the holidays, inspired by The Dangerous Book For Boys, Leo decided to make himself a catapult. He had all the bits in his collection of sticks and rubbish, the one he's spent the last several years picking-up and piling in the garage.
Hazel decided to make an arrow, but not a bow. Hence the catapult and arrow was born.
While daddy was away Leo also made a Racing Course, which was carefully preserved so that daddy could see it when he came home. On the left is a TV tower where the winners are interviewed. The race starts just to the right of the tower. First you have to cross the dark bit in the middle which includes flames coming out of the ground. Then the winner is the first to jump over the ramp on the right, avoiding the dragon's head (which would burn and disqualify you if you drove into it).
Daddy has been on a two-week trip to Austin Texas with work. Leo and Hazel both made welcome cards for him on his return, which he very much appreciated. Leo's card has a drawing of his recently acquired (second-hand) Transformer toy on the right.
 |
 |
 |
Leo was told to do leaving cards for his teacher and teaching assistant in year 2 as he moves up to year 3. We thought they were quite good, Mrs Pierce's on the left with her quite orderly class and Mrs McKee's: she is going to have a very pink baby on a hospital trolley.
 |
 |
While Hazel and daddy were busy downstairs recording her songs this evening, Leo decided to make a game of crazy golf on the landing upstairs. You use the club (old wrapping paper tube) to hit the ball (a small frog hacky-sack thing) between the obstacles and down to the target, where you score a goal if you knock over the fan. The person who takes the largest number of shots to get there has to put a penny into the penalty box. Daddy lost, but Leo said he'd loan him a penny to put in the box.
From bath-time this morning, Mr Blue. Given his lollipop-beak we reckon he's a form of penguin.
Leo made daddy a pair of "Wanted!" posters for Father's Day, offering a chest full of treasure as reward. Fortunately, using his new-look disguise, daddy was able to give himself up and take the treasure for himself.
Leo decided to write a poem while we were on holiday a few weeks ago. Here it is with his spellings (but not in his handwriting or punctuation as there is no way you would be able to read that). It is called "Never Trust Pirates" and is basically a little joke about Pirates.
Nevre Trust PuirtsOh no What's wrong? Theat was fun And the canuon balls scorshst his wheels The End |
 |
Hazel's homework this week was to draw a picture about World War II, for which she drew an air raid. Hazel's drawing inspired Leo to spend some considerable time creating his own drawing. In the bottom-left of the picture is an aircraft carrier; the aircraft, some of which are exploding, are in a dog fight at the top of the picture, while in the centre of the picture is a ship that is about to explode. The blue block represents a town which is being bombed and, worse than that, is next to a volcano (at the top of the picture) which is spewing lava. At the bottom right of the picture is the flagship that is coordinating the attack.
Leo is not usually one for drawing, however the new series of Doctor Who started on Saturday and today he bought a Doctor Who magazine that had pens and a notebook with it. As a result he's been drawing all sorts of Doctor Who creatures. We've reproduced a few here.
 |
 |
 |
Leo has spent some considerable time with large amounts of glitter, jewels and glue making this sculpture Truck On Ramp. The truck is jewel encrusted while the ramp is more glittery than a very glittery thing.
Hazel and Leo have begun making small videos with a very very cheap kids video camera. Here is their first: click on the picture below to view the opening sequence of the hit TV series Puppy Power.
Leo made two Lego vehicles which he desperately wanted displayed here.
During half-term Hazel and Leo jointly made a book of aliens. Here it is.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The pictures are all largely self-explanatory apart from the last one, which is Leo's. It shows a war between the Doughnut people and the Traffic Light people. The Traffic Light people destroyed the Doughnut people's planet so the Doughnut people are fighting back with magnetic dynamite bombs against the Traffic Light people's traffic light dynamite.
Hazel made a Cannon-ball Fire Engine for Leo under his instruction. He wanted it displayed here.
Leo has become obsessed with watches recently and has now made himself a Black X Team Smoke Watch. Apparently it can blow out smoke, has robot people in it and can tell the time.
This morning Leo decided to make himself a new vehicle, Speedy Boy. Leo tells us that Speedy Boy has three engines, speedy wheels and a hundred ice missile plane bullets (the drawing pins). He can also fly using three rocket jets, which are drawn onto the back, and the top engine, which is the padded bag stuck on top. Finally, he (Speedy Boy) has a face which can shoot missile bullets.
Leo has gone on a Game Boyd manufacturing spree, producing one for Hazel, mummy and daddy.
 |
The top one is daddy's. It has four cars
covered in brown mud and grey dots to indicate the 49 levels available.
The bottom left one is mummy's. It has five cars completely covered in mud and 18 levels. The bottom right one is Hazel's with three cars and nine levels. There is blue sky with mud turning into water turning into a road (apparently). The water has covered the lower car removing the mud. |
Leo has been telling daddy all week that daddy needs to help him make his Hot Wheels Ice Collection, Leo's big making for the half-term week. Turns out that Leo knows exactly what he wants, but can't handle the cellotaping. You need to take into account Leo's fairly active imagination when you view it, as otherwise it appears to be a load of old boxes and envelopes taped together.
On the right are the baddie and goodie vehicles (the baddie at the back). They go over the ramp and up to the plane-standing-swinger which causes them to switch sides. The good vehicle jumps onwards to the green box on the left-upper side which is called the basher, while the bad vehicle travels around the left-lower side to the white cardboard box (the crocodile) where he is crushed to death, then (Leo tells us) to jail.
Hazel and Leo have been making things this half-term. In particular, she and Leo have together made Leo a new Game Boyd. Leo has one of those cheapy hand-held Crash Bandicoot games that none of us understands how to play; someone at school has a Game Boy, and so he calls the Crash Bandicoot game his "Game Boyd". What they've done here is to create Leo a new Game Boyd, but one that plays the Starsky and Hutch driving/shooting game he loves so much on the PC.
Now, to you and us this is just an old padded envelope with some scribbles on the back. What you have to understand is that Leo has been carrying around and playing this new Game Boyd for the last two days. It shows that he is winning over the bad guy by a fair margin, that he can select different levels (the buttons below the title) and the picture in the middle (the blue bits being Leo's own work) is of the baddie going up in smoke just as Leo's car bangs into it going over a ramp, which he's done several times in Series 1, Level 3 of the Starsky and Hutch game.
Leo has been doing particularly well recently playing the Starsky and Hutch driving/shooting game on the PC. He is not as good as daddy yet but is certainly on a par with mummy. He can now reach the pedals as well. Here he is in action.
 |
 |
Leo's vehicles can occasionally metamorphose into guns, sometimes via a vehicle-with-guns intermediate stage. This morning he decided to make his biggest gun ever. Here it is, with an indication of how it is to be used. Note the symmetrical use of colours, the two eye-holes and the comforting "stop" sign that will confirm to the owner, after taking the gun off his head, that something has been stopped.
 |
 |
Leo asked daddy to make three of the vehicles in his Lego book, but within hours he decided that they were not elaborate enough and took them apart to make a Racer Police Car (left) and the Monster Baddie Car that it is chasing (right) instead. We're sure you'll agree that Leo's versions are far more exciting.
|
 |
Left alone of a Sunday morning, Leo dipped into his Lego drawer and made a goodie and baddie pair of vehicles all by himself. He tells us that the goodie's is a super truck power vehicle and the baddie's a super transporter copper (the copper is the baddie apparently). You can't easily see it here, but the goodie vehicle has four rocket motors at the back. We believe that a design criterion was to use up all the wheels in his Lego drawer. The good guy has taken his brown hat off (it's on a hook near the feet of his helper), but the bad guy has his black hat firmly in place and is grinning evilly along with the bad-tempered helper sitting behind him. The baddie steals prize cups every night but the goodie always gets them back.
Leo loves air guitar and is surprisingly gentle when using Hazel's guitar. After Hazel recorded her music we let Leo join in (format is mp3).
 |
Hazel had decide do to a booklet on Napoleon, for which Leo offered to do a picture for the back cover. It's a bit of a departure since it includes outline drawings. There are two pirate ships with pirates aboard and flags flying, plus a rain cloud in the sky. As a neat (and rather Leoy) touch, each of the ships also has a wheel so that it can be used on land. |
 |
Leo planted a bean seed at school and brought it home in mid June. It was 50 cm tall when it arrived and is now more than 2 metres tall. If it had a tall enough stick and a good enough water-transport system it would be about 7 metres tall. |
While mummy and daddy were snoozing one Sunday morning, Leo (with some considerable help from Hazel) made a lorry for daddy to play with. There's a string through the middle connecting the two bits of the lorry together and for some reason there's also a panoramic window with seats inside for viewings.
Back on the picture theme, here is Leo's drawing of a Leopard. OK, it's mostly spots, but it is all his own work and quite a step up from the pirate island map.
 |
Leo has at last decided that he likes having moths crawling on his hands (he was afraid that they might poo on him), so for the sake of symmetry with Hazel's gallery here's a picture of Leo with a Poplar Hawk Moth on his hand. |
Leo's definitely getting into this drawing thing now, though somewhat free-form it remains. Last night he drew a pirate map. The pirate ship is moored on the left. You should be able to guess where the treasure is buried.
Leo has just turned five, so it's time for him to have a place in this website. He's not really into drawing or writing, he's into cars, fire engines, ambulances, anything with wheels really. That said, he decided to do a drawing last night about a story and has done two paintings that he wanted displayed. Here they are:
This is an eagle, and a flying worm with no wings, in the wind. In case you hadn't spotted it, the worm is on the left and the eagle is on the right with the green bit being it's head. The wind is the grey wash across it all.
This is a gingerbread man with arms attached. From Leo's early cubist phase.
