Playmobil brainteaser

It's been a tradition in our family to have a Playmobil advent calendar every year to countdown the days left until Christmas. This year, Grand'ma was late in buying the calendar so I got it only on monday night. We chose the police theme calendar because Playmobil didn't have a new Christmas calendar this year. I prefer the Christmas calendar but I didn't want the same one as last year.

I thought the assembling would be the same: boxes to attach to the large board. Wrong! They changed their system, probably to save some money because it was NOT easier for us to assembly the whole thing ...

This is how it is when you open the box: Nothing unusual at first.

Then the little nightmare starts: You see, this big cardboard is supposed to actually fit into the box ! And you can see, the box is much smaller than the cardboard ...

It took us (yes, we were two ... ) a while to figure out how it could fit ... Then a sudden light bulb lit up above my empty head and I got it !!! You are supposed to fold the board... It was NOT shown in the instructions booklet ( it would have been too easy I guess ... )

We thought the most difficult part was behind us and for the next step, we had a drawing in the booklet to show us how to do ! It could only go very fast from there ... WRONG !

This is the picture:

This is the cardboard: we knew we had to cut somewhere BUT when scissors are involved, you know you want to be sure of yourself because you won't have a second chance ...

It took us some brainstorming before another lightbulb lit again !!!

And tadaa: it fit ( that's when you are relieved you won't have to play with your tape to fix the mess you made ! )

Finished:

I really don't like their new system because they put tiny pieces in some cases and they could be hard to get. I also think the kids had more fun to grab each individual boxes and open them like little presents.

We also build the scene:

Esteban loves it: there is a jail on the side, in the police station.

Now that we know their new system, I do think you can spend less time than before assembling the whole calendar but I really think they should review and change their booklet. It was NOT clear at all ...

I have a happy mail week this week ( I'll show you more tomorrow):

I had won a giveaway on Petra's blog and it arrived in a fat envelope (that's the only time you enjoy fat !!!) :

Not only, the Christmas book was there and really beautiful ( full of amazing pictures of Christmas cookies ! Of course, I was hungry after checking the book ... ) She also added three notebooks for the kids ( that got stollen by a 9 yo girl ... ) Thank you very much Petra: I the book !

I got my first guest at my free bird restaurant today and I managed to take a picture from my living room. Enlarge if you want to see what kind of bird it is. I also saw two robins today.

Actually, they look a lot like the birds on my Lanarte!!! I finished to stitch the nest and one flower close to it. I think I still have two feathers and a flower left.