A Matter of Choice

 Happy new year!  We had a nice New Years Eve,  on the last day we were able to visit other peoples houses.   It was a sudden announcement that had come in with just a few hours notice on the previous Tuesday but New Years Eve had been given as an exception to the rule.    Which was good for us as it meant we were still able to celebrate as planned with my parents.  We opened our memory jar  and the boys really enjoyed opening up all the slips and reading out the memories. It took a lot longer than I thought it would and there were a fair few in there that we had all forgotten. It went down so well that we've already started again for 2021.  We'd printed out a few quizzes and puzzles to be completed throughout the evening, and some questions to get everyone talking about the year.  Of course a lot of answers were covid related, especially with questions such as 'Most Challenging thing this year'  and 'An unexpected obstacle thi...

Time for a flashback post.  It was a weekend that wasn't all that long ago yet seems like a lifetime in many ways,  a weekend that had been planned for many months before hand that was supposed the be the start of a series of events.   Unfortunately that weekend was back at the start of March and no-one expected how the year was going to play out after that.    Last November you may have read my post on the fact that two of our best friends were getting married and I was to be a bridesmaid . The wedding was due to be on 23rd May this year and I had arranged several Hen celebrations leading up to it.  Of course the wedding had to be postponed due to the pandemic, which I am gutted about and it's not even my wedding so I can't even imagine how they feel.  We had our weekend away just before the world as we knew it changed, something that I am very grateful for at least.  Once we were in lock down I actually couldn't look at the photos at first ...

We celebrated Louka's 7th birthday in our usual way this year with a pool party.  It's an obvious choice for a birthday in Cyprus at the end of August. He was so excited in the lead up to the day,  it always seems to him that his birthdays take a long time to come round,  being that he is only 7 of course, and the fact it's later in the year than Leo's.  This year, as the youngest of the group is now 6 it was much better knowing that they can all swim very well.   Still quite stressful keeping an eye on 6 crazy loud kids (plus a crazy adult!)  with a load of inflatables in the pool but between 5 adults in and out the pool too it was easily doable.  We made water balloons for the first time which was a huge success,   they were surprisingly hard to break too. I'd always thought they broke so easily and took a long time to fill but that was before I'd discovered the packs with the attachment to go on a hose pipe! ...

I love a party when I get a theme I can work with and Leo has given me some great ones over the years,  Harry Potter, Star Wars and my favourite.. Doctor Who.  This year Pokemon was his choice. I'm not a Pokemon expert but we had been playing Pokemon Go for almost a year by the time of the party, on the way to and from school and on adventures out and about.  It's a great way to get two tech obsessed boys (and their Mum!) out and walking about. Because of that, and of course aided by Pinterest I was able to come up with lots of bits to suit the theme and have a very happy birthday boy. The Decorations I didn't go overboard and apart from buying new bits to make the Pokeballs I recycled what I already had, hence the fact we had a blue tablecloth. Ideally I'd have got one red and one white to make a Pokeball table but I do try to draw the line somewhere.   I like to think I'm enthusiastic rather than obsessed! When it comes to crafty homemade deco...

Just before we celebrate Loukas 7th birthday I thought I'd better share some photos from last years.  The themes have never come as easily as they do for Leo's birthdays, I think because Louka generally is not one for being really into something.  Leo's a bit like me in the way that if we like it we LOVE it and everything to do with it,  we will read the book, watch the film and know all there is to know about it.  So when it comes to parties we love the little details.  As Louka approached his 6th birthday however it became clear that a Minecraft party would go down very well.   Louka only had one special request for the party which was a pinata,  whatever else happened was not a concern of his!. As usual I jumped onto Pinterest for inspiration, and roped in Aaron for some crafty bits and Leo who is also our resident Minecraft expert. The Food I love food labels! As well as egg sandwiches - a staple of all our birthday ...

As I published photos from our 2018 Halloween celebrations I happened to notice a blog post saved in my draft folder,  it turns out it was a  Haloween post from 2016 so I thought it was about time I actually published it! Halloween wasn't widely celebrated in the UK when I was a child,   I don't remember anyone 'trick or treating' or the shops being full of costumes.   It was starting to become a thing in my late teenage years,  I suppose once our generation was getting old enough to be able to choose to celebrate without having permission! I went to Halloween themed pub nights but my first proper party was a children's party here in Cyprus, thrown by my Halloween mad friend Sam.  It was really for our benefit I suppose, as our kids were only 1 and had no idea what was going on,  we made it spooky rather than scary with cartoon ghosts and Disney themed decorations.  We've been to Halloween events,   Cyherbia Halloween events are...

This week's Sunday post is a Halloween special!  I must apologise, Sam, if you are reading this, for cropping you out of the photo but it just lent itself to this! We had our now traditional Halloween get together for the kids - well I say for the kids but the get-togethers go on a bit later these days and include a little more alcohol as we are joined by the men and the kids get less demanding. The 'pack'   (as Leo now calls the 5 children we have between us all)  are less interested in the games we used to play,  happy now to disappear off to their bedroom and do whatever it is they do for hours on end, but they still enjoy a few once we 'drag' them out to be sociable. Hanging doughnuts had been requested once again so that went down well No themed gathering would be complete without a Tiny Acorns craft! And of course, you can't have Halloween without a bit of trick or treating. As trick or treating' isn't done generally ...

My 40th birthday fell on a Wednesday so it made sense to delay my party until the weekend,   which of course was good as I got to have an extended celebration! It was a brilliant evening with a great crowd of people,  and a good number considering so many unable to make it due to work commitments (the problem with any event in the summer season).  The party was at St Thekla,  a restaurant right on the beach and a really good venue for a party - plenty of space,  2 bars and a DJ box - everything you need.  Despite battling with a really painful knee I was on the dancefloor for most of the night, helped no doubt by a few drinks taking my mind of the pain! As you probably know I have a big love of photos so I don't need to explain how awesome I thought this slideshow was that Aaron created, and played on the big screen.  I'll let the photos do tell the rest of the story,  I was amazed and...