A Matter of Choice

Happy Birthday Louka mou! You are five years old!  I know you have been looking forward to this day for such a long time,   I think you were talking about it even before Leo's birthday this year! I'm writing this post for you on the 24th,  and you've just gone to bed full of excitement that it is just one more sleep.  As I gave you a cuddle,  I said I was cuddling my 4 year old Louka for the last time, and you asked me if I was sad.   I replied,  of course not because tomorrow I can cuddle my 5 year old Louka, you gave me a big smile and said 'yes that's 'much more better'. Every year when I write these birthday letters to you and your brother I try to think back over the year and how you've changed. It kind of sneaks up on me as it seems that when it happens it's a very sudden thing,  and I hadn't realised the little things that change along the way. You are totally crazy,  I've said many times over the years that Leo is...

In 2014 Aaron and I started our photo booth business, Klik Photo CY.   We started with one photo booth, a retro style enclosed photo booth  (enclosed -  as in an actual booth you go inside, rather than the 'open style booths' you see advertised that aren't actually booths!)  a few months later we took over an existing company 'Wedding Booth Cyprus' and added a marquee style booth to our portfolio. I absolutely LOVE our work,  it's so much more than 'just a job' to us.  We take a huge amount of pride in our work, and always try to do the best we can.  Aaron of course is a total perfectionist so he has spent a lot of time making sure the prints the booth produces are studio quality, and every little detail is 110%.  As we always say,   if you are going to do something,  do it properly! Last year Aaron (king of the random suggestions - remember ' Do you want to move to Cyprus? )   came home one day and said 'I've had an idea'....

Five years ago I started interviewing Leo just after his birthday with a set of questions I found online. Every year since I have repeated the interview with the same questions. It's lovely to look back over the years and see what changes,   or stays the same!

For the first time in almost 8 years I have gone a whole month without a single blog post! I was actually a bit annoyed when I noticed (I even considered quickly writing one and backdating it, but realised it was a bit pointless!) but decided to look at it another way and be proud of the fact that I've been blogging at all for so long, and I'm still here, just about anyway. So,  what's been going on with us? Lots and lots, and I'd love to blog about them all but I'd be here for weeks trying to catch up, and although I think an evening balcony blogging session is due I have been saying that for a long time. Highlights it is then, The school summer holidays started about 6 weeks ago, we are now just over the half way point. It's a long time but I do (kind of) like it, it's just a bit tricky attempting to balance everything but hey, I've got it easy compared to many so I'm not complaining*. (*sometimes I may be complaining, but I do try not ...

Another one of those catch up / flashback posts from me today,  it's a bit random but another one where I started the draft months ago but only put the images into it. Oranges and Lemons - no, not the song / game you probably know from childhood but the slightly random game I accidentally created one day in the park which is still going over two years later. As reluctantly played 'just one more round PLEASE' I thought to myself that it was actually quite a nice / easy / cheap way to keep the boys happy,  and it wouldn't be long before we'd never be doing stuff like this anymore - so I should blog about it before I forget all about it.  This is our local park,  It's a great park,  I'd say the best in the whole area,  it's certainly the biggest and has lots of paths to explore,  birds to see, examples of old water mills, a large bit of grass to play ball or run about on, and now a lovely cafe so you can grab a beer or a coffee while y...

This is an unintentional flashback post as it is all about a day out almost exactly a year ago!  I was full of good intentions as ever and even started the post not long after, but only got as far as uploading the images.  Anyway,  I think it was not long after the children finished school for the summer, and in hindsight it wasn't the best time of year for such a day out, it was far too hot to really enjoy it all especially our planned picnic in the park.   I'd wanted to go to Larnaca Fort for years, I've driven past it many times and almost visited it on several occasions but for various reasons we'd never got round to it.  I always assumed it wouldn't hold the boys attention for long and so it was just one of those 'one day' things.  So I rounded up my friend Sam and her kids,  always a winner as they all love being together and announced we were going on a road trip! Entry to the fort was very low,  I think maybe only €1 and ...

I loved preparing for Leo's Doctor Who party , and soon enough it was time for the party itself.  I'd been looking forward to it as much as Leo as it was going to be a small party.just his two best friends plus little brothers and seven adults - that's pretty good odds for a kids party,  it's nice not to be outnumbered by children!  As only my boys knew anything about Doctor Who - I thought I should explain a bit about who the Doctor is and I created a little story to take us through the games I had planned.  I gathered the kids together and sat them down to begin... The Doctor is a Timelord, an alien with 2 hearts from the planet Gallifrey.  He travels through space and time in his blue box - the TARDIS (which is bigger on the inside) and his only weapon is his sonic screwdriver which can save the world in many different ways, except it doesn't work on wood,   oh and he sometimes has a spoon! As a Timelord he can regenerate when he ne...

If you've been reading my blog for a while you'll probably know that I love a bit of party planning,   From the early days of Thomas the Tank Engine , The Hungry Caterpillar and Spiderman we 'leveled up' into Harry Potter and a  Star Wars party in the last couple of years. Which of course led to the question of what Leo's 8th birthday party would be....  now as a self confessed Whovian I've been hankering after creating a Doctor Who party for years, since seeing ideas on pinterest ages ago.   I had thought it would be best to save it for a few years seeing as the other kids have no idea about the show,  but after mentioning it in passing to Leo he was very excited about the idea.   ( I admit he may have been picking up on my excitement but I did check several times it was what he REALLY wanted - honestly!!) We decided that it didn't really matter,  everyone might not get the references to the show but they'd enjoy the party anyway! He's a...