A Matter of Choice

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...

As we approached the end of the holidays and after the excitement of Christmas and New Year, the boys were getting restless and I was running out of ideas to amuse them. The last few days were dragging as I was eager to get 'doing' and get on with the new year, I wanted to do something and to get them away from the tv and games consoles but with very little cash (and patience when it comes to arts, crafts or baking with kids) I was stumped. I turned to facebook, as you do for a moan inspiration and a friend of mine suggested geocaching. Initially I dismissed it, it sounded like hard work, and well, we'd have to leave the house! In case you are wondering, here's a quick explanation of geocaching... (taken from www.geocaching.com ) Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location. At its simples...

Spring is on it's way - there was actually a lovely bit of warmth to that sun this week when you got out the wind! Surprisingly winter can seem like a long time in Cyprus, especially if you are two! Although shorter in length than in the UK, there suddenly becomes a lot less to do when you don't want to go outside. Add to the fact that Leo refuses to wear a coat it really cuts down your options! This week we ventured out, finally exploring somewhere I've been meaning to go since we got here over 2 years ago!   Landa Beach, in Agia Napa is a lovely little golden sandy bay - especially at this time of year when you can actually see the sand and not a mass of holiday makers! There is a large picnic area and a playground (well, some swings, a see-saw and the words steepest slide) and a nice paved beach path taking you along to the next bay. As usual with our outings we were not out long, just over an hour (including two sandwich breaks!) before Leo refused to walk a...

Cyprus - an island in the sun, with 340 days of sunshine a year, or so they told us!  So that means only 15 days of rain right?   I think that might be a little bit of exaggeration creeping into that sales pitch as it seems we've certainly had more than enough of this.... On Wednesday this was the view that greeted me as I opened the curtains,  I suddenly had the feeling this day was going to need a bit of effort to survive it. Leo has been suffering from a bad cough which had seemed to be on its way out but has now turned into a streaming cold.  I am amazed at the amount of snot that can be produced by one child! Because of this, Leo's not feeling his best and therefore is not he's usual happy self. A plan was needed to cheer him up....Let the activity day commence! First up...... Making biscuits, but not just any biscuits, oh no, a day like this calls for the most exciting biscuits you could imagine if you are 2..... train biscuits! Ther...

Since (hopefully) enrolling Leo to start at pre-primary school later this year I've been thinking of what I can do to help him settle in. Although I'm trying to learn Greek and I know he will pick it up very quickly when he starts I want to do all I can to make it more comfortable for him. Obviously his English is much better than his Greek but we have always tried to teach him things we know as we've gone along. We taught him to count in both languages at the same time, for a long time he didn't separate the two,  counting 'one, ena.. two, dheio'  but now will count in whichever language you ask him to.... when he feels like it of course! He knows colours in both languages and will often pick something up and ask 'What's this colour in Greek Mummy?'  to reply with 'yes that's right Mummy, that's clever' when you reply! I've been following a great website now for a while - Greek For Kids and I'm certainly going to start...