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...

You may have heard that I turned 40 last week,   I believe I might have mentioned it? I had a fantastic birthday day,  and a brilliant birthday party, but not being one to pass up an excuse to celebrate I continued for the whole week.  I *had* to, of course as my bestie was over from the UK and it would have been rude not to. Aaron had basically 'given' me a free pass to do whatever I wanted for the week (cashflow permitting!) so we did! A cocktail filled evening out in Protaras, at Zodiac, followed by Rockafellas watching the Ska Man . Followed by late night snacks and chocolate cake at gone 2am - well done for making cheese and ham toasties Nic and for my rose! Recovery day followed with a huge lunch in one of my favourite restaurants followed by back massages by the sea.  Friday continued with a chilled evening, nice home cooked dinner (thanks Aaron!)  and no alcohol in preparation for the big party day coming ...

Halloween was never an event that we celebrated when I was younger but it seems in England it is getting bigger and bigger each year.  My first Halloween party (except one in my old local pub many years ago) was three years ago here in Cyprus, funny really as Cyprus doesn't 'do' Halloween. Last year we didn't do anything, Leo didn't realise it was happening, Louka was young, and my friend Sam - (the 'Queen of Halloween' ) was pregnant and understandably not up for the chaos of a party. This year we seem to have made up for it though! Last week we went to Cyherbia for the first of our celebrations. Then on Friday we had what turned out to be a brilliant party, from what was initially going to be a little afternoon themed get together! As you may know, I don't like to pass up a good excuse for a party and I 'may' have got a little bit carried away with it all... I'd had the decorations for years but never had a chance to use t...

For many months now (possibly even since before he arrived) I've known that I was going to do a 'Very Hungry Caterpillar' theme for Loukas first birthday. As you probably know I adore parties and the planning of them so I've been enjoying getting ready for this one. This time I had a little helper too,  part of the reason I chose the Hungry Caterpillar theme is because it is a book that Leo has enjoyed for a while now as I did at his age, and I knew he would enjoy being part of the preparations. I decided it would be fun to theme the food, and match the items that the Caterpillar ate.  (of course when I say 'I decided' clearly I meant I spent the evening on pinterest!)  Without using a book as a 'menu' I would never had served that much fruit but was stunned that the children and Leo in particular, ate almost every bit! I really enjoyed making the cake, the first one of the boys I have made entirely by myself and I was very pleased with ...

As we recently saw the end of school for the summer I thought we'd start off as we mean to go on and I chose the first activity from our 'Summer Dreams' list. Sam, Leiarna and baby Jaxon came round after school for lunch, playtime and dinner and I thought it a perfect time for some cocktails... I love cocktails, they make me think of holidays and fun, so I thought it would be nice to share this with the kids..... without the alcohol of course! (I just can't stand the word 'mocktail') I provided the ingredients and Sam came armed with the decorations. We started with a fruit smoothie, banana, mango, orange juice and ice. They enjoyed helping to make it, putting the chopped fruit into the blender and pressing the button. The smoothies were not a huge hit with the kids but we enjoyed them as I made the next round, a child friendly take on one of one of my all time favourites. 'Sandcastles on the Beach' crushed ice 1 cup orange juice 1 ...

Today is my lovely hubby's 40th birthday, for many years we have spoken about a big celebration in honour of this milestone and given our love of parties it always looked like it would be the biggest one so far. Unfortunately with his the seasonal nature of his work and no time off until November we soon realised that it would not be the case. I've been racking my brains for weeks now about what I could do to make it special, what to buy him with our limited budget and few shopping options here.  I asked everyone for suggestions and scoured the internet but inspiration didn't strike me. I fancied the idea of a personalized gift and went to many websites, unsure of what that gift should be but eventually gave up trying to find one that would deliver to Cyprus without costing the earth.  At the last minute I decided to do it myself. A photo frame, family photo and a carefully chosen film quote and this is the result.... Can you name the film? When I was searching ...

Back in July when I was still waddling around with my big baby bump my friend Sam threw a lovely Baby Shower for me . So when she announced that she was also expecting a baby my mind turned to making plans to return the compliment. Sam found out she was having a little boy so I had my colour scheme sorted but I was trying to think of what else I could do to make it special.  One day while changing Louka it came to me in a flash of inspiration.... Louka was wearing a star patterned babygrow and I happened to think that I'd have to keep that one for Sam as she loves anything and everything Starry. (well, and skulls but that's a much harder theme to work with!) So our 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star Baby shower was conceived..... With a fantastic whip round from the girls, we had a fantastic amount of presents for Sam and the baby.  A play mat and arch as the main gift along with a whole host of 'baby essentials' - wipes, nappies, toiletries etc.  I also...

Cyprus celebrates Greek Orthodox Easter which this year falls this coming weekend, one week after Western or Christian Easter.  Some years, like the previous two by coincidence it falls on the same weekend but I was intrigued to find out why its not often on the same day. By the wonder of the interweb I discovered that The formula for Easter—"The first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox"—is identical for both Western and Orthodox Easters, but the churches base the dates on different calendars: Western churches use the  Gregorian calendar,  the standard calendar for much of the world, and Orthodox churches use the older,Julian calendar. Easter is the biggest religious festival in Cyprus and is celebrated more than Christmas, for most people it lasts from Good Friday until the following Tuesday.  Decorations come out a few weeks before and can be found by churches, street corners and on many roundabouts! On Easter...

Here in Cyprus they like nothing more to have a reason to celebrate and if all the bank holidays were not enough you also get to celebrate your Name day, which is the day of the Saint you are named after (which most are, if you don't have your own name day you celebrate on All Saints Day so all is not lost!) It is a big day for Cypriots with feasting and visiting of family and friends, although children will celebrate birthdays and name days almost equally, as you become an adult the focus shifts towards a celebration on the name day with birthdays being a smaller personal event. Last Friday was the Name day for Leonidas, Our Leonidas received this lovely handmade card from Nana and in the afternoon we went to our friend's house for a tea party for the kiddies. It was a joint Name day celebration as one of my friends also has a little boy called Leonidas, and as if that wasn't coincidence enough they were born only 3 days apart! I spent quite a while trying ...

Ah, another year older... Two weeks ago I celebrated my 33rd birthday, even though a couple of months ago I had been convinced that I was coming up to my 32nd  (I blame being pregnant and not drinking on my 31st, I think maybe that meant it didn't count as a birthday!) I always like to celebrate a birthday in style....so along with a few friends we decided to go out on the town in Agia Napa. Being "Napa" we thought it would be fun to dress up just to help the celebrations along.  Three of the the party girls! We started off in a karaoke pub, Sam (the one in purple) is a HUGE karaoke fan and is a bloody good singer. I couldn't even tell you how many times she got up to sing, and that's through losing count as opposed to too much beer. I on the other hand would love karaoke if I could sing....or was quite drunk....... Sorry Mum, drinking pints again! Oops! I  ruined  sang "Like a Prayer" by Madonna. Spurred on by that succes...

I nearly passed on this weeks Gallery again this week, the prompt is Red and there were only one set of photos that came to mind. When AJ and I got married back in 2004 I wore red (mainly white - I thought about just red but couldn't resist the lure of the big white dress). I have been meaning to do a "Wedding post" for some time so I'll save the best photos for now and just give you a taster of the day.....