A Matter of Choice

I'm a big fan of pinterest and forever 'pinning' activites to do with the boys although it's a bit like the recipies I used to rip out of magazines to cook 'one day'.  As much as these ideas are great they so often involve some sort of craft skill, require patience or create mess and they get put off for another day! My biggest problem  excuse currently is Louka being too young, and his nap times being too short, and the fact that even simple activities are too old for him as everything would go straight in his mouth. I got round this problem this week though and the boys and I did our first proper activity together, it went down very well, was easy to set up, cheap and not messy - Yay! Using a selection of random toys and plastic boxes, I made several blocks of ice with hidden surprises inside. I told Leo we were going to play with ice and at first he was confused, I placed all the blocks into a big plastic box and took them outside. He thought it hila...

Although summer has been around at least a month here, its now official as the schools finished back on  the 19th June.   Leo had the option to continue going until the end of June, (well,I say he had the option...  he didn't have much say in it!) so he finished last Friday. There is a summer program running a his school for just €10 a month more than we would usually pay but after some thought I decided to give him a decent break. Because of the very long summer holiday the rest of the year is long, no half terms and only a few days off for Easter and Christmas.   School starts early at 7.45am, so it will be nice to not hustle him out the door every morning for a while. Leo has had a fab school year, better than I could have imagined back when I was so worried about it all. His teacher was lovely and thankfully Leo thought she was great. Leo went happily to school almost every day, and sometimes asked to go on the weekend! He loved playing with his frien...

I've had it said to me many times that I don't need to go to Slimming World, sometimes because I know how to do it, and sometimes because 'I look fine/don't need to lose weight  etc.  Over the years I've had members who are currently bigger than me telling me it's easy for me because I'm younger/ I'm so good at it / I like cooking/ I've been exercising  etc etc. If I occasionally am disappointed with a maintain or a gain on the scales some say 'but you don't need to lose more you're slim enough' And I get it, I REALLY do,even though it might not seem like it. When I first joined in 2006 there was a girl in my group who looked gorgeous, wearing a clingy top, skinny jeans and a pair of boots I could never have even dreamed of wearing. She was there every week and every week I looked at her and wondered why she was there. I wondered why she sometimes thought she'd had a bad week or got annoyed about putting on a few pounds. ...

As is often the case lately I have so many blog posts in my head yet no time to get them written.  This week has been no exception and I'd have liked to have written posts about several things we've done this week.  However for now I'll let the photos show what we've been doing.... Playing with ice in an attempt to cool down! Lost 5lb at Slimming World which took me to my 1.5stone award as well as my 'Club 10' Discovered a new park.... with nice shady trees too! Spent most of a morning trying to make a 'Spartan Shield' birthday cake for Aaron - it was ok but the colour didn't turn out quite as I expected! Cake for breakfast, as we had to do it before school and work so Leo could see! End of school for the summer so we celebrated with cocktails much to the delight of the kids! Spent the afternoon at a party and everyone enjoyed the magic show.

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 ...

I know I've been a little overdue with my Slimming World updates but I'm still going to group and I've also been enjoying setting up a facebook page and closed group for those who attend our weekly session.    This has been great as not only so I love doing things like that, it has also helped me stay focused and 100% on the plan - you just can't be eating too much of the wrong things while doing that can you! So, how have I been doing?   Well after several weeks of '1lb off, 1lb on' I finally got myself in gear last week and at today's weigh in I lost 5lb  - I think that's a record for me! It also meant I collected my 'Club 10' award (for losing 10% of my starting weight)  and my 1.5 stone award! I took Leo with me today as it's a Bank Holiday and school was closed, he was very good although upset that he couldn't stand on the scales too!   He asked loads of questions, (nothing new there!) and was a little confused why it's...

I'm sure there are many people who would like to swap places with me for a while, to be in Cyprus, in the sun, at the beach and usually there is no place I'd rather be but this weekend I'd have loved to have been in good ol' London town at Britmums Live, the UK's biggest blogging event. For the last two years I've watched the build up and the tweets during the conference, and the blog posts afterwards from a place that is less than an hour away on a train from my old home and wished I could have been a part of it.   There are so many people I would love to meet, people who have become real friends to me even though we've never met. I would love to hear the fantastic speakers they always have and pick up lots of blogging tips and most of all I'd love to have a weekend away with like minded people and maybe a sneaky few drinks and dinner! The first year, I swore I would attend in 2012, I almost brought a ticket when they were announced figuring ...

I showed Leo our wedding video, his comments were hilarious... 'Why are you wearing a Princess Mummy?',   'Why has Nana got a funny thing on her head?'  'Was I listening to the music in your belly?' - He is adamant that he was in my belly at the time although it was five years before he was born! Still loving his 'Little Kickers' lessons. We went to 'Tony's' again, to celebrate a friends birthday. Once Aaron got home from work I popped down for a sunset swim to cool down! Taken from my usual evening position, blogging on the balcony.

It can be so hard to think of good gift ideas for birthdays, especially here in Cyprus without the variety of shops we've been used to in the UK and for someone like my Dad who doesn't really need anything as such.  So when I saw this fab idea on pinterest  I thought I'd give it a go. It's so easy to make.... obviously as homemade stuff is not generally my strong point! You need..... An empty 2 litre coke (or similar ) bottle - cut the top off so it sits flat 8 cans 12 -14 mini choc bars ribbon Tape Cake board candle Start by placing the bottle upside down on the board, and place the cans around it.  Tape them all together so they don't keep moving around. Place the chocolate bars around the top in the same way. Cover with ribbon. I used a bit of blue tack to secure my candle but you could make a hole in the top of the bottle instead. There you go, an easy yet effective gift that will always be appreciated! ...

Following on from last years 'Leo, aged 3 loves' post , I've made a new one to join in with Lauren's linky.

I always imagined that once I had children I'd be taking them to lots of activities - not in a pushy mother type way you understand, more of a 'How the hell do I keep them occupied' kind of way!  This was back in the day before I ever imagined living in Cyprus and I could see the huge range of activities for them to take part in in England. Little Kickers classes have been running for a while now in Cyprus and I've had my eye on them for Leo for some time, although at first there was no class in our area.  This month however Little Kickers  launched in Paralimni, just down the road from us! Although Leo enjoys playing with a ball, football has never been part of his life as both Aaron and my Dad are not fans themselves so I wasn't sure how excited he would be about the classes. I guessed he would enjoy them as what's not to like about running around with your friends for a hour but I have been surprised just HOW much he is loving it! He's been to thr...