A Matter of Choice

After 6 years of 'never getting round to it'  this month we finally took the boys on a proper day out - a road trip which to them probably felt like we were driving to the end of the earth it was so far! Since Cyprus is a small island the boys have never really spent much time in the car for anything other than short journeys, anything over 15 minutes has them moaning and complaining, so going to Paphos (about two and a half  hours away) was not something we thought would go well! But on a spur of the moment decision on another unexpected school holiday this month (unexpected for us, it was a Saints days I think) we decided to go to Paphos Zoo.  I was slightly apprehensive being that we had recently had some travel sickness issues even on short journeys, and when we decided to go it was not far off lunchtime already but against my instinct I agreed with Aaron and we were off.... And what a day we had!   It was brilliant from start to finish, the boys handled the...

This week is the anniversary of our move to Cyprus, 6 years ago we were in the process of saying our goodbyes in a endless stream of afternoon meetups with little Leo being dragged all over Kent, family lunches and leaving drinks. We were packing and sorting and re homing many of our possessions, selling loved items or giving them away to new homes, we said goodbye to our lovely dog as she went to her new home. We played 'real life Tetris' as we called it when we constantly tried to fit things into and around other things to save on shipping space, suitcase filling or packing up the car for our trips around the country to far away friends for a final meet up.  I remember filling our new fridge freezer with fragile items, wrapping the glass shelves with duvets and packing them into the Christmas tree box, and then fighting with cardboard, bubble wrap and packing tape in a small garage trying to wrap the fridge itself for shipping.  For weeks our conservatory g...

As a child the most important part of the run up to Christmas was the writing of The List. It required a great deal of thought especially as I got older and realised it was not so much of a shopping list and rather a few ideas for Santa and Mum and Dad to select from. The Argos catalogue played a large part in the compiling of the list, I would spend hours pouring over the 'book of dreams' and one year my Mum gave me an old copy to cut out pictures to make a Christmas collage of things that I liked (in what I now realise was a great way of passing the time and keeping me quiet!)   One year I presented my carefully constructed list to Mum - an list filling a whole A4 page, I'd basically copied out the book!  I think I'd listed every annual in there along with more toys than I could have fitted into my bedroom!    With amusement Mum asked me what my favourite things were, and if I could maybe narrow it down a little! Then of course there were the adverts, amazing ...

Last Sunday, as Aaron was busy getting his latest tattoo I decided to take the boys out for a while. It was a lovely day as this time of year usually is, sunny and warm but without the intense heat of the summer so I decided to take us all down to the harbour in Agia Napa. It's been a long time since I took both on my own to the harbour, in fact I only did it once and that day has stayed with me ever since. I had packed up some food and thought it would be nice to take 3 year old Leo and a baby Loukas for a late afternoon walk and a picnic dinner.   In fact it was a complete stressful waste of time with Louka screaming the whole time, Leo moaning and refusing to eat a thing and generally not fun for any of us.    I remember watching the Party Boat sailing out of the harbour packed full with music blaring and I imagined diving into to the water and swimming after it into the sunset! But, we are several years on, without buggy and everyone can walk and while it was n...

After celebrating Halloween a day early with our party and trick or treating at home on Friday, we spent the weekend at what is probably the best family Halloween event in Cyprus. Cyherbia has been running Halloween events now for several years, each with a different theme and attracts families from all over the island for the spooky fun and games.  This year, they had Dr Frankinsect in her laboratory who needed the children to help her find the magic formula hidden in the maze to shrink all the creepy crawlies back to normal size.  Dr Frankinsect AKA Tiny Acorns Creativity For the older kids there was a CSI type game in the 'Freaky Forrest' where they could enjoy solving some unfortunate murders.   There was also apple bobbing, broomstick racing, I-Spy in the Haunted Herb Garden, a lucky dip and face-painting and the Klik Photo Cy 'Kids Kiosk' Photo booth was also there with a spooky makeover offering keepsake photos of the day.  ...

Halloween is now an official event in our family calendar, despite having never actually been to a Halloween party until 2010 its now something to be celebrated along with Christmas and Easter.  I love it, a chance to decorate and dress up and eat far too many sweets - what's not to enjoy! Since the afternoon that accidentally turned into a party a couple of years ago, I have enjoyed planning a treat for the boys so once again this year we invited a couple of friends over for a mini Halloween party. Held a day early on the 30th as we were going to be working over the whole weekend it meant that the fun began for the boys as soon as they finished school. Leo was very excited about it, and I was probably more excited than I should have been! As always, for me the part I actually enjoy the most is the lead up to the event, so I loved Friday morning, tidying up, decorating with Aaron and preparing some spooky food and treats. Knowing the boys would be impatient for ...

According to the Greek Orthodox Church, every  day  of the year is dedicated to the memory of at least one (usually more than one) saint or martyr. If someone is named after a saint, then there is a big  celebration  on his or her   name day .  Since we have been in Cyprus we always have a small celebration on the boys name days, as they both have their own - Leonidas is 15th April and Loukas 18th October.  We don't celebrate them as we would a birthday but they get a card and a small present and we usually meet up with friends for a picnic in a park, and of course there is always cake! Louka loved his card, especially because it had his 'face in the circle', and his new Fireman Sam sticker book that he let Leo do with him. They spent quite a while doing it together with very little moaning between them which is a very rare occurrence in this house! The boys spent the morning playing and watching tv while I prepared some food for the picnic a...

Over the years I have written many Flashback Friday posts, and even ran the link up for a while as it was one of my favourite bits about blogging,  being able to write about things that had happened years beforehand and record memories which might otherwise be forgotten.  Occasionally I would use a more recent picture, usually when struggling to come up with something to fit a theme or get a post published each week but I always felt that was cheating a little bit! But, my blog, my rules and I've realised I can use it to play catch up and revisit some of my photos from the year that I didn't get round to writing about at the time.  Summer 2015 was a great summer for us, with both the boys finishing their respective schools for the last time before moving on in September.  They were excited to be off for the summer... We stayed close to home like we have done every year, but where do we need to go!   I was brave, and took the boys to...

Every year since Leo turned three I have 'interviewed' him just after his birthday, asking him the same list of questions each year to see how his answers change over the years. This year, Louka got to join in with the tradition as he turned three in August.... He was very funny, whispering his answers so quietly at first that we could hardly hear him, and them looking to Leo at each question as if to check what he should be saying.   He was a little confused at 'What is your favourite thing to wear?' as at that point in the year it had been months since he had been in much more than a pair of pants or shorts! I'd forgotten how much harder it is to interview a three year old compared to a 5 or 6 year old,  but that's part of the fun.   He was spinning around and trying to stand on his head and told us that his favourite thing to eat was a light saber! It also turns out that is is rather fond of apples! Best answer though has to be ...

In my ongoing quest to explore Cyprus and find new and interesting places to go I was excited to see that Platres Chocolate Workshop was holding a chocolate festival at the weekend. The advert said... The biggest chocolate festival anywhere around the Mediterranean. Two days of fun filled chocolate events and games. You can visit the Chocolate Experience Museum, take part in chocolate painting, have your portrait painted in chocolate, have your fortune told using hot chocolate, chocolate cake competition, watch chocolate being made by Mast er Chocolatiers, make chocolate soap, try limbo dancing with a chocolate pole, chocolate face painting and lots more games for both children and adults. Don't forget there will also be lots of lovely yummy chocolate things to eat . Platres is a long way from us, about 1.5 hours drive, which is a very long way for our boys to drive and not something they are at all used to living on our very small island but I thought it would be a nice da...