365 Project - Week 24

A day out at the harbour in Agia Napa, Leo fed fish for the first time and loved it!

Second Little Kickers football lesson, Leo was very pleased to get his kit.

I set up a facebook page and group for my Slimming World group, and spent most of the day promoting it on facebook.

Leo's end of year school play, he was an absolute star!

Enjoying being the 'big boy' and helping his friends walk down the stairs!

My Dad's birthday and he got cuddles from his grandsons. 

He does sleep, just not very often or when you actually want him to.

Agia Napa - not just for clubbing!

There's a large misconception that Agia Napa is just for party people and only comes alive at night.  It is true that it is a fab party place during the day it's a totally different place. Last Sunday a friend and I went for the afternoon and had a lovely time. While I often pop down there to see Aaron at work it's been a long time since I did anything else so it was great to and do something different.

First of all we explored the small church at the harbour, Agios Georgios.

Leo was surprisingly interested in it and was comparing it to the big church he has been to with the school.  I pointed out the beautiful decoration and it was all going well until he started asking who all the pictures were and lots of other questions, I came a bit unstuck trying to answer all his questions!

Next to the church is a restaurant with a small playground so we popped in there for a sneaky play before walking around the harbour itself to look at the boats.  Leo was interested in the different types from the small traditional fishing boats to the large tourist 'submarines' and party boats.  He was desperate to go out on one and I told him we would go very soon with Grandad while Nana looks after Louka.

Leo and his friend Jack were excited to see 'Nemo' who was with the guys handing out leaflets for the 'Nemo Submarine boat trip'  I just couldn't believe he could survive in wearing that suit in the heat!

We stopped to feed the fish such a simple activity but something Leo has never done before. He was absolutely over the moon about it, fascinated how mad they all went as he threw the bread in, I think this was the highlight of his whole day!

We stopped for a picnic lunch near the water in a lovely little shaded area with benches and the boys had a run around playing ball for a while, until Leo randomly announced he was cold.... I have a temperature gauge on my pushchair and it was showing 35 degrees in the shade!

Heading back to the harbour we decided to stop for some frozen yoghurt at a new place that has recently opened which happens to have a great little play area right next door. The boys were not at all interested in the yoghurt, or even the sweets we'd put on the top, preferring instead to play leaving us to eat it all ourselves!

Next to the playground is  coffee bar, restaurant and a nice looking pool so I think we're be heading down again very soon.

Flashback Friday - A birthday surprise

Today is my Dad's birthday so I thought I'd flashback a few years... not many of course, to his 50th birthday.

My Mum decided to arrange a surprise for him, she did it brilliantly considering how much time they spend together and he didn't suspect a thing.

Dad was told that the two of them were going out for dinner at a local restaurant.  What he didn't know was they were being joined by his friends and family!

It was arranged that a friend would give them a lift to the restaurant on his way out. At this point Dad thought that the friend was going to be joining them for dinner as a surprise, on the way there he asked if that was the plan but was told no, the friend was very sorry but had other plans.

He didn't believe them and expected him to get out the car when they arrived but instead he dropped them off and drove away.

Meanwhile I was inside the restaurant and with all the others waiting for them to arrive. As they walked in I happened to be the first person he saw and he smiled at the 'surprise'. We didn't live that far away and the fact of Aaron and I being there would not have been that unusual.

It was a second later however that he noticed the others one by one and was genuinely stunned!

I think there were about 15 of us in total, some who had traveled a fair distance too.

It was a great evening and enjoyed by everyone, especially the guest of honour!

Linking up to Flashback Friday

Interview with a four year old

Last year when Leo turned 3 I interviewed him after seeing the idea online. I thought it would be interesting to see how his answers change (or not) over the years.

Here is my interview with my four year old (with a little bit of input from his little brother!)




The filming could have been better but Louka insisted on standing up so I was trying to stop him falling over or grabbing my camera.

There were a few random answers but that's Leo for you!   I was also quite surprised that he burst into song halfway through when I asked him what his favourite was, especially as it was in Greek!

Oh, and he likes Lucie really!

Just a big kid at heart!

Last year we went to a restaurant with a fab play area and every time we have driven past it since then Leo has asked to go back. It closed for the winter not long after our visit so when we drove past a couple of weeks ago to see the 'biggest bouncy castle in the world' all inflated I knew it wouldn't be long before we returned. 

On Friday evening (it doesn't open until 6pm, which is annoying but it would be too hot to walk on in the day)  a couple of friends were going so invited us along. My Mum offered to look after Louka so Leo and I went on our own. 

He was very excited, especially as we had dinner first and I told him we'd be out until after it had got dark. We very rarely go out late, despite the fact I always imagined I would do with him and because of that he usually trots off to bed quite happily at 7pm and I relish the peace and quiet to much to change it!

However, summer is here and in next week he will finish school for 3 months so I  want to do lots of exciting things with him and let him have some later nights so it was a good start to get him used to it.

I'm just a big kid at heart and love bouncy castles so I spent a long time playing with him on the big castle and the huge shark slide, it was good exercise as I was exhausted after it!

It was lovely to spend some time just with Leo without worrying about what Louka is up too, well OK, I just really wanted to go on the shark!

I'm not the best at taking one handed self portrait photos but Leo loved the fact we had one of the two of us on our 'special' night out!

365 Project - week 23

The one where we went 'real' bowling!

Some time ago Leo suddenly announced that he would like to go bowling, it took me some time to work out what he meant as he couldn't remember what it was called and spent a long time trying to explain what it was he wanted to do. Eventually I asked him if he meant bowling, worked out from the random description and demonstration he was giving me but was confused as to how he knew about it. It turns out that he saw it in an episode of Handy Manny!

Initially I thought it would be an expensive activity that probably wouldn't go well and so I introduced him to bowling on the Wii.  He loved it and it instantly became his favourite thing to do.

Just before Aaron started back at work however, we decided to take him to do the real thing.

Not far from us is Play4all - a great little place with ten pin bowling, soft play and games areas. We've been to the soft play many times before but he'd never noticed the bowling lanes as you enter!

He was very excited when we told him we were going and he was asking lots of questions, the best one being 'will we have our own remote or share one' until we explained that we were going to throw the actual balls ourselves!

It was a Friday afternoon and as I expected we were the only people there, whenever we use the soft play we (and the people we have gone with) are usually the only people in there, people here don't go out that early!


Leo loved it and was really well behaved, and we ended up having a second game, this wasn't the best idea as although he had been sad that the first one had finished he'd had enough just a couple of goes into the second - you can have too much of a good thing!

He did get a second wind though and renewed enthusiasm and ended up winning the second game!  He used the ramp and had the buffers up, which stayed up for Aaron's turn and went down for mine which I was not amused about!

It was a great afternoon, and nice to be doing something so 'grown up' with him.  It was also surprisingly cheap  just €15 for three of us to have 2 games.   We didn't have to hire shoes - we asked as we paid for the game assuming we had to, and got asked 'You want to hire shoes?' in a slightly surprised tone.  We said, laughing 'not really'   and got met with the ubiquitous Cypriot shrug 'Ok, no problem' he replied!    


Only problem is that the place is right next to Lidl so Leo asks to go again every time we go shopping!

Linking up to Flashback Friday

Slimming World Scan Bran Challenge - Update and recipe

Two weeks ago in a moment of apparent madness I decided to do the 'Scan Bran Challenge' along with several others from my Slimming World group.

It's a bit of a craze sweeping the groups at the moment, the idea being that you eat 5 scan bran a day (either as a 'Healthy B choice' or counted as 5 syns) along with drinking at least the recommended 2 litres of water a day to help speed your weight loss.

Its had mixed results in the group, some good weight losses and some no different to usual.  I did very well at the start of the 1st week, sticking to the challenge from Monday until Thursday, at which point I went out drinking Thursday evening and then it all went to pot!

At the weigh in on Monday I'd gained a pound, but I blame the drinking and resulting hangover cures, plus the kids party I went to on Saturday where I found myself eating cake and such like all afternoon!

They say that it will always catch up with you though and this week I was very surprised to have lost 2lb as from Leo's party I'd been way off track with the usual food optimising plan let alone the scan bran!

I'm still trying various recipes using it and for the first time in 7 years of Slimming World I'm actually mostly enjoying it.

The recipes can be a bit hit and miss but one of the successes I've had so far is Scan Bran Chocolate Cake.

I've found the best way to use Scan Bran is to blitz it in a processor, for this recipe I then added a tiny bit of hot water to soften it down.


You need,
5 scan bran
2 eggs
28g cocoa powder
sweetener 3 - 4 tbsp ( I never measure this, I just chuck a fair amount in, depends on your tastes)
1 tbsp golden syrup

Blitz the scan bran and pour a little hot water over to soften slightly (or break into tiny pieces and pour boiling water over wait a while and break up with a fork)
Add all the other ingredients, mix well and pour in to a microwavable tub.
Cook in microwave for about 7 mins or until firm.

If you count the scan bran as your 'Healthy B' choice for the day, the whole cake is 6.5 syns, or 11.5 syns otherwise.

I often use Chocolate spread in place of the cocoa which is yummy but it ups the syn value slightly ( 4 syns per tbsp) and it's very difficult not to sneakily eat a spoonful as you put in in!

 I enjoy the cake with a cup of tea but it can be a bit hard going if you plan to eat it all, the best way I've found is to serve it with a big dollop of syn free yoghurt and strawberries