Sunday 4/12/2016 – Decorations

Time to stop worrying that I haven’t posted for ages and just post!

Today we put the decorations up – I always hope it will be a wonderful warm family time where we reminisce about Christmases past. And it usually ends up with someone in a mood, someone complaining about having to help and someone in tears.

So I do find putting the decorations up quite a stressful time and have to really struggle not to build it up in my head. Today – I had no expectations, no high hopes – and actually it was lovely.

All the children helped dress the tree (as is traditional for us) and we went through all the personal decorations they have received every year of their lives and talked about what they represented.

Lx helped me put the angel on the top – and once again I was so pleased we have a tree full of memories rather than a themed tree – beautiful though they are.

August 2016 – Iceland (the other bits!)

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2016, 365, children, family, iceland, photoaday, photos, postaday, summer, travel

I thought as I took so many photos in beautiful scenic Iceland that it was probably best to split them into two posts. We were only there for three days but you wouldnt think so from the number of photos.

The other post (my previous post) was of all the beautiful landscapes – this one covers all the photos of us as a family in Iceland – and our time in  Reykjavik

Our first stop was the Blue Lagoon – a spa which has a lagoon heated naturally by hot springs. The silica mud from the bottom of the lagoon is provided to be used as a face mask.

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We stayed in a great airbnb right in the centre

We wandered round Reykjavik enjoying the colourful houses and the local shops…

We visited the fabulous Hallgrimskirkja and went up to the top of it for views over the city. Unfortunately poor Dx was picked on a bit by his brothers and ended up seeking some solitude in the church

We went on coach tours to waterfalls where we played pooh sticks over the rivers and skimmed stones…

And we had a picnic and played “push  your sibling off the log” before exploring a volcanic beach and trying some more stone skimming

August 2016 – Iceland (the landscapes)

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365, iceland, landscape, photography, photos, postaday, travel, vacation

In August we were lucky enough to go on a mega trip to the US via Iceland. We flew via Iceland as they were the cheapest flights – the fact that we could break our journey there and spend a few days in Iceland was a bonus.

And what a bonus it was! Iceland is a really beautiful country. We only had a couple of days so we took a couple of coach tours in order to see as much as we could. We also visited the famous “Blue Lagoon” but I’ll cover that in another post about us.

This post is dedicated sorely to the beautiful landscapes of Iceland – so beautifu that I was able to take most of these photos through the reflective dirty windows of the coach and they still look wonderful. If you like stark scenery and get a chance to visit Iceland – grab it with both hands…

 

July 2016 – Early Morning London

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london, photoaday, photography, photos, postaday, travel, UK

At the end of July we spent a weekend in France with my parents and my brothers. Matt and I spent the night before up in London and then left the children with his parents and  set off in the early hours. Matt drove us through London on our journey to the Channel Tunnel at Folkestone but I am not naturally a morning person the only way for me to wake up properly…was to take photos…

Natural History Museum

Victoria and Albert Museum

 

Harrods

Harvey Nichols

The Ritz

Tower of London with the Shard in the backgroundTower Bridge

London Skyline including the Shard

Typical London pub

Bank Buildings

Greenwich – Where Greenwich Mean Time and all other time zones are measured from.

July 2016 – Catching up

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365, childhood, children, family, photoaday, photography, photos, postaday

A few more months to catch up on before we can move forwards. Here are just a few photos to give a flavour of what we got up to in July…

Lx had “French Breakfast” at school where the students get to run a Frnech cafe for the morning. Lx was too nervous to be a waitress so she volunteered for the washing up instead!

Dx found it hard sometimes to deal with the teasing of his older brothers and needed to take himself off

I had my hair chemically straightened and Gx went for his modelling agency audition – and got offered a contract!!

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Lx had an ice skating birthday party – which Matt enjoyed too!

We had an impromptu party in the street with the neighbours

Lx finished at primary school and she  and her friends all autographed each others shirts on the last day.

Sx had his friends over for a massive water fight in the garden, pizzas and a sleepover. And for a short while I won the “Best Mum ever” award from him.

We blew up the paddling pool and Lx and Dx enjoyed splashing around in it.

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We went to a French chateau with my parents and my brithers and sister-in-laws. It was our present to my parents for their Diamond Wedding Anniversary.

The view from the chateau room window

June 2016 – Catching up

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2016, 365, childhood, children, photoaday, photos, postaday, UK

I have a few months to catch up on so am just posting a few photos from each month to get caught up and give a flavour of what we did…

Matt continued to be my photography subject when the kids had fled…!

Dx had a haircut – way way overdue!!

Sx and Dx got into Athletics – they began training on a Friday night with a local club – and Sx represented our local borough in the county school athletics championships

Lx visited her new secondary school (she will start in September) and it all went well.

We went to my parents for a BBQ for Father’s Day

Four years after the event i managed to get a photo of Matt’s Dad in his “gamemaker” unform from when he helped at the London 2012 Olympics

Sx managed to break his ring finger trying to catch an American football. Luckily it is the end of the rugby season but it did stop him doing pre-season training (oh… and writing at school…so not all bad!)

Dx helped make pancakes at the weekends

…and socialised with his friends on Minecraft after school.

 

May 2016 – Getting back on track

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365, children, family, photoaday, photography, postaday

I’m months behind and to be honest this year I have been terrible at blogging here.

So to cut to the chase and catch up I am going to pick a small selection of ten photos from each month to give a flavour or what we did…

I did some online photography courses….

The kids continued to lounge around on computers and iPads far too much.

The weather was nice enough to BBQ

This photo got Gx through to the next stage of being taken on by a model agency (audition in July…)

Lx continued to enjoy her last year at secondary school with her friends.

 

Dx enjoyed a “Forest schools” learning programme at school where he got to build dens, climb trees, make fires and get dirty!

We went to the rugby 7s weekend at Twickenham

Dx continued to not be able to juggle!

Sx continued to lose himself in playing the piano making me cry time and time again with his skill.

My hair grew back after my chemotherapy – but grew back in a curly afro. A grey curly afro. So I got it died – and turned into a peroxide blonde afro!!

April 2016 – New Lens! (Helios 44M)

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2016, england, family, helios, manual lens, photography, photos

I heard people talking about buying manual lenses for their DSLRs. how ridiculous – was my initial thought – what a step backwards!! Then I saw the photos they were getting and I decided to give it a try too!

Its trickier than it looks but with the lenses around £20 ($32) you can’t go too far wrong with buying one to experiment with. I still need to try more often but here are some of the initial attempts…

(next stop – freelensing!)

April 2016 – iPhone through England

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2016, england, family, iphone, landscapes, photography, photos

I had another attempt at improving my iphone photos. Outdoors I am not too bad Indoors I am still terrible (or is it the phone? I see others manage perfectly fine with the same phone (5s) but I don’t ever seem to master it!)

Still – it keeps me amused on car journeys!

April 2016

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365, england, family, photoaday, photography, photos

What did we do in April? We did this….

We finished off our holiday in Cornwall and I took some photos on the way home out of the window of the English countryside rushing by

 

There was more rugby – finishing off the season (and there was some football too)

It was lovely seeing my two rugby playing sons supporting each other…

There were even a couple of “rugby tours” – weekends away with the rugby team staying in holiday parks and partaking in rugby games in the day and general silliness in the evenings

There was general chilling and hanging out at home…

And Sx got his siblings to help him with painting his room and building drawers for it