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

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

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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

February 1st-February 20th 2016 – Post Radiotherapy

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2016, 365, family, photoaday, photography, photos, postaday

Monday February 1st – last radiotherapy!! This also means last treatment for my breast cancer!! Out for the evening for a meal and some comedy to celebrate

 

Wednesday 10th February – Sx played his first match for the county rugby team. And played well!

13th February 2016 – Fun on the dry ski slopes

Saturday 13th February 2016 – Time for a family game of “who am I” or Headbandz in the evening

16/2/2016 – The half term holiday involved a LOT Of x-box gaming

17/2/2016 – Poor Lx hasn’t been well. She has had a high temperature and a terrible cough and has spent most of the days in bed.

20/2/2016 – More X-box gaming!

And more not feeling great 😦

Monday 25th January – Sunday 31st January 2016

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2016, 365, family, photoaday, photography, photos, postaday

25/1/2016 – Yet another laptop photo. I seem to get so many of these at present because I am so tired and unable to get out much as te side effects of radiotherapy take their toll on me. I feel I should be naming this series “photos from the couch”.

26/1/2016 – After school. Another chance to practise with flashhout moving too far!

27/1/2016 – Homemade Star Wars cards. Dx has been making his own Star Wars themed top trumps card set. I love the imagination in them – and the spellings ” Jedi Nights”

28/1/2016 – Headphones. Still trying to push through my limited subject matter and practise!!

 

29/1/2016 – TIme to Tidy? Everything is mounting up around me as I get more and more tired during this radiotherapy. Its a weird feeling as the radiotherapy doesn’t hurt and actually only takes a couple of minutes. ButI could sleep for England all day and every day right now!!

30/1/2016 – Like Father Like Son. Another quick photo of these two to practise using my flash turned into this shot.

Hopefully my energy levels will start to pick up when I stop radiotherapy next week. Then I can get a bit more variety in my shots and get out and about to take photos more.

 

Sunday 24th January 2016 – The Reluctant Rugby Player

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365, family, photoaday, photography, postaday, rugby

Dx was in one of his moods this mrning where he really isn’t sure he wants to play rugby. After a couple of drills he hurt hi ankle when someone’s stud caught him. He hobbled around and limped pitifully for a while hoping to be allowed to sit out of go home.

And then an hour into the two hour session – suddenly he got into it.  He always enjoys the matches at the end more than the drills and he was there tackling and scoring tries with the best of them.

He still struggles with his gumshiled though!!

Friday 22nd January – Pyjama Party

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2016, 365, family, photoaday, photography, postaday

It was a mad social whirl in our house tonight – Lx and Dx went to a pyjama party at the school, I went out to “wine group that talks about books” and Sx went skating with some friends.

Matt was at an ADHD conference in London so luckily was back in time to play his part in all this (picking up the younger two from their pyjama party and then babysitting). They were back just before I went out so a chance to try practising using my speedlite outside…