Last lunch of the year

Last lunch of the year in Al Reem Bawadi in Dubai!

Emma's 3rd milk tooth fell out today!

Emma's Christmas show

Holiday fun with the kids

Yesterday we spent an hour in a fun park at Avenue Mall here in Athens and the kids loved it. We also enjoyed 10 minutes of peace and were able to have a quietish cappuccino.


Here are a couple of pics of William and Steph as Will drives his first car.

Emma and I were right behind them with me at the wheel and Emma managing the accelerator.

Christmas shopping pizza lunch

My lovelies

Will's Xmas show

Sent from Sandra's iPhone

Getting in the mood for Christmas...

Getting in the mood...slowly but surely :-)

Emma's up cycled Xmas decorations

At the moment Emma's class are looking into ecology and recycling. As part if this unit, they have collected items that can be recycled and used them in art projects. This week part of her homework was making Christmas decorations from recyclable items. Here she is with the upcycled Nespresso capsules and wrapping paper from the flowers we bought earlier this week.

Ta-da! My painting is up!

And amazing skies...

Beautiful, breathtaking nature here in Greece. Really.

Rainy day

Over the summer I started a painting that was, well, rather difficult for me as it involved a lot of complicated swerves and precise paint-brush control. It is inspired by a wallpaper design from the 30s.

After having penciled out the initial curves I was so fed up with it that I left it for at least a month and painted something more free and colourful.

Then I came back to it in October and started adding the background colour. A neutral beige.

Then I started adding the background pattern; a kind of coral like structure.

Getting the symmetry at least looking right on the swerves had been so painful that I decided to make things easier on myself with the corals and actually trace and flip so as to speed things up.

 

Finding and then mixing the right shades of pinks and burgundy was also quite difficult as was brush control - or painting within the lines. Phew!

I hadn't initially thought it was going to be all pinks and burgundies but that's were it took me...

Here I am painting away one autumn day...

Nearly finished! I need to go over the white swerves again to make them pop and then touch up bits and do the sides...

What do you think?

I'll post the finished piece soon I hope...

Autumn Sunday warmth

We're just missing the wooly fire rug...

New interests

 William loves his new screw driver or (drive skewer as he calls it) and is constantly using it

Emma is into  Zumba dancing and drawing

oh and into painting her nails

(here she is watching a cartoon as they dry...)

Happy Halloween!

Ok, I know I am super late on this one, but here are some pics

A blast from the past: nearly 30 years ago...

Can you even spot me? I am so glad to have these (thanks for keeping them Mum!)

1984 Ecolint, Geneva. 

1983 at Ecolint. 

I can remember quite a few kids first names but not their surnames, unfortunately. No clue about the teacher's names though. Amazing that this was such a long time ago...

Just by our house this morning...

Sunday at the beach

November in the sun. What's not to love?

I love that this grew in my garden

Getting ready for Halloween

Translation: what is really behind British politeness

This is absolutely brilliant!

family visits - Gogo and Chris

We've been so busy with new school books and activities, BBQ picnics and bonding field-trips that I have not had much time to post. So here's a quick update:

A couple of weeks ago Gogo and Chris paid us a visit. Emma spend one afternoon at her best friends' birthday party and poor Chris was a bit ill but we still enjoyed some nice meals in and out and William and Emma practiced bike riding.

Chris and the kids as they wait for their school buses

Gogo with Emma and William waiting for their school buses

William is really enjoying his new bike now

Emma on her bike with Gogo

William wants to go fast

William and I wait for his school bus to come
(he is holding the witches broom - yes! he still enjoys cleaning!)
 

Next Thursday we are expecting Tata-yéyé and Greg!