MORE PHOTOS

My new haircut; last week!
Crazy river ride; Dom, Debbie, Grace, Nancy and Ella.
Dom in his pram 'I DON'T believe it' pose
Dom having a terrible two's...!!!! Cute Huh?
A lovely lovely picture of my three perfect children (proud mummy moment). Big kudos to the photographer; well done mum!

HOW LONG?!!!?

To anyone out there who hasn't yet given my blog up for dead; thank you - I'm back.

I cannot believe my last post was in June.

Simply far too much and far too little has happened for me to give a blow by blow account but the abbreviated version of my life recently is as below....

Pictures are; Ella dressed up in uniform (thank you Aunty Karen) for the WW2 rememberance march in the town square. Theo sulking without uniform as only year 4 and above get to march!

Dom with his toy of the moment; Mr potato head and Dom again, helping mummy bake a cake...and Daddy with his two boys....

July 08; My lovely brother and sister in law came to visit with their children...a good time was had by all; despite the fact it makes us miss them more....Mini Golf continued to hot up as the month progessed. Children all well. Duncan losing his sanity whilst playing mum 6 nights a week!

August 08; so very very busy at work; losing kilos every week and discovering lost calf muscles. Great!!! Other sister and brother in law visit Crete for the first time; again a lovely week and a brilliant trip to Aqua Plus...get out your bank loan though!! Dom was 2 and Theo became 6; my boys are growing up; sob!

September 08; Yippee! Kids back to school; Theo started proper primary school; big boy now! Racing around the playground chasing Ella who would have much rather played french skipping with her mates! Oh the perils of younger brothers!! Dominic all well and enjoying abit of one to one with mummy every morning....

October 08; finished work at the very end of this month. It was dragging on in the end I must admit. Dug out my knitting and sewing and 'spring cleaned' the house....

November 08; Spent all my summer earnings on Xmas presents and winter clothing. Had all my long hair cut off into a very fetching (or so I'm told!!) crop....Dom had all hospital appts for the six months; is doing fine. Theo and Ella making more and more friends and going round each others houses to play plus Ella has started Art classes in Neapoli so I am a 4x4 mum (so my mum reckons) but sadly without the 4x4.

My dad is moving house to be closer to us so he is painting the new place. Duncans dad moves to live in Crete tommorow; staying with us. Quite bizarre really but it really is becoming little Britain for us!! (NOT the tv series).

Have been doing lots more knitting etc. Spending more time with the kids but still managing the occasional boozy night out with Duncan and friends (have to show off that new hairdo and all my new clothes; shh! Don't tell my mum!!)

Very sad in the last week reading about this BabyP case in all the papers. Must admit to shedding plenty of tears for him. If only we had a magic wand....

Anyhow I hope to post more soon. Enjoy the photos....

xx Leonie

QUICK POST NUMBER THREE

Just had to share my lovely boy...........

QUICK POST NUMBER TWO

Theo had his last day at nursery last week; in Sept he will go to the 'big' school. He he is saying his part in the school play and with his lovely teacher of the last two years; Mrs Roula.

BTW Ella got ALL A grades in her end of year report! I am SO proud of her; clever clogs.xx

QUICK POST NUMBER ONE

Duncan celebrating his 40th birthday on 6th June.
Later we went out with friends, on a bar crawl until 5.30 am (no pictures available!!!)

ROYAL HALL GLAMOUR

Tonight we went to a party for one of Theo's classmates at a place called Royal Hall in Malia.
It is a huge complex high in the hills above Malia with the most amazing views of the coast and sea.
It has a vast ballroom for weddings etc and various eateries including outdoor bar areas. It has the biggest swimming pool we have ever seen; it is glam glam glam!

Sadly I did not get to investigate the spa or the restaurant but the children enjoyed the purpose built ballpark/soft play area complete with clown/minder. It was lovely; all the tables set up with party balloons etc and great buffet food all in silver tureens!

Even the lobby and the lifts were impressive (see photos) to us hillybillies from hicksville.

Theo says he wants his 6th birthday here and Ella wants her wedding reception in the ballroom.

GULP!!!

DOMINIC'S FIRST LITTLE FRIENDS PARTY

Hi,

These pictures were taken tonight; Dominic was invited to a friends 2nd Birthday party. Ella and Theo came too.

A good time was had by all and Dominic enjoyed watching the birthday candles being blown out; a nice evening.

Another party tommorow night for one of Theo's class mates; oh what a social whirl. I have IT kids!!!

LONG TIME NO POST

Hi to all my readers

Hope you haven't given up on us!

I know this sounds flaky but I kept forgetting to get batteries for the camera and so never got round to blogging.

Well, I've had my 36th birthday; came and went in a flash!

Duncan's next - the big 40 on 6th June; I've got him a lovely present which I am so excited about but can't tell you yet!

Ella is fine and well; working hard at school. Out alot with her friends on their bikes; down to the other village, Limnes, where mum is living so she can always pop in for a drink and a chat.
She has been raising some tadpoles for a few weeks but they have now gone back to the wild; to the stream in Limnes; quite a few turned into the tiniest little frogs; cute!

Talking about tiny and cute; Theo (after his disastrous one week goldfish) has a lovely new pet; a guinea pig Buddy. I suspect I actually love Buddy far more than Theo but hey! I will attempt to post some pictures.
Typically he has some scurfy skin problem, being from a petshop so I am waiting for some lotion from the UK but....

There is a petrol strike here so post and deliveries to supermarkets are delayed. Luckily Duncan and I filled up just before it began and hopefully that will last us as we have two parties to get to at the weekend end; one for Dominic who has a new mate; Robert, about the same age; they don't really play together but bumble around the room like two little orbiting planets, occasionally colliding over a toy.

Dom is doing great; latest eye checkup all well and a shunt check due on the 23rd. I think he may be entering the terrible twos slightly early as he is starting to get cross! Hey mum, what do you mean I can't climb onto the dining table, you are SO mean, whine whine grumble!!!

The second party is for one of Theo's school friends; a nice little boy called Manos. I like his mum too so that's a bonus. Their party is in a big posh function hall on Saturday night so I'll have to get out the glad rags.

Theo is doing well with his school work, both Greek and English; he is being a bit of a shouty boy at the moment but its probably just boys!

I'm fine, not yet started my summer job at Mini Golf; it seems abit quiet this year but at least I have had a couple more weeks to get sorted because once I start that's it for the summer, although I can't wait for all our friends/family to come over (you know who you are and I am a Primark size 10 har har!!)

Anyway, off to watch National Lampoons Vegas Vacation (the only one we haven't seen). The others leave me in stitches and Duncan shares my humour so love you and leave you for now.

xxx Leonie

HI ALL

Just a quick update on us; we are all fine.

It is so lovely that we have not had to go to the hospital for a while; touch wood it continues; Dominic is really well and happy; starting to run more (gulp!) and learnt how to kick a ball (must be his uncle Dom rubbing off on him!)

Theo is almost there with the reading and writing (English). I'm sure once he can read himself it will give him hours of pleasure. All of them love books; little Dom is really into Mr Men books and is always carrying one around with him; his favourite seems to be Mr Worry!!!!!!

Ella is great; very happy today as we caught 14 tadpoles at a local stream and have put them into a fishtank; we've been reading up on tadpole care and she has attempted to name them all!! Some are really big and some are tiny and I'm guessing that the latter will become food for the big guys if we are not careful.

Am posting a couple of photos taken just now of Dom; abit teethy and snotty I'm afraid but cute all the same. So maybe he will take after his other Uncle (Marc) instead....

Take care...Love Leonie

HAPPY 9TH BIRTHDAY ELLA

Happy Birthday to Ella; 9 today; how the years fly.

After a reluctant morning at school; Ella had a little birthday tea of pizza and birthday cake. She got her hearts desire of a phone (and a phone cake I made). She also got a tamagotchi (complete with incomprehensible instructions) and some lovely new clothes.

We all had a lovely day.
xx
Leonie

UPDATE ON US

Well we've had a busy time of it; not all good! We had NO water in the village for 6 days; our emergency tank lasted for the first two then we made do with 35litre drums that Dunc brought home from work each evening. Dom is here in the 'green bath'. Believe or not I too had a 'bath' in it; No photos available though!!! You can imagine the luxury when it came back on; 3 hours in the bath that night!
Theo and Ella did their speeches beautifully; As they were unhelpfully at the same time (Grr!) I went up to Ellas in the big school and mum saw Theos in the nursery school. Here he is in all his Greek Solider glory; how gorgeous is he?!!!!!!! Ella looking very grownup ; she spoke very well; I was proud.
On Tuesday (Independence Day) mum and I took the kids out for the day as there was no school; we went to a popular village called Kritsa; just ambled around really. But Theo saw a motorbike that really took his fancy; he is already asking when he will be old enough to have one of his own (Duncan's genetic doing me thinks!!) Doesn't he look cool; poseur.

Well Dom won't thank me for posting this photo when he is older but he looked so cute I wanted to share; this was him this morning wearing Daddy's cricket hat and white vest "his quintessential English man" look.

Off bowling on Saturday for Ellas 9th Birthday; time flies eh? Weather hotting up nicely. Starting work in just over a month, first tourists soon to arrive and life is gearing up for summer mode; lovely!

Take care and come on guys; where's all the comments please; let me know you're out there!
xxx Leonie

FORTNIGHTLY UPDATE PART 2

Well, after Kite Day, things settled back down; the weather continues to be beautiful so we have been out and about; am posting pics of the weekend when we walked to a nearby village; Theo is convinced he is a gorilla at the moment; see pic "roaring on the wall".

Despite his ape fantasy, he is really coming on well with his English reading and writing, though yesterday afternoon, it all became too much, and, believe it or not, he fell asleep at the table, with me sitting right beside him; mmm! maybe its my teaching style!

Dom is coming along great; latest update on infected eye is that the docs want to wait and see at the moment; cosmetically it is not great but his vision is unaffected so unless there is a another infection, they want to leave well alone until the final surgery at age four. But, as you can see, he is a happy chap, despite the heavy cold he had had; he even took time out to 'help' me with the housework!

Well, Ella gets her next 3 monthly grades on Friday (fingers crossed) and on Monday it is a special day in Crete; Independence day so Theo and Ella both have 'peemas' (speeches). Theo is to be dressed up as a traditional Greek soldier (he is abit wary about the 'skirt' and the fact he has to wear a pair of Ella's white tights! I just keep stressing the word 'soldier' and hope he doesn't mutiny on the day!) Watch this space for photo overload!!!!

Well that's about it for tonight; Duncan is out watching the footy; can't complain; I had a lovely treat yesterday; went with mum to Heraklion and went round all the lovely shops in the centre until closing time. Bought some summer clothes for the kids and a pair of shorts fro myself so roll on summer I say! Didn't get in till nearly 11pm after a Macs (Woohoo!) . It was SO nice to go out just as me with another woman and look at lots of nice stuff, without toting moaning kids around :)

xx Take care!

FORNIGHTLY UPDATE

Hi all,

As the title reads, it seems I am only managing a blog every fortnight at the mo...but like you all, I seem to be constantly snowed under by life in general; I have even stopped writing myself lists as it is too depressing; now, if something it important enough I seem to remember it; if not, well thems the breaks!

Here goes....am posting some pictures, as promised, of "Katharo Deftera" or "Clean Monday" when everyone decamps to local beaches with bar-b-q's and fly kites. We had a lovely time, with mum and dad, and friends, Paul and Paula amongst others who popped in to say Hi and have a quick beer. Duncan enjoyed his 'Jamie' moment with the barbie. Theo brought all his prehistoric friends and Dom kicked back and quaffed his milk with Paula at the helm!

A GREAT day.

Continue to next post..........