A Matter of Choice

I recently found Game of Life in my local thrift shop and was so excited I brought it straight away to go home and play with the boys and relive the childhood memories.   We had a fun time playing despite the fact it was much more complicated than I remembered and probably a bit too old for Louka. After discovering that a friend of mine also loved the game as a child we decided we should have a Game of Life evening.   So a few days later accompanied by pizza and a couple of GOL newbies we set it up and played.   There was lots of joking about how it was a little misleading and our lives have not been quite so easy,  some debate over the compulsory marriage and house buying squares and lots of laughter. It got me thinking about the other games I played as a child. There were so many,  I think my present from my grandparents each Christmas was a board game, and over the years I acquired a massive selection. My parents spent ages playing d...

If you are a long term reader of my blog you will know that Flashback posts are one of my favourites. I used to join in with a link up every week sharing a photo on a theme and the story that went with it.  I even hosted the linky for a while! Earlier this year I started to write a post with an 80s theme and when I fell into the Pinterest rabbit hole of childhood memories whilst looking for images to accompany my posts I found there were so many things I'd forgotten about and wanted to share that I had to break it down into several posts. I blogged about my 80's toys  and the Sindy and Barbie dolls of my childhood and board games I had or regularly played, but just like the kids of today I was always won over by a bit of tech. It wasn't as impressive as today's tech that kids take for granted now, like ipads and Xboxes but it was awesome to us. I played for hours with the following toys but I don't think they were as addictive as the tech of today,  I'...

Following on from my recent 80's toy flashback post I wanted to elaborate,  while I had been writing the first post I had been browsing on pinterest and of course now it keeps showing me more of the same type of pins assuming that is what I am now interested in.  Well of course it is right, I love memories! Last time I mentioned my favourites - Care Bears and My Little Pony, plus a couple of less popular toys but now it's all about the dolls. Surely every girl growing up in any decade has to have a doll at one point, whether it's a baby, Barbie or Bratz, or whatever the latest is (I don't know, I have boys!) I had a Tiny Tears (or similar) doll, you know the one - feed it and change it, ahh the aspirations we all had!   I wasn't a fan though,  I remember it annoying me that it didn't really look like a young baby and so it seemed silly. This changed when I received Gemma (not sure why I wanted to call it something so close to my own name)   S...

Like so many parents I often despair over what my children eat, more accurately what they refuse to eat. Whilst Leo is much better than he used to be and is willing to try some things at least once, Louka is hard work when it comes to dinner time.  I think he is probably 90% pasta at this point. His dinner choices consist of pasta, usually plain or maybe a little bit of BBQ sauce or mayo, with sweetcorn and hot dogs, ham or salami,    chicken nuggets, pizza or sausages  and a few variations on that but using mainly the same ingredients.  Chips are ok as long as there are just a few, and homemade chips are not included, potatoes in any other form are definitely out.  It seems we spend a lot of time telling the boys what dinners were like when we were kids - yes I have become THAT person... 'Back in my day...... We had a roast every Sunday lunch,  I didn't like roast potatoes so I usually got mashed instead.  I was lucky, Aaron...

My favourite thing about my blog is the chance it has given me to write about some of my old photos and share the stories in flashback posts.   I love the fact it is creating a record for my boys and maybe their children for years to come and giving them the opportunity to get a glimpse into what my childhood and life was like before they came along.  Last year I introduced Leo to the BBC  'Back in Time' series'.  The first series 'Back in Time for the Weekend', took the participating family from the 1950s to the 1990s examining how Britain spent it's leisure time, and was followed up with 'Back in Time for Dinner'  which focused more on how eating habits changed over the years.  We are now watching 'Back in Time for School' and it's making Leo very glad to be at school now and not 100 years ago!   I am pleased he enjoys them as it's showing him more than just history,  to see 'real life' England is a rarity for him too havin...

Facebook drives me mad a lot of the time, not mad enough to not live on it constantly of course (It's not that I *want* too, I HAVE to because of my work, well that and I'm far too nosy not to!)  It's full of rubbish a lot of the time, but also lots of little gems, funny things and random links that are a major time suck but so addictive. Every now and again though it throws up a gem, or in this case inspiration for a blog post... Recently I saw a link to an 80's nostalgia website and this particular post was all about the 'Come and Praise' hymn book that surely every 80s kid held in their grubby little hands once upon a time. (I couldn't find the original post, so I'm making my own!) We used this book every morning in assembly throughout my primary school years. They were kept in a box and handed out at the door as we left the classroom to go to the 'Big Hall' for assembly.  There were many very battered copies in the box and a few b...