Author: Oana

Back to school essentials

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The summer has flown by, it seems and Emma is due back to school next Monday. This has been the first year when I have truly enjoyed the summer with her, she is a young girl now, no longer a baby who needs entertainment and attending to 24/7. She has come in leaps and bounds this summer, not only physically but also in her own self: more caring and understanding but also more confident and inquisitive about the world around her, which has been an absolute delight to see. She will be going into Primary 3 (year 2 in England) and this year, unlike the summer before, I have been super prepared,  and bought her whole uniform from M&S at the end of June, taking advantage of their 20% off offer at the time. I even got her shoes using the same offer, risky since her feet usually grow during the summer months more than at any other time, but it has proved a good move and they do fit nicely for now. Last year, …

Imaginary Adventures with Storytime Magazine

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We are back from our travels but our adventures are far from being over for Emma. In June, we were kindly offered the opportunity to review the Storytime children’s magazine and were sent several printed issues which we took with us to Greece. I did not know if Emma would take to them since she has never shown a great interest in stories and myths before but I was so wrong! The magazine offers a compact yet amazingly varied array of popular fairy and around the world tales, ancient myths and legends and fables along with short poems and rhymes and activities related to the magazine’s content. If you think that is not enough, every month the magazine includes a short sample from a popular children’s book, we really enjoyed July’s The BFG and it really triggered Emma’s curiosity about the book and the new movie that had only been released. Emma is at the stage where her confidence as a reader is growing with almost new every page and book she reads and I believe …

A Dream Guesthouse

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It has taken me a few days to get back to my blog as we had to travel down to Thessaloniki and then settle into our holiday apartment (I even manage to colour bleed all of Emma’s summer bedding, grrrr!). Anyway, here is a sneak peek of our local beach and the views we get of Thessaloniki, a city with which I have had a long love story, which started when I was 14. But this is another story, for another time… As promised, I return with a review of our wonderful bed and breakfast in the mountains. Just thinking of our stay in the Vogiatzopoulou Guesthouse in Agios Georgios on Mount Pilio and I get relaxed! ( I have added the Booking.com link because the reviews the place gets there are accurate and reflect the high standards and quality of the service offered. But please don’t hesitate to contact Vasia, the young owner, directly, she speaks English and will offer you an excellent deal!) What did we like about this place so much? First …

Visiting Mount Pilio

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We are back to Greece, although, if you are a regular reader of my blog, I didn’t think I will return this summer. I did for a number of reasons; my strongest being my daughter’s happiness. We landed in Athens on Wednesday night and headed towards Thessaloniki after a couple of days of rest and a lovely encounter with a loved family member and friend. The journey from Athens to Thessaloniki is long, especially when done in the summer, in a car with a faulty air con system. We decided to break the journey in half and have been staying on Mount Pelion, in a small but beautiful village, called Agios Georgios (Saint George), for the past two nights. Blog post to follow on our delightfully luxurious B&B! Mount Pilio(Pelion in Greek) has been capturing the imagination of the Greek from ancient times and it is believed to have been the home of Centaurs and the starting point of major mythological events like the Trojan War. Nowadays, the mountain continues to attract a lot of …

#PizzaExpressIceAge

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We LOVE Pizza Express in this house and Emma is the biggest fan among us all so when we were contacted and asked if we would like to review a family meal, we squealed with joy! Not only because we would spend some quality time together but also because Emma was allowed to bring a friend or two, making the experience a thousand times more fun! We have two Pizza Express restaurants in Belfast but the one we almost always prefer is the one in Victoria Square. That is where we headed yesterday evening, with three very excited little girls and large appetites :-). As always, the staff was extremely welcoming and friendly to the girls.(We had a little four year old with us who can be extremely shy but by the end of the evening, the lovely staff managed to make friends with her!) We were offered a table immediately and drinks were brought out very quickly. While we were perusing the amazing  summer menu and reading the Piccolo one to the girls, the …