As I was loading the photos for the World Book Day post from my phone to my PC I noticed I still had all of last year's photos to export! I was shocked to discover that I had taken 1728 pictures last year on my mobile, that's an average of 144 photos a month just hidden away on my phone! I realised that these pictures probably give a more accurate representation of day to day life than the ones I take on my digital camera so I've decided to do a 'Year in Pictures' post, a little late I know but I was very new to blogging in January and was still getting my head around this system. 

...Well not really but as today is world book day and being an ardent book lover I thought it would be a great opportunity to share a couple of our favourite books. Our home is filled with books and I couldn't be without them, the children have also, to my delight, grown to be enthusiastic book lovers.  We have bookcases in most rooms (small piles of books can usually be found in those without) and I've got to the stage now that a book only makes the bookshelf if it is truly special; those that don't make the shelf I swap with friends.

I thought for a while about which book I could call my favourite and decided I couldn't possibly narrow it down to 1 or even ten; I cherish novels alongside cookery books, history books, plays, poems, travel books...the list goes on.  So I thought for this post the children and I would pick one book each from our favourites to share...

It's half term again, we've looked forward and waited for it and it's raining!  All our plans have gone out the window (well they've sort of hovered by the windowsill - it's too wet for them outside!) and I'm left wondering how to keep three children between the ages of 1 and 10 occupied?

We've found lots of arts and crafts projects that are cost free on the internet, and a surprising winner with my children has been creating these lovely heart crayons...

We love any excuse to celebrate in this house so when Rob offered to cook something special for Valentines Day everyone got very excited, yes it became apparent very quickly this would be a family affair! And why not? Valentines is about love and, failing a surprise romantic trip to Paris, what better way to spend the evening than surrounded by the people I love the most.