I hinted yesterday that our New Year's Eve wasn't quite as we had planned. Like Cinderella without the ball. The house was all dressed up with no where to go!

Our big boy Sammy came down with an awful sick bug which meant we were house bound for 24 hours and had to cancel our best friends coming over for a sleepover! How disappointing! The menu was written, the mini bar adorned with fairy lights! We even had the countdown cocktails tried and tested. But as is the way with best friends you can just save it for another time. So New Year's Eve was a dress rehearsal for a belated New Year celebration at the end of the month which actually coincides with two of their birthdays!

I'll post the menu and mini bar later this week as I was so proud of how sweet they looked! I found an old Big Ben stencil which made the perfect milk cocktail for Sammy complete with chocolate powder, a sprinkle rim and frothed milk. He really deserved a treat after being so poorly.

Our neighbours treated us to an impromptu firework display (right over Sammy's bedroom) at 9pm, not sure if they meant for them to all go off in the space of a minute that early!

As Sammy seemed back to his usual self we headed to Clevedon for a New Years Day walk on the pebbly beach and pub lunch complete with the glasses I painted and party hats. Surrounded by smiling faces from the rest of families on the beach we balanced on the rocks for a photo. What superstar friends!

It's back to routine today! Dogs have haircuts, Ollie is at nursery and I need to catch up on work whilst keeping Sammy entertained as pre school doesn't start again until Monday!

It's been wonderful these last few lazy days but the children could do with getting back to normal life, bed times have got a little later and they are both obsessed with the iPad after all the travelling around we have done. Are you secretly looking forward to getting the decorations down?! Mine will be coming down this weekend and I'll have post of how to brighten your house when it looks so bare after the tree and cards come down.

It only seems right on the 1st January to post a list of all the firsts that are expected to happen or I hope will happen this year. I'm really looking forward to checking back to this post on the 31st December to see how many came true! Although some are sure things!

My List of Firsts for 2013

1. My sister will have baby.
2. I will be an Auntie. (I actually have 3 beautiful nieces and a nephew on my husband's side but this will be the first time I will be called Auntie Lucy). Auntie Lu in fact.
3. We will leave both boys for the first time and fly to America.
4. The boys will see the old Pier at Clevedon and walk along the rocks on New Years Day.
5. My brother will own a house with a swimming pool. Jammie dodger!
6. An Easter egg hunt on a beach.
7. Our big boy Sammy will start Primary School.
8. Ollie will play in snow.
9. A family holiday in a hot sunny child friendly resort.
10. Ollie will speak.
11. Host a Doctors and Nurses party. (Children's I might add!) I've never seen this theme for children before!
12. Sammy will learn to ride a bike.
13. We keep our cars all year.
14. We make it down to Penzance to visit family and friends.
15. Host a dinner party in our new dining room.
16. I will bake a cake.
17. Sammy will start swimming lessons.
18. My Mum and I will host a baby shower.
19. One whole side of my family will be travelling on the other side of the world. (It makes me nervous.)
20. I shoot and print my first lomography film.
21. I get paid to photograph a wedding.
22. I will meet some incredible bloggers at my first blog conference.
23. I host a link party on my blog (and that someone joins in).

Happy New Year everyone. Our New Year's Eve didn't quite go to plan and at midnight I whispered Old Lang Syne, holding Sammy's hand as he dozed off between us. I will post some photos tomorrow, it's like a what could have been!

Is there anything you expect to do for the first time this year? I love ticking things off a list and hope I get to tick all 23 off for 2013!

Inspired by a blog I adore reading here are my 4 Simple Goals for 2013.

ONE - Read my camera manual. The simplest of all right?! I know the only way I will become a better photographer is to fully understand my camera! It's too easy to think I can learn just by practising alone. You can of course, but nothing beats understanding how your camera can help you along the way!

simple goals

TWO - Document memories for Ollie. When Sammy was born I lovingly and religiously filled in not one, not two but three baby journals and a Mother and Toddler Journal my husband bought me when I went back to work! Ridiculous as it sounds I adored them all and they all looked at his little milestones in a different way. Poor Ollie, the second son, has the same three journals stacked in the top of his wardrobe with almost nothing written inside! My Mum kept three padded baby record books when we were born and a little less was filled in each time! But I love looking through them. We do so much, I just need to write it down!

simple goals

THREE - Print more! I love instant camera photos because you get to display them straight away! My husband scans them in his Doxie so we have them forever but I need to take advantage of all the 50 prints for so much emails I get from the likes of Photobox. I have a confession I still l have over 1000 photos I printed from when Ollie was a baby that are in a tin rather than an album!

simple goals

FOUR - Less screen time. Have you thought about your eye to screen time? I use my iPhone as my alarm clock (although the boys are always awake before any alarm) and then it is so tempting to have a quick check on Twitter or Facebook. Over Christmas I had a little break from blogging which gave me some precious time away from the laptop. I feel refreshed and bursting with ideas. Sometimes a break is what you need to re focus. Plus you have to be brave to take a break. People won't stop reading just because you need a time out for a few days!

simple goals

Last January we went for a drink in our local pub and wrote this list. Some won't roll onto this years list like adding to our kitchen but others like updating the big frames up the stairs, I am determined to tick off in January! We also have lots of breaks with our friends and family but I would love a little holiday just the four of us before Sammy starts school in September! Yikes!

simple goals

And when it comes to a reward to reaching my goals - well they are rewards in themselves. I'll have beautiful journals to pass down to Ollie, albums of photos to pour over on wet Sundays and more quality time with my darlings which I will be better able to capture on the camera!

Have you set any goals for next year? If you have good luck!

ps. I was too embarrassed by one of my goals to blog it so boldly but I have never baked a cake. Not even a fairy cake. Shocking!  I will bake and ice a beauty in 2013!