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As John's been away all week we went out for dinner to the Cock Inn (still makes us smirk despite the amount of times we've been!) Delicious food and great entertainment from the boys! Ended the day nicely. 

And, although I slept badly, the day proper began well with a notification that Mark Pentleton had answered my request and recorded the Dogtanian and the three Muskahounds theme tune as part of his 2015 piano challenge! Thank you! It's the sign of a good theme tune or a misspemt youth that I can recall all the words!

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Catching Reception rehearsing for their class assembly was lovely - they sang me their ¡Hola! song.

Great face pulling in PSHE - some very scary 'jealous' faces! 

And a fun staff meeting doing ceramics. My effort is currently drying. Not sure what it is as we were just learning joining techniques. However, I'm sure it'll become something! 

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I made the acquaintance of another y2 class this morning and had some very interesting conversations! I seemed to puzzle some of them which amused me whilst others told me their life stories as soon as they met me.
Conversation at lunchtime turned to extra digits - I think we got there from binary but not sure! - and Joe's tale of the two thumbed perfume seller had us crying with laughter.
And after school - ZUMBA! How I've missed trying to beat my lack of rhythm and coordination into submission! I hope Miranda and the Zumba mums would be proud of me - I wore my vest with pride and although there was no bull fighting or 'dulce de leche', I did my best! 

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A trying day at work was made better by smiles from some of Y4 who I haven't taught since October and by a parcel on my desk when I arrived T work. And on my return home there was a bunch of flowers from our cleaner which made me smile. 

Still wish this had worked though - a genius idea if a little wishful! 

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This was posted by my friend Fátima. An inspiring lady. I've never seen her without a smile on her face, whatever the circumstances, and she makes me smile. Huge hugs to you guapa xx

And this little chap is so cute! 

I've finally finished planning a mammoth presentation - it's taken all week. 

The sun shone at just the right time for me to sit and enjoy my lunch. 

Isaac's y10 review meeting went really well and I managed to speak to the lovely Mr W without blushing ;)

I watched the last episode of Prey and John Simm was proved innocent. Hurrah!

And John will be home tomorrow. 

(That's my husband not Mr Simm just to clarify)  😉

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I am a smiley person, it's true. But I can be a grumpy person too sometimes and this morning I was feeling very grumpy. And cross. And fed up. 

And things didn't improve much when Liverpool were beaten, Johnny Brownlee was beaten and Dan Martin fell with 100m to go in Liege-Baston-Liege. 

What made me smile again? 

We sang "Crown him with many crowns" at church, we sang the proper words and we sang my favourite verse about God being creator of the rolling spheres, ineffably sublime. Anyone who knows me well knows that this is very important to me. And that includes our minister Donald who commented in it as I left church. 

Secondly I discovered the picture at the top in a post about iPad apps, made especially for me. Thanks Erzsi! Sorry it took me so long to see it!

Then I couldn't fail to smile at the prize Mark Cavendish received for wining the stage in the Tour of Turkey. He'll get very bunged up if he eats all of those...

And then there was this picture someone tweeted earlier. 

Most of all though it was realising, prompted by some tweets, that I have two lovely sons and a wonderful husband, and that means I'm very lucky. 

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Arrived home to meet Maurice, Isaac's German exchange friend. He's lovely. Looks like 'the boys' have had a great time in my absence and everyone is getting on very well.
And I have a present to unwrap too.

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A very sad end to the day with the news that the hugely talented, every generous and always cheerful Bev Evans has passed away.  Her posse of teddies have kept us entertained during her hospital stay, getting up to no end of mischief on the ward. I'm really sad but whenever I think of Bev it makes me smile; she was that kind of person. A huge hole has been left in many many lives.

Miss you lovely daffodil xx

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A (relative) lie in and leisurely start to the day as I was on a course. 

The bunting in Western Arcade made me smile - very cheerful. I shouldn't have been walking that way but my sense of direction once more let me down! Oh well! 

The course was brilliant - as expected ;) - great to see Clare too. 

And although the day ended with lots of to-ing and fro-ing, I was smiling as Jude's parents' evening only confirmed what we already knew - he's a funny clever happy chap :)

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Spring has sprung. Let's hope it sticks around as I personally like the sunshine!

To escape the paint fumes, Isaac wrapped up in several jumpers and a hat and sat by the open back door. He then tried to watch TV from the garden but was thwarted by being unable to undo the window as there was no key and he couldn't hear. So he came in and sat on the window sill next to the other window that would open!

The ongoing adventures of Harold, Maude and friends recounted by Bev (who is stuck in hospital bless her) continue to amuse me, as did a discussion about how it would be do much better to be in hospital of your doctors were JD and Turk from Scrubs! 

Liverpool won and are now 2nd in the Premier League. 

The Fulham manager's glasses are rather amusing too. 

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Thanks to Viv for sharing this. 

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Last night...

today and ...

back at home.

A wonderful weekend and a beautiful sunset over the Thames as I nipped across London on the way home. Bus beats Tube (no vertigo issues!)

I am utterly cream crackered now though!

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Knobs, dongles and Gove pincushions.

Ukeleles, mini books and phonic raps. Batalla de cojos, green suede heels and great friends. 

All good reasons to smile on a rainy day!

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I've finally arrived in Southampton after an eventful trip.

I'm smiling because I'm with friends, I am not without hope and, when the train was delayed, I only had me to look after rather than having to arrange child care for small children for an indefinite period over the phone that kept losing signal like the poor lady opposite me.

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Good to be back in worship group, even if I did get hit over the head by an exuberant worshipping Barbara. Soon solved by removing my microphone from the stand and moving closer to Phil. Also meant I could read his large words ;)

And a very pleasing run on a sunny albeit cold afternoon. Having trouble breathing in the cold so I was very pleased with my average pace. Picture is the edge of the Country Valley Park as I sped past; that's flooding not a lake!

I knew Jude had a plan at lunchtime when he approached me with a smile on his face and eyelashes fluttering... sharing bags of crisps is not a problem for me, unlike John who ate an entire bag of M&S cheesy tasters all by himself.

Isaac's ability to balance his entire body in something akin to the lotus position on the tiny saddle of his bike is quite impressive and certainly causes a smile as I pass and wonder where the rest of his body has gone.

And John in cycling gear is always worth a smile ;)

Finally - this song is by someone I knew in youth group and last saw about 25 years ago! I like it - listen to the words (and they're below the video on Youtube too)

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Cupcakes. 

Friends, human...

And robot!

BETT, TeachmeetBETT and TeachEat all provided plenty of opportunity for smiles whether it was meeting people, presenting on the Brainpop stand, drinking cider and laughing hysterically or deciding that I was taking the use of my cake stand as a frisbee too seriously and should just clip the culprit around the ear!

And then there was the hideous picture of me that amused all my Twitter friends! 

Then there was travelling on the DLR after TeachEat in a group with Tony who had his face painted as tiger; we were asked by fellow travellers how we could have a sensible conversation with him looking like that. Easily we replied - we're used to it!

Glad to be back in my hotel though having had three encounters with drunken men (none known to me and none close thank goodness!)

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Having not slept much last night and having to take down all the decorations and twinkly lights, I've been grateful today for cups of tea and kind words.

A hilarious conversation on Twitter about Tshirts, fashion and which colour suits which person made for light relief this afternoon, and a run cleared my head.

And this little lady (beautiful daughter of my stunningly beautiful goddaughter) put a huge smile on my face. Just the cutest in the panda suit we bought for her :)

Now I'm switching off and watching Sherlock. Night!

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A smiley cake to start 2014 courtesy of my friend Jamie. He spent months trying to get a mention on Smiles365 and I made him wait (which made me smile like a naughty pixie!) A lesson in perseverance! 

Also making me smile today is http://eyebombing.com courtesy of Dom McG. I may have to join in; just need some googley eyes! 

Here's an example.

And then there was watching The Croods with the boys. Not the best film ever but some amusing parts! 

I discovered that I had run further than the distance between my two homes last year (40 odd miles to spare!); I actually ran about as far as here to Copenhagen or exactly Vaduz in Liechtenstein.

Finally, it's good to know that others like my idea. Good luck @dimchurch!

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It's been a year of two halves - Swiss and English. Lots of smiles along the way - tears too or I wouldn't be human, but lots of smiles and laughs.

Happy New Year to you all and thank you to my lovely boys for providing so many of the smiles, many unrecorded. 

I'll leave you with some of my favourite pictures from this year. But I'll be back tomorrow, by popular demand, with ...

MoreSmiles365!

And here's the link to all the photos from the year!

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My Narnia lamppost. I miss it! Thanks to the Pickups I got a Christmas card to remind me, and this was taken on this day last year.
Made me smile thinking of it though!

Smiles today as we shared cracker jokes and watched TV.  Jude made us all smile with his annoyance at the ending of The Italian Job - "I'll be awake all night wondering about what happened!" And the sunshine on my run made me smile too.