I use the following code in my wordpress blog, when i hover over the <li>'s in the children i can get them to change color etc. However i would like it if the current_page_parent also changed color at the same time. Is this possible and is there a CSS selector that would allow me to do this?

<div class="menu">
<ul>
<li><a title="Home" href="http://www.benwebdeveloper.com/**/">Home</a></li>
<li class="page_item page-item-2 current_page_ancestor current_page_parent"><a title="About" href="http://www.benwebdeveloper.com/**/?page_id=2">About</a>

<ul class="children">
<li class="page_item page-item-4 current_page_item">
<a title="Sub Menu 1" href="http://www.benwebdeveloper.com/**/?page_id=4">Sub Menu 1</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</div>

i would like it if the current_page_parent also changed color at the same time.

You're going to need javascript for that, it cannot be done with CSS alone.

or you could add a class to current item from server-side like: active or something