What a month May has been, with two bank holidays, a long weekend away and the start of half term, what is not to love? We certainly packed in a lot with a long weekend in Center Parcs, a trip to the rapeseed fields, exploring the bluebells and a trip to Yorkshire for a family cycle event….aswell as Eva’s first football match with Eddy taking her to Everton, Roma’s first hair cut ever and finally booking our summer holiday to Holland. Writing all that down does seem like we have done a lot.
This months photos were taken a few weeks ago on a day trip to the Bluebell woods (look at me getting all organised) I think they actually might be some of my favourites ever. It is such a beautiful place and I adore it there, it has the best woods with bluebells around every corner and every inch ripe for exploring. It also has a pretty good set up with games and delicious cake but I’ll save that for when I actually get around to publishing the post and sharing the million other photos I took! We had the most stunning day weather wise too and I could have stayed there for hours upon hours.
The brighter weather certainly seems to have an impact and a transition on the family dynamics and we all have to kind of learn how to be with one another outdoors again! It’s by far my favourite time, it feels like freedom and the pace slows somewhat as we are able to sit back and watch the children explore. We all learn what the others limits are, our interests, how to keep on track and most importantly to keep each other happy. I won’t say that our family dynamics are perfect, if there even is such a thing, and we are definitely still learning as every month passes what we all need and how to keep it working and ticking along. It’s easy to think that it all just fall into place and once you know how everyone works its just a matter of coasting along in this happy bubble, but that isn’t it. Or at least it isn’t for us. We are constantly having to evolve as the children grow, as our lives change, as we do, and we make a choice to do that each and every month.
The reason I say this is because I love to reminisce, to document the lovely ordinary, to focus on the positive moments we have and to ensure every month we have snaps for this Me and Mine project to look back on in years to come, but it doesn’t mean it is always easy. We have bad days, bad news, issues that we do not share and moments that don’t make the photos. It doesn’t of course mean that it is any less real, these photos are a real moment captured in time of our real lives, real faces, our real little people and I love that. They just do come from me coercing them into one last photo before we left and as you may be able to tell if you look closely, Eva was scared about being high up, Roma was not interested in smiling at all, she just wanted to be carried and Eddy was just a little reluctant, which made me irritated too!
However, we made it work and I think that is symbolic somehow. Life isn’t always easy skipping through the wild flowers, we are not always BFFs, occasionally we dream of our old lives with no responsibility or at least a day off and sometimes news comes and knocks you so hard you think you might never get back up or know how to live normally anymore. But you make it work because if you’re going to live life together you may aswell do it smiling. As much as it feels hard I know full well I will look back on these years no matter what happens in the future and I will want them back, as I hope the children will too. After all that is what its all about, making them a childhood to remember, not just what we did but how we did it and how we try our best to make it work.
So here is my perfectly imperfect family unit in May, and guess what? We’ll probably be just the same in June too.
I have added this one of us at Center Parcs too because I love the light and it is just so relaxed and happy.
Sometimes you have to do the silly things to get the nice photos, but the silly ones are just that, silly and I love them too. My new thing is to tell them to laugh, like alot, more often than not it turns to really laughs and smiles and I adore it, even if you do get shots like these of totally fake, totally big belly laughs, teeth like a horse and the ability to look right into everyones mouths! ….from all but Roma anyway, who just thinks we are a little bit nuts and for some reason is trying to fit her whole fist in her mouth!
