me and mine {april}


Daddy is loving
* having fun on the farm.
* the baby scan.
* a day in Amsterdam.
* date night at Chop Bloc.
* catching up with relatives in Rhyl.

Mummy is loving
* seeing Flump for the first time.
* that the beautiful boy got into the school we wanted.
* watching the beautiful girl play so imaginatively.
* that the sunshine has come to play.
* afternoon adventures in fields of yellow.

The beautiful boy is loving
* telling everyone that Mummy has a baby in her tummy.
* telling everybody that he is going to big school.
* naming Flump either Jon or Kate depending on whether its a brother or sister.
* reading anything he can get his hands on.
* his new shark t-shirt.

The beautiful girl is loving
* early morning sleepy cuddles.
* eating cottage pie.
* playing fairies and pirates.
* singing! All. The. Time.
* wearing jelly shoes.


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him and her {week seventeen}


he just wants to measure everything in sight,
tells anyone who will listen all about the baby in Mummy's tummy,
and is enchanted by magic tricks.


she wants to pick out all her own clothes these days,
(fortunately she's pretty good at putting an outfit together),
and she has to check her hair in the mirror once it's been done each morning.
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sunday lunch {52 adventures}


We've always tried to eat out regularly with our children, because I think it's important that they learn early on about the manners and behaviour that go along with 'eating out', plus it gives them access to different foods that they may not try to freely at home. And eating out is fun... there is none of the prep and clearing up for mummy and daddy, so we really enjoy eating out together as a family.


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{flump} the first trimester


Can I just start by saying that this time around things seem so different? I kind of thought that having had two babies already, that I had this whole pregnancy thing down, that I knew exactly how I was when I'm carrying a baby, that I had it all figured out. Well let me just say that all ready this pregnancy is proving to be a big lesson for me in relinquishing control, in letting go, in listening to my body, and as corny as it sounds, in 'finding myself' as a mother all over again.

11

one day and one really big adventure {52 adventures}


When we set ourselves the challenge of having 52 adventures this year, we didn't imagine for a second that we'd be planning this one. We saw ahead of us, a year of exciting days out near and far, an excuse to use our passports for some foreign adventures, and a lot of memory making along the way. Never in our wildest of dreams did we imagine an adventure quite this big and quite this exciting. But this year is clearly shaping up to give us some even more amazing adventures and memories than we could have dreamt up.

It felt like how we broke the news to our children was going to be really important. This really big adventure will be for all of us, and we want them to feel like a part of every step. So this was how we started the adventure for them; with a normal morning, followed by an exciting hospital trip with a new introduction, and an afternoon together celebrating our family.

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five


We are living a life full of blessings. 
Day to day I don't always really appreciate 
how truly blessed I have been; 
to have found my best friend 
and be sharing my life with him, 
to be raising our beautiful babies together.

It's a funny feeling 
to be watching your dreams unfold before your eyes, 
and to know you made them happen, 
but to wonder what on earth you did to deserve them.

Family is everything;
we learn,
we fight,
we treasure,
we laugh,
we grow,
we love,
and we get to do all of that together
... as a five.

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him and her {week sixteen}


he is officially going to school in September,
and will excitedly tell anyone that will listen all about it,
it just astounds me how grown up, handsome, clever and kind this little guy is.


she is the reason they invented the word cheeky,
and is the absolute sunshine of our days with her funny little ways,
I'm not sure exactly when it was she became such a 'little girl' and not a baby, but it happened.
4

four and a half months


Four and a half months... that is the time we have left with life as we know it. The countdown is on and before I know where I am at I will be packing off my biggest baby to start big school and my littlest baby to start preschool. 

I have this overwhelming feeling of time running away from me, an all too familiar feeling since becoming a parent it would seem. Time keeps racing on, and right now I feel like I'm desperately grabbing at its tail, willing it to slow down. 

14

siblings {april}


It's hard to put into words exactly how much joy it gives me to watch these two together. From the moment that our family went from three to four I was obsessed with seeing my two children together, even when in those early days it was simply sharing some eye contact or a little smile. But as they have grown older they have just got closer and closer. And while with each month that passes I don't think they can possibly get any closer, somehow they seem to manage it. They are such complete and utter best friends; they light up for one another, they live for cuddles with each other and to make the other laugh. And while they do have the odd squabble now and again, they really are few and far between and while they can both hold a grudge against us grown ups for a good length of time after a telling off, all is quickly forgiven for each other.

This past month the little lady's language seems to have experienced a total explosion. The simpler sentences are now increasingly complex and she understands so much (I think a lot more than we often give her credit for), and with her increasing vocabulary and improved communication has come even more sibling fun. They share so many imaginative moments together now as they play (all instigated by her who is the more imaginative of the two) and their games are increasingly more and more elaborate. 

The result is often carnage for poor old mummy, as their favourite games at present seem to involved collecting every single cushion and pillow from every single room, and using them to build dens and big beds together. They also chat more now at bedtime (when we really wish they would just go to sleep) but listening to them talk about their days and tell each other little stories often leaves me lingering at their bedroom door to catch the little gems they come out with. 

They are the epitome of the word "tight" and it's becoming impossible to ever imagine them ever being anything but that now. The end of the summer will see our little man head off to big school, and see our little lady start at preschool. And while approaching last September I was filled with worry about the affect that separating them for part of the day while he was at preschool would have on their friendship, I'm not so worried this time around. My babies are growing up, but they aren't growing apart... instead they are growing together. They are tangling up the stories of their lives with one another's, making memories and sharing memories and building something so strong... something that is stronger when they are together.



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him and her {week fifteen}


he does a mean impression of the easter bunny,
knows everything there is to know about space,
and loved being the best little pirate at his holiday theatre workshop.


she wants chocolate with everything since Easter,
is in love with her new yellow shoes,
and has had another little vocabulary explosion... such a little chatterbox.
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little easter moments {52 adventures}


The Easter Egg Hunt is without doubt the best bit of Easter in our family... apart from the long weekend of family time of course. It makes me giddy just watching the children's excited faces as they run around in search for the eggs the Easter Bunny has left for them. I always feel like I'm making a little bit of magic when I go out to hide them, and although the whole things always seems to be over as soon as it's begun; it is the most fun.

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down at the farm {52 adventures}


This particular adventure is definitely an annual family favourite of ours. Every Easter we venture to Wales to visit Rich's aunt and uncle who own a farm there, and every year it seems like the children love it a little bit more than the year before. 


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him and her {week fourteen}


he is loving being on holiday from preschool,
having lazy mornings in his pyjamas,
and the fact he gets to go to Auntie Ann's farm for a little holiday.


she is obsessed with Doris the pig,
can't get enough of her baby second cousins,
and squealling "they are just so cuuute".
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{the disney dream} my 25 tips for a perfect disney break


I think the key to making a success of an action packed holiday like Disney is to plan ahead. I'm a natural planner anyway, so I like to know what I'm going to be doing when, and having a rough plan definitely helps to keep things running smoothly, stops you from wasting time, and helps you get to do all the things that you want to.

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