Me and Mine - A Family Portrait Project March
Spring has sprung! The beautiful garden I fell in love with is slowly coming back to life, with Daffodils filling all the flower beds and tiny Muscari blooms that are just asking to be snipped and popped into tiny bottles all around the house.
The month of March has been a non stop wonderful whirlwind of school concerts and assemblies, dashing around the country and planning Summer holidays. Rich has suddenly got the gardening bug and has been adding a packet of bulbs and seeds into every food shop! He's come home with onions, potatoes, strawberries, beans and more, all ready for our first attempt at growing a vegetable patch.
But the one thing we were desperate to do this Spring was to add wild flowers. It sounds so simple to grow them but we'll see! You need to rotavate your soil to help the seeds take when you plant them. The best way (not to break your back) is with a rotavator and then rake the soil afterwards ready for sprinkling.
Now I know there's more method than these 3 simple steps, but we followed the instructions on the box of seeds and we will watch and wait. This book by a wonderful local flower farmer Georgie has been invaluable and have a read of this article if you are planning your own, which takes you through the different types of soil to be aware of.
So we had a quick potter in the garden yesterday, sprinkled some seeds for the first activity of the Easter holidays and then Rich and I headed to work, leaving Granny in charge of the boys. Marvellous camera work Granny! We realised that another month has ticked by and we have to rush to take a last minute snap of the four of us. That we have let life get so busy, family time has been lost amongst the chaos.
We sat down after the boys had gone to bed one night and I talked about how our holiday with Mark Warner this Summer could almost be a life saver. 7 days of pure family time. All in a row! A chance to really enjoy the boys' company, with no driving to do, with the sun on our faces and spoil them with our time.
Everything we do is for the boys. Everything we are trying to build, our mini family empire! This month we are going to finally get our office spaces above the garage renovated. We need to decide who is having which space, you can see some old photos here, and the old pine is all going to get a lick of white paint and a freshen up! We have both had epiphany moments this month. Lightbulbs have gone off about the ways we want to grow our respective businesses and focus on how we can work together too.
My Mum took a couple of photos of us and when I looked back at the photo of us in our wellies, it made me appreciate just how tiny Ollie still is. Our baby is rising 4, can swim a length without his armbands, holds his own at the local skate park on his scooter (I on the other hand hold my breath as he tears down the great ramps!) and tries to emulate his big brother at every opportunity. That little face gets away with so much! That cheeky grin has both of us wrapped around his little finger.
Sammy on the other hand has sprung this Spring. His age 6-7 trousers (He's still 5.) are clinging to his ankles and when he snuggles into me at 3am, I have to remember that really he's still quite little. We were so incredibly proud of him at the school Easter concert, he was so busy smiling like a cheshire cat that a class mate had to prompt him to say his line. But he blasted it out, with no sheet of paper to read from, still holding his new gappy grin. Granny and the tooth fairy have visited this month!
I am determined not to rush next month's photo. Not to cajole all the males in the house into a family portrait to try and just capture a moment. Just like Lucy does. Head over to her blog and see her sweet family of 4 (I think there may be some Disney magic in their photos this month) which has got me giddy over our own trip in the Summer!
So many memories to be made this year. Bring it on.
Join in with us and share your family photos from the month of March. And don't forget there's a great personalised prize from Photobox each month for one lovely family.