Well half term didn't quite work out as planned. We started the week with a visit from my sister, niece and baby nephew, had a whole host of activities on our 72 hours mini holiday together scheduled out and then a small boy came down with a horrid virus and we spent the entire time holed up, watching Baby Einstein videos on loop. By the time they left I had caught his nasty bug and the rest of the week was a pretty sorry tale.

I've felt so guilty that we didn't have a magical week, that a precious school holiday has gone in a flash and I've not been able to keep all my promises. We've had workmen in the house all week crashing around in our bedroom, stripping the old 4 layers of wallpaper ready for plasterers to come in this week and building the ensuite bathroom walls. There are boxes everywhere, a sink and new toilet at the top of the stairs, the dust is beyond controllable and every chair or window ledge seems to be littered with odd bits I move from room to room that need new homes. Theres been no pumpkin patch outing like last year, cancelled play dates and postponed plans. We've been through every toy in the house, they've rediscovered beloved old train tracks, figures and crafts, the dressing up is now covering the landing outside their bedroom and the iPads have been a bit of a saviour. 

Turns out the boys actually needed a proper rest, they have LOVED not getting dressed until midday and although there were a few big bottom lip situations when I had to tell them I just didn't have the energy to entertain all their friends who were due to come over, in general they've relished not being rushed. They've slept in well, pottered around like little old men, there's a stack of new artwork that can't possibly go near the recycling bin and by the end of the week when I was feeling 90% better, we managed an "exciting trip" to the supermarket and raided the 75p pumpkin stand. 

On Sunday they helped me with a couple of "jobs" and were marvellous blog assistants. I have some gorgeous photos to share this week on a couple of collaborative posts and I finally dug out the camera remote to take our Me and Mine photo for this month. 

Why didn't I do this earlier?!!!! Years of running back and forwards when all I needed to get them interested in a family photo was to let them hold the remote!

They look really big to me in these pictures. I've seen quite a lot of my 9 month old nephew in the last month and they are like giants next to him. Great big lovely boys, strong as oxs' healthy and happy. They have been forced in a way to really play together over the last week, and we can see a true best friendship developing. I dosed myself up on Saturday afternoon and we raced to a joke shop for a last minute Halloween outfit for each of them. We had to veer them away from the as Sammy called it "saucy section" with the fake boobs and hen night paraphernalia and the next day he asked who would buy all those things. We had a gentle and as innocent as possible conversation with them about stag dos and hen parties and best men who dress you up etc. He cringed with embarrassment and said "Well I am not having anything saucy at all!" Ollie replied that he would be his best man and it would definitely be saucy. "BBQ beef sauce everywhere!" We couldn't stop laughing at his completely literal interpretation and he still thinks BBQ ketchup is called BBQ Beef! I loved their assumption that they will be best men for each other. 

I hope so. My pair of best friends and brothers.

The finale of our rather flat week was a Halloween lunch for a few of their school friends and if I could post the videos we snapped on our phones I would. But they got so carried away during the post lunch disco (think Crazy Frog, Gangnam Style, Little Mix and Justin Bieber all at full blast and 5 wild boys dancing/jumping on the sofa) they stripped off and were break dancing in their pants! What is it with boys and getting near naked all the time?!!! 

Rich had snuck out during a rendition of Happy and set up a sweetie scavenger hunt at the bottom of the garden and as the mummies arrived to pick up they all raced bare footed, some still just in pants, to forage for their loot! 

In just 3 hours I felt like we had gone some way to make up for the lack lustre half term holiday and we headed off to my sister's yesterday afternoon to celebrate her birthday (Hence the on time drafting one day late publishing of this post - but hey it's a vast improvement on the last couple of months!) with the boys saying words like "epic" and "sick". Apparently that's a good thing. 

It was no bad thing in hindsight that we were forced to slow down last week and they are back to school tomorrow ready to see all their pals and for once really rested. I need to tell myself that we don't need exciting adventures all the time to have a good time, simple can sometimes (if not lots of times) be just as super. 

Come and share your family photo for October with Lucy, Jenny, Fritha, Katie and Alex and I. 

Togetherness is a funny thing. You can be together so much, for so many hours in a day and yet still not find or make the time to be together. I know that must sound like it doesn't make any sense but I hope I am not alone. The pace of life during term time is like a freight train hurtling down a never ending track. My pledge to try and keep school holidays free from laptops is so much harder in reality than it is to promise and divvying up school pick ups and cross checking diaries on a Sunday night have meant the last month or so has felt like a surreal existence. On survival mode to half term.

We're there on the sports pitch to cheer Sammy on, we are there at parent's evening hearing how he is a credit to us, with a sense of warmth washing over our bodies - a mix of pride and sheer relief that we are doing something right. We piggy back them upstairs, their dangly chicken legs hanging on our hips and drop them into their twin beds, then take turns to read their school books, before we swap and get under the second set of covers.

We are together all the time.

Yesterday was match day and I watched one of the dads playfully wrestling with his son who had been substituted so they all had a turn on the pitch. He works in Hong Kong and had flown back just for 3 days before another long stint abroad until Christmas. And when I went to bed last night I thought about just how hard that must be to have months apart as a family. And how it's so normal for us that Rich and I spend so much time together that we've sort of stopped appreciating the little things they must long for.

Even taking a family photo has become almost impossible. It's become a point of principle, Mama wants a photo for the dreaded Me and Mine! But when we were out with my sister at the weekend (Ok so I know this is a September link up but sssh it's the very best I could do and it will be November otherwise!) we were talking about how her in laws were asking for a family photo of them and how few they actually had bar selfies on their camera roll.

It seems like the easiest thing all getting in together for a photo but sometimes it feels more trouble than it's worth. I've done my fair share of dog treats. Tempting them with sweets or chocolates in my hand! And do you know that's ok. Life isn't all about a perfect picture. It's ok if you have to persuade your brood sometimes, because what you get at the end reminds you that it is worth it really.

People say a picture tells a thousand words but really they never tell the thousand words behind the scenes!

The thing about Me and Mine is that it forces me to capture a moment, whether anyone else wants to or not. And even though there was a hint of eye rolling before my sister took this, as soon as the boys jumped down we looked at the photo and smiled. Because the truth is, there are times in your lives when children have to come first, when work has to come first, when family routine dominates everything, when you might feel less together or up together than you'd like to be.

Trying to make everything perfect is hard and I'm not sure the perfect family exists. I know for a fact from my early photography days that even those magical family portrait sessions have tense moments too. 

The house isn't up together, we are not up together. There's overdue dentist appointments to book, bags for the charity shop that haven't made it out of the hallway, half finished DIY projects, library books that should have been returned in July and it's been so long since I had a hair cut my barnet is like a bird's nest every morning. 

But, we are all in it together. 

I've decided it's so much better to not be in pursuit of perfection. I'll take my lot and all their moaning and groaning because they are mine. 

It doesn't matter when you share it, it matters who you share. Come and join in with us and show us you and yours. I love that this group of bloggers share everything from beautifully composed portraits in picturesque locations to last minute selfies. That's what makes this project so heartwarming and honest. I want both of those and everything in between. I love the candid shots that people capture by accident and the happy smiling faces all looking at the camera. And I love my Me and Mine for September. Which is already printed and in a frame. Let's hope the grandparents don't read this because they are getting one for Christmas!

Pop over to see what Lucy, Jenny, Fritha, Alex and Katie have been up to.

There’s something about sunshine in September that makes you that little bit more grateful and gets you racing to head outdoors. In fact I remember when my sister got married on the 10th October in 2010 and it felt like the hottest day of the year - in October! Instead of the lazy hazy days of summer where juggling school holidays, adventures and work seem to halt our impromptu outings, the start of the change in the seasons makes me become a stereotypical Brit, discuss nothing but the weather and desperate to hold onto sandals and summer dresses. To make the most of those golden hours. 

School routines have brought back shouty morning memories, me clapping at them like a mother hen hurrying her chicks to get dressed and out of the door and we start each day in a muddle. We've tried getting up earlier, we lay the clothes out the night before but everything has become a battle before 8am, unless Granny is stopping over and my feral school boys are replaced with golden angels.

Sammy has careered off into Year 3 and lower school and hasn't looked back. He has a sports bag almost as big as him, and I can hear his voice changing. More eloquent in just a couple of weeks back at school. My timelines and feeds that were full of school uniforms, happy toothy grins have slowly drifted back to cat videos, (I'm more of a dog person myself but the one where they eat ice cream - hilarious) celebrity gossip and even a few Christmas countdowns - umm no way jose - I am still living in a white dress. I loved every little and large nervous excited face and every status bursting with pride. 

Because I loved how positive the internet was, everyone wanting to share those precious milestone moments. Babies to big kids.

September is like starting the year all over again, a month to unsettle summer habits and a month to settle back in again. We are all trying to work out what our roles are and where are jobs are going, boys testing boundaries as their confidence grows in relation to the size of the playground they now hare around in, on the cusp of something bigger for Rich maybe, if the wind stays blowing in the same direction. 

We are just trying to work hard and be nice. And sometimes it takes longer to get somewhere that way. 

You can feel that slight dip in the temperature as the sun sets signalling the cooler winds of autumn are riding the airwaves but on a bright day, when the golden rays are blasting down onto our faces, I forget that we are not in a mid July daze. 

I've felt better about myself, felt happier with a glow.

We Heaths are not ready to pack up the flip flops just yet. 

Weekends are back to being being pepper potted with school parties, reading books and housework but on the sunniest of Saturdays we headed off from home with the dogs in search of a corn field we’d spied the week before. The boys had been talking about this incredible maze with “storks taller than you Mama” and when we found it we peeked through the rows before heading to a grassy spot in the garden for a picnic. Luckily the local farmers all know us as it's a small village and no one gave a second look as we hopped the gate for a nose. 

It’s like they were chasing the light. I could hear giggles and rustling as they hurried past me to catch up with each other. When you run through a field you realise why children love it so much. You just can’t help but scream like an excitable 5 year old and we watched as they disappeared into the green. 

I made a promise to the boys last year to try and play as much as possible over this summer and we’ve had the time of our lives. An absolute whale of a time. Little moments like these are what they remember. Bonus weekends. Simple pleasures like a surprise picnic with all their favourite things to eat bursting from the basket. 

We sat, we ate, we tried not to let the dogs hoover up all the salami and sausages and we packed the leftovers back into our hamper, to save for after school snacks. And I know we are not the only ones who appreciate those unexpected sunny days. I love seeing other families, sharing their photos, making the most of this borrowed time before we are all cooped up, hiding from the drizzle.

September be glorious for us, show us the summer’s last hurrah!

This isn't really a sponsored post but I wanted to say thank you to Joules for a lovely surprise birthday gift and these outfits. We've lived in them!