Goodness me! I've had a real blog break being away in Paris. I promised the boys it was a laptop free holiday and I kept my promise.

I have lots of photos and some video to share of our time in Paris as well as a back log of posts in draft from the Makelight Food Photography course in London and lots of other things we have been up to!

It's going to be a busy week before we head off to Greece on Saturday. Packing is currently way down on the to do list, getting one boy well (Sammy has had a horrid sick bug since Wednesday night - he's been amazing and the magic of Disney perked him up no end!) is top of our priorities and I am losing hours on Google to images of the Mark Warner Lakitira Resort... oh my... we are in for a treat! My Instagram feed will be turning white and blue next week!

Paris was a whirlwind of fun, excitement, drama and stories that will be retold forever! Memories the boys will never forget and precious photos that will hang on our walls for the next decade or two. A city break is exhausting and exhilarating in equal measure and my tired eyes are now counting down the days until we hit that sandy beach on our first real family holiday. 

I have never been to Greece. I have never been on holiday just with Rich and the boys, ever. It sounds mad doesn't it, that in 6 years we've never had that first family holiday but this will be it. We've travelled with family and friends but this will be a chance to really enjoy each other's company, to see the boys make special first memories and for us to have some of that elusive quality family time I read about on other people's blogs. 

I want to soak up that butterfly feeling in your tummy when you head down the gangway to the aeroplane trying to contain two excitable children, the ache in your cheeks because you've smiled so long and hard watching them achieve a milestone (they are determined they are going to sail a boat by the end of the holiday) and the wide eyed, cheesy grin photos that show you captured a moment.

I think next week will be as colourful as last week. 

And the capturing colour gallery exploded with colour, fun and beautiful styling. Every week the stunning captures blow me away. I love seeing how everyone views colour differently. How some people's week was dominated by pinks, others far more muted.

And when I saw this image i knew it had to be my favourite of the week.

I couldn't imagine a world without vivid colour. As hard as I try to embrace a calmer palette it just doesn't suit me. My sister and I joke that her wardrobe is full of grey, navy and black and mine is bursting with every colour of the rainbow! In fact, I actually feel more confident in a bright print, almost the opposite to everyone else! 

Go find and follow Alex for more inspiration. 

This week is all about PAIRS! 2 is most definitely a magic number. So come and join in on Instagram and share your matching pairs, your two of a kind, your two peas in a pod.

#capturingcolour is a weekly theme on Instagram. Tag your photos and post your PAIRS images this week. Show us what colours are inspiring you this week. I will share a round up next Monday :)

Last week the #capturingcolour gallery was filled with pretty china, patterned plates, ceramics bursting with florals and everything in between. I love having a new theme each week and I also love that people join in from all over the world sharing their colourful images.

I have still got boxes and boxes of my lovely crockery wrapped up in tissue and newspaper from when we moved house. Some boxes go back to Christmas 2013 which were frantically stored away when we sold out house and moved to a temporary home 10 minutes down the road. I look back on that week and still feel exhausted just thinking about it!

No Christmas tree, no furniture, just endless half packed boxes, being carted down the country lane, Rich and I sweating cleaning the house, filling holes and sanding for the new owners to move in just after new year. I think if you can get through a house move you can get through anything, and we did 3 in 18 months! Never ever again!!!

I have started fishing around with a torch for my beloved things, plates I have collected from car boot sales and charity shops, our wedding dinner service that I am determined not to just save for the most important of occasions and actually use and enjoy it. Crockery makes the perfect props and styling those little vignettes last week, helped calm me down, plus I got to share some old favourite images.

And the gallery was just divine. Heavenly styled stories, people sharing their treasured things. A visual treat.

Visit my Instagram post to find the accounts.

But oh my, when I saw this image it just made me want to jump right in! The atmosphere, the celebration, the impeccable styling. I wish I could go on their course!

Go find and follow Party Prep Workshop - there is colourful inspiration by the confetti filled bucket load!

Every week I find new accounts to follow and love that so many join in week on week. I love being part of different Instagram communities so make sure you join in with @its_my_week and their weekly challenge and the other hashtags I adore:

• #natureinthehome 
• #stylingtheseasons 
• #mybelovedhomestyle
• #styleatmine
• #our_nest
• #12monthsofhappystills
• #mymondaymoodboard
• #gatheredstyle
• #itsamoodywednesday
• #byarrangement #mythursdaybreaktime
• #floralfridaycompetition #fridayfaffingcompetition
• #collectedsaturday #frommykitchencompetition
• #mymonthofsundays

This is by no means a full list but they are a few positive and supportive communities which will inspire you (And make you lose even more time on Instagram!).

What are your favourite hashtags? Do you join in with any weekly challenges or monthly prompts? I'd love to hear about them.

Tonight we have been busy packing for the big birthday trip to Paris! Granny is turning 60 and Ollie is turning 4 on Thursday and we shall be heading to London tomorrow evening to meet up with my mum, sister and her family, ready to board the Eurostar Wednesday morning. My brother and sister in law flew in from America to Paris today and are having a few days child free to enjoy wandering around. I cannot wait to join them! 

Have a great week, wherever you are in the world and come and share the colours of your week with the #capturingcolour gallery. Mine started with pastels and I can see red, white and blue for the rest of the week!

#capturingcolour is a weekly theme on Instagram. Tag your photos and post your COLOURS OF MY WEEK images this week. Show us what colours are inspiring you this week. I will share a round up next Monday :)

It's no secret that we've struggled with bad dreams with our boys. We went through, what can only be described as, a hellish 18 months of night terrors with Sammy. Every night with almost no exception, we would have to console a sobbing, wet, sweaty mess every 2 hours. Nothing helped and we became completely exhausted with the situation. Exhausted and frustrated. I cringe when I think of how cross I got on a number of occasions at 4am when we'd only just got back to sleep.  It wasn't his fault, he couldn't help it and we felt powerless to stop it.

We tried it all, dream catchers, changing the temperature of his room, letting him sleep with us (which led to 18 months of Richard sleeping in the spare room - I promise that is not a good recipe for a happy marriage) and anything else Dr Google came up with.

It is horrible to watch your child have a nightmare, it's horrible having one yourself, but at least we can calm ourselves down. We know it's not real within a few seconds. They can't and it's heartbreaking. 

I'd like to think ours have never watched a film they shouldn't. Even the Lego movie felt a step too far. They are so impressionable, so vulnerable. I on the other hand, am a hopeless romantic. My ideal film finishes with two people getting married and having babies with a fast forward to the future to show that they did indeed have a happy ending! 

You feel like you are in a hopeless cycle, unable to soothe your most precious person who is literally screaming for your help. As one of the Slumberdown Ambassadors I am pleased that I have a way to share our experiences, to try and help other parents who are awake in the middle of the night with a distraught child, to know you are not alone. 

I ended up consulting our health visitor who as helpful as she tried to be, talked about this awful period as a phase, but it felt like a never ending phase! Two years on the bad dreams are back to a manageable amount. Once a week we will hear a scream, an inconsolable cry for one or both of us. The heat doesn't help. This muggy, sticky heatwave that is sweeping across Britain just leads to a soaking mess at 2am for us. Hot and bothered and full of vivid dreams that leave them confused and tearful.

But nightmares aren't just for children. I suffer occasionally, so does Richard and I've even woken up to a text message from a friend saying "I had a terrible dream about you last night, I just wanted to check all was ok." 

So I wanted to do something different on the blog, to get the boys opinion. 

Here they are...

Slumberdown recently carried out a study to try and find out what films make us adults petrified in the night. My sister is totally in the 25% category who need some sort of light on at night. For years she slept with the tv on on mute! 

We all kiss our children goodnight and often whisper sweet dreams as we leave their rooms. That's what we all want, the sweetest of dreams.

Have you seen any of these films?! I don't think I could get through any of them!

I'd love to know if your children suffer from nightmares too and what you have down to help them. Literally as I finished typing this at 11.54pm we heard a familiar sound... help!