Family • March 31, 2014

Me and Mine: A Family Portrait Project 2014- March.

March has been a pretty good month in the life of our little family.

We started the month off with my 30th birthday something which I was dreading and looking forward to in equal measure.  I ended up being so spoiled by lovely husband and family, and we had our first night away just the two of us in three years.  It was amazing.

The rest of the month has gone so quickly, we have been busy most weekends seeing friends or having trips out, or just generally enjoying the mundanity of day to day life together.  Mads now does swimming lessons at half eight on a Saturday morning which is a rush to get ready every week but once we have done it, it does mean we are up and ready for the day ahead early.  On our quiet weekends Mr E and I have been taking it in turns going out for a run as we are both still in the throws of our fitness kicks.

While I love being busy at the weekends, I do relish the quiet times.  As I write this it’s Sunday afternoon, Mr E is on a bike ride, the girls are in bed, and I am sat on the sofa relaxing with a diet coke and a pack of chocolate buttons.  I had a very long overdue house tidy as well, I don’t know what it is but there’s something so satisfying about relaxing in a freshly cleaned house.  Or is that just me?

For our March ‘Me and Mine’ photos we woke up last weekend and the sun was shining but we didn’t really know where to go.  Neither of us felt like making an effort this month, some months we are up for trying new things or new potential locations, but this month we just weren’t feeling it. We decided to drive over to the little village I grew up and went to school in as it is where I am doing my first half marathon and I wanted to check out the route. (Plus LL needed a morning snooze and the car is guaranteed to make her zzzz!)

It’s the most beautiful little place and is where my Mum’s beauty salon is so we stopped in to say hi to her.  We ended up getting quite late for lunch and so we decided to give photos a miss but as we were driving out of the village I noticed all the daffodils had sprouted by the old castle wall.  We pulled over, laughing hysterically because there was a netball match going on at my old school and they were all staring at us strangely making funny faces at the camera stuck on a tripod.  Mr E is rather used to the humiliation now.

I am actually really pleased with these photos.  We haven’t really got any of us smiling and all looking at the camera, but the story behind them is what means the most.  As anyone with small children will  know, it isn’t always the most plain sailling trying to get them to cooperate and look at the camera, especially when it’s mounted on a tripod with no one behind it.  I do genuinely love capturing a family portrait each month, but sometimes I do feel like it’s not the most enjoyable for Mr E and the girls, he loves the finished results but it’s certainly driven by my intense desire to document our lives.  It can get stressful on occasions, and sometimes you see a happy family photo (of which we are) but the situation leading up to it wasn’t exactly stress free.

But these photos were just a happy Saturday morning with my little family.  We snapped four photos in a couple of minutes, laughed as we did it, and then went home to relax.  Simple, easy and how it should be.  It’s not about a picture perfect moment with us all in matching outfits smiling at the camera. (Although we do match pretty well unintentionally!)  Unfortunately sometimes we are all victims of making life look like something out of a magazine on our blogs, instagram and other social media but it’s not about always about that.

 At the end of the day it’s just about the memories

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(I had a remote but it broke and I haven’t bothered buying another one because I find that by setting the self timer then running back, it makes the girls look in the direction of the camera.  Sometimes I don’t make it back in time. Like in this one- Mr E says I look like I am crouching to do a poo!  I’m not I promise.)

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…And this particular Saturday was just a simple ordinary day with not much to talk about.  But these photos captured a day where I can honestly say there is no where else I would have rather been.

A happy ordinary Spring day with the people I love most.



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