I am a Mummy, a wife, a teacher, a friend, a sister, a daughter, a party organiser, a have-a-go jogger and craft maker but tonight I am going to try something new – a first for me… I am going to become a ‘Blogger!’ and as I sit here staring at this blank and unfamiliar screen layout I feel a range of emotions – mildly anxious as though I am about to sit a GCSE English exam, excited because it is about time that I did something new and annoyance as Jeremy walks past me and peeks over my shoulder at the screen which is still blank and makes some flippant comment of ‘Just write something – anything!’.

So here it goes, a short post to share the start of the Easter holidays in the Payne family.

Sometimes when I am tired, run down and busy I forget to truly see all the very lovely things that happen in our family, with our friends and in the world around us, so sometimes I go and click through some of the hundreds and thousands of recent and old photos that sit hidden on our computer, filed neatly into labelled folders and as they flash up on the screen they instantly make me aware of how lucky I am to have the family, the friends and life that I have. These photos enable me to reflect clearly and purposefully and see how we are growing as a family and how all the small everyday things that we do combine to create wonderful experiences for our boys and us. Many simple experiences which I hope will somewhere in my boys little brains be stored and remembered and turned into happy memories.  Memories which they will will one day laugh about or try to recreate in their own families.

And so having just looked through our photos from the start of April here are my April memory making moments! Enjoy!

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Archie enjoying the first proper sunshine of the year, staring up at the beautiful blossom on our apple tree.

Unfortunately you can’t see the blossom but it is beautiful, I promise and I know Archie loves his moments bonding with nature.

The boys being brave and crazy and choosing to go swimming at the start of April and being thoroughly encouraged by us saying ‘I bet you won’t …..’ ‘It’s far too cold for you’ etc!

So enjoying being part of our wonderful friends Jo and Jim’s big day for their little beautiful man ‘Baby Matthew’.

He has a very lovely family and the boys and I had a super time celebrating him and all he brings to his family and wider groups of friends.  Jo, or Auntie Jo as she now seems to have become, is one of my best friends, someone who I met at university where we had a shared love for 80’s tunes, alcopops and dressing up in rubbish costumes. Today, nearly 12 years on we both have lots of children and who’d have thought that we would love each other’s children so much and that our children would also love each other so.  And although we do the Mummy thing now, I am so looking forward to our girly night out in a couple of weeks where we will drink wine, totter around in a pair of heels and giggle all night.

The excitement of finding toad spawn (thank you Granny) by the edge of the reservoir on Dartmoor and chasing it with the net until it was finally caught and splatted into the awaiting bucket.  Ollie was beside himself with excitement and has grand plans for these thousands of toads that he hopes will grow from the stringy sloppy mess that now lives in a big bucket in our garden.  Have your fingers crossed for our nature loving little boy Ollie!  I promise all toads will be well cared for

A good old Easter stomp across Dartmoor. Something which I take so much delight in mainly because I can still remember how much I enjoyed my family trips up to Dartmoor –  seeing my boys playing by the river, racing along moorland tracks, avoiding horse poo, pretending to be Dartmoor ponies and climbing tors is just brilliant.

So our stomp involved lugging rucksacks filled with wonderful picnic food, a baby in a sling, a toddler initially protesting about walking but then insisting that he ran and jumped everywhere on his own, three bigger boys swinging nets and climbing rocks and jumping over the moorland like mountain goats and Grandparents who walked quicker, carried more bags and played more with the children than Jez and I.  A thoroughly enjoyable day topped off by the fact that the Easter Bunny paid a surprise visit.  We love the Easter Bunny!

Seeing our wonderful friends Nicki and Neil with our boys.  These two people care for our boys as if they were their own children and I feel very lucky to have them as part of our family.  They, too, go a long way in helping create amazing experiences for our boys and we are very grateful for the love and care that they show us and our children.  On this occasion they looked after all our boys whilst we visited Down Syndrome Education Centre in Portsmouth (an experience we will write about in more detail soon).

Teaching Ollie to give Archie a bottle. Initially he was proud and then he was bored and had to be bribed with the option to watch Phineas and Ferb while he fed him.  You can see his eyes being drawn to the TV but his arms remained tight around Archie throughout.Teaching Jamie to do Archie’s sound cards with him.  A pretty tall order for a nine year old bearing in mind that Archie simply stares back at you as you say the sounds and loses concentration within seconds.  But Jamie stuck it out like a true professional speech therapist.

I feel so proud watching my boys with Archie – the way they quietly show their love for him by stroking his head, rubbing his tummy, reacting to his smile or holding his tiny hand in theirs and I know that this quiet unspoken love will grow and grow.

Sunday afternoons playing in the garden.  It thrills me no end that I get to watch my boys playing and laughing and shouting together in the garden.  Today’s game was aptly named ‘the superman game’ and you can probably see why from the photos – all that’s missing is the sound effect of them yelling ‘big superman’ or ‘small superman’ depending on the size of the jump off the swing.  I wonder if that game will be a memory maker?

I believe that making memories is an investment – a win/win and so this is a small amount of our memory making in April (in photos that only begin to capture the brilliance).  All I need to do now is click on publish and I will have become a blogger.  As Jamie would say ‘Wahoo!’

Happy April memory making x