The Ordinary Moment // These Two

These two are the closest in age out of my children.  There is 16 months between them, but when they were little it felt like less.  Finn had a difficult start and took longer to meet some of his initial milestones which meant he was still very much a baby when Cora arrived.  They grew up together and they have had a special relationship since very early on.

As toddlers they were so close but things inevitably changed when Finn started school and the age gap between them seemed to grow hugely in that year.  Now they are both at school in year 1 and 2 and I can see such a difference between them but when you get them away from it, their special relationship is still there and they can be the best of friends.

I like to take just the two of them out sometimes to encourage it. With the bigger boys around, Finn is desperate to be one of them, but when these two are on their own, they play so well, they encourage and share and are back to being the best of friends.  We love the woodlands but to get to a decent sized area we have to drive quite a way, so we visit this tiny woodlands in our town to play amongst the trees and set up our swing.  

I loved listening to their conversations, watching them play and connect and be close again.  The age gap between them looks bigger than ever as one is shooting up at an amazing speed and one is growing much more slowly, the academic gap grows with school but I hope they will always have a special relationship as brother and sister.

These pictures are from a little trip out this week.  The bigger two had friends over so I took these two out for a few hours, to the tiny woods and then the park and I realised how much I missed time with just them.

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Making Autumn Leaf Crowns

It is taking all my will power not to wish away November and get the Christmas decorations out.  I have already cleared a path to the boxes of baubles and tinsel, cards and festive washi tape and I have chosen where the tree will go.  November is going to be great though, lockdown will give us the opportunity to get out in nature without worries that we could or should be doing something else.  The request for shops and cafes from the children can (hopefully) stop for a few weeks and we can take a thermos with us and make our own coffee shop at home (I have already bought some of those hot chocolate lumps on sticks that you stir into hot milk as they love them).  I am trying to find the positives in it all and see the privilege in getting to spend extra time with my favourite little people.

It feels a bit like winter now, even though we are still not wearing coats every day, but the heating is on, my slippers are out and the trees in the garden are looking bare, the ground a sea of brown but disappearing fast.  Before the last leaves fell, we collected some up to celebrate the consistency and inevitability of the seasons and made leaf crowns.  Unfortunately our glue has had the lid left off a bit too long each time so I ended up popping tape round to keep everything on which feels much less like a nice natural activity.  The little two loved creating their crowns though and both wearing them and putting them on the dogs that are dotted around the nature garden in our local park. They wore new clothing, sent to us as press samples, which is not only made of organic cotton but is also certified fairtrade, from Little Green Radicals.

Every year I think I declare each season my favourite, Spring is full of promise, flowers springing up, bright colours and the feel of the sun on my skin after so long, Summer is long days and going to the beach after dinner for a swim in the sea, the freedom of sandals and salty hair.  Winter is the magic of Christmas, the feeling of hot chocolate by a toasty open fire, snow if we are lucky, but I think of them all Autumn is the most beautiful.  The rich rusty tones, the sound of leaves crunching under my feet, reds, browns, I love the colours the most.  Of course this year has been unlike any others, but we swapped trick or treating for a pinata and snuggling up with a film and it was just as wonderful and special and the children maintain they enjoyed it just as much. Autumn is passing and the leaves have fallen but I am going to carry on walking without a coat when I can get away with it, marvelling at any leaves still clinging on to the branches and crunching through (if the ground actually dries out enough to!).  I took these photos because I couldn't resist the tones of Autumn and I want to share them so I can look back at these strange days of unpredictability coupled with the consistency of the seasons beginning and ending, the leaves changing colour and falling, just as they always do.

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The Ordinary Moment - Climbing Rocks

Ordinary has taken on a new meaning over the last few weeks, the days at the beach, the trips to the playground, the time with friends that were once ordinary have become something of the past and something to look forward to doing again sometime.  Our ordinary moments now are mostly in the house and garden and occasionally somewhere quiet outside and they are exclusively with just the people I always live with.  About once a week I take the four children out somewhere and we have tried to find new places to go that aren't as obvious as the beach and not as busy as the park near our house.  I had run past these beautiful rocks earlier in the week and admired the vibrant flowers and so when we got the point in the week where we needed a change of scene, we headed over to them.

I remember hanging out here as a teenager, walking down from my best friend's house just up the road, but it has been years since I have been back and it took all our usual hang outs shutting down for me to remember it.  The kids were excited to be out and somewhere different and they wanted to touch and look at every flower.  Despite me telling her more than a hundredd times not to, Cora still picked three flowers which she then carried around for the entire day and brought home with her.  We talked about how important it is to not pick flowers so that everyone else can enjoy them and it eventually went in!

It was one of those days that I am just so grateful to have.  I think it was a mix of the sunshine and exploring somewhere different but the children acted more like best friends than siblings, they walked and chatted together, they made their own games on the rocks, the bigger ones helping the smallest and then finding 'den' houses in the bushes.  I stood on the sidelines as they climbed and played without me, exploring their surroundings.  

Finn and Cora had been sent an outfit each from Little Green Radicals in the softest organic fairtrade cotton and they were perfect for the outing.  The bigger two weren't as interested in being photographed on the day so I just took pictures of the little two and I loved capturing this ordinary day out with my favourite four people.

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The Ordinary Moments - At the Park

I have fallen behind a bit in documenting our lives on here, sharing the photos I take and those moments I want to look back on.  Instagram is so easy to use but one picture never seems enough and I love taking my camera out and taking some proper photographs.  I want to start sharing a post each week (possibly each fortnight) with more photos, more ordinary moments again. 

This series is from a Sunday walk to the park after a lazy morning watching TV and snuggling under blankets.  These two needed a walk and were desperate to test out their new (gifted) Reima boots which are both waterproof and machine washable (a very good thing as these are messy children!).  They insisted they didn't need proper coats and they wanted to match again (both are wearing all Little Green Radicals clothing, some gifted, some bought), their favourite thing at the moment.  We live so close to the park that it is easy to pop over to and it really helps wake me up when I am feeling lazy and wears them out.  The wooden obstacle course has finally been reopened after a few weeks being out of action and they are both getting so confident hopping along the stepping stones and walking along the balance beams.  

The sun was getting low in the sky even though it wasn't even 3pm when we arrived and the sun shone through the park keeping us a bit warmer.  The park was empty most of the time we were in there, other children probably doing nice warm festive things but for us it felt the perfect balance to the indoor activities and Christmas fun.  We had already opened advent calenders and written cards that morning and now they needed to run off some of the energy. The day felt much more balanced and there were lots of giggles.

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What the Kids Wore // Little Green Radicals

Both the little two have shot up in the past year, far more than the average amount and very little from last summer is going to fit. Little Green Radicals send us a few pieces from their stunning new collection though and I think they are going to be summer staples. I have loved LGR for years now and have bought so much so they are a great brand to work with! Not only is their clothing organic, it is also fairtrade and designed with childhood in mind.

Finn's shorts look so smart but they are soft jersey cotton and so comfy. I love the little red button on the back pocket and how they will go with so much.  His t-shirt is covered in colourful lion faces and is one of his favourites. Cora's leggings are the perfect shade of yellow which means they are back on almost as soon as they are out the washing machine and I love how floaty and light her top is.  At the bottom of this post you will find a wonderful summer beach dress too which is so beautiful in real life.

I wanted to take photos in this field as I took them in the same place last year when I worked with Little Green Radicals and I think they show the stunning colours - I can't believe how much they have grown! As always I have too many photos but I think they help show how the clothing really looks, how it moves and how comfy they find it.  Finn is an average height 4 year old and I went for 4-5 shorts and 5-6 in top as we prefer them bigger.  Cora is a petite 2 year old (34 months here) wearing 2-3. I often buy a size bigger than what they usually wear for the tops and dresses and the correct size for bottoms.

And here is the stunning frill dress which I am tempted to buy in a bigger size for next year too!

You can find the whole Little Green Radicals collection here

We were sent these items for the purpose of this blog post but all thoughts and opinions are my own and we have genuinely been buying this brand for many years.

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