We are spending lots of time in the garden this year. Even though the sunshine has gone we still get outside most days to ‘burn off some crazy’ and wear out the kiddos.

Annie loves playing on the swings and bouncing on the trampoline while Ez enjoys throwing, kicking and catching. He has just learnt to roll a ball down the slide and looks very proud of himself as it rolls along.

We all went outside last night as dinner was cooking, Annie found a stick that she pretended was a wand while Ez played ball really happily (with one odd random outburst of crying).

Afterwards we all went inside feeling that little bit happier.

We also finally finished* the beach hut (wendy house). When we picked it up it, the wood was soaking wet so needed 3 weeks to dry out fully before we could paint it, then we took our time to paint the stripes before building it this weekend.

It looks fab in it’s corner, of course within 30 seconds the kiddos had broken the latch on the door but I think it was made of tinfoil and not really strong enough to cope with 2 excited kiddos!

(Please excuse the poor iPhone photo, it has been raining every time I have gone to take a photo of it in the daylight so far!)

Over the next few months (once next door have finally finished replacing the fence) we’ll dig, and fence, a little garden around the sides and ‘prettify’ it further with whirligigs and the like. We’re also considering putting some vinyl flooring down inside to make the floor a bit comfier to sit on.

The idea is that the ‘garden’ around the edge will be for the kids to maintain with a bit of help from us. I think it’s going to look amazing when it’s all put together finally.

I will admit that we are making the sort of garden that Jon and I both wish we could have had as children. I love how kiddo orientated our garden is, that we can let them outside knowing they will come in worn out and happy from all the exercise, that there is lots of choice when it comes to playing and how complete the garden is looking all of a sudden.

We couldn’t have done it without help from the Actimel Family Well Being fund. Being granted money from the fund for play has made such a positive impact on the family as a whole I’m not sure I can accurately describe how awesome it is. If you are a blogger the fund for Connect is now live and I suggest that you head over to the website and check out the details.

*technically we still have to fit the fiddly window panes and surrounds but that can wait for the dry weather to come back

Do you have any tips for how to ‘pimp our beach hut’ further?

Ezra is growing up to be a properly awesome little guy, even if I am having trouble believing he’s 18 months old already. Tuesday night in the garden I took what may well be my favourite photos of him so far this year.

They totally capture all the great stuff about him that leaves me grinning. His long, messy hair, the fact he loves his sunhat and hates having it taken off, his super cute grin and expressive face, those eyes, his amber necklace that makes him look like a little surf dude and the fact that he loves being close and telling you exactly what’s on his mind, even if we have no idea what on earth he’s saying!

I took the photos in the space of about 30 seconds, while he was telling me about something he could see in the garden, with a sad middle and a hilarious ending and then he ran off to watch his sister bounce on the trampoline. But those 30 seconds were magic and I’m so glad I managed to capture him, exactly as he is right now, so I never forget how amazing our little Ezra Bear is at 18 months old.

• Looking back at all the photos of the kids playing in the garden during that run of gorgeous weather. I’m really looking forward to summer now.

• My new Hurraw organic, vegan lip balms. I stumbled across them online and now may have developed a slight addiction! What’s more I found out they sell them in Whole Foods so every time we go there I can hear them calling my name! The moon balm is amazing and the black cherry is my go to daytime balm. As soon as the sun reappears I’m buying the SPF 15 sun balm. I love the range of flavours and they smell gorgeous, it’s like being 13 again.

• I have been watching Australian Masterchef for the past 3 months and really loving it. Now it’s finals week and while I’m sad it’s finishing I can’t escape the fact that I will enjoy having my evenings back.

• Listening to Ezra chat away. He is a proper chatterbox and while the number of actual words he uses may be low, he certainly manages to get his point across using ‘Ezranese’.

• Jon made the nicest meal ever last night, hot squash foldovers with homemade potato salad, and knowing I’ve got one left over for my lunch today is a big reason to smile :)

• My new Picpack magnets, printed from my Instagram stream onto lovely 5.8cm square magnets with rounded corners. I ordered them on Sunday afternoon and they arrived Thursday all the way from Germany. The magnets look lovely, are nice and weighty and I’m really happy with the colours as they look exactly like my photos do on Instagram. Any excuse to have more Instagram photos up around the place!

Now for something to make you smile, Picpack have very kindly offered three readers the chance to win a pack of 12 magnets for themselves so if you’re an Instagram fan simply use the Rafflecopter form below to enter.

Please make sure you complete the compulsory step and then do as many of the extra ones as you fancy for bonus entries. If you can’t see the Rafflecopter widget please refresh your browser window.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Rules:

• Only one Rafflecopter entry form per household
• Open to worldwide entries
• You must be over 18 to enter
• The competition closes at midnight Wednesday 15th of May
• I will contact the winner shortly after the competition closes with the voucher code to claim their magnets.