I said in my last Me and Mine blog post update about how much of an outdoor-loving family we are and how much we're looking forward to summertime and being able to get back outdoors. It feels like Winter lasted too long - the gray skies felt endless.
I probably got more excited than I ever have before when I first saw the lovely yellow daffodils start to blossom this year. I don't know if it's just because the nicer weather means far more entertainment possibilities for the boys and far less bored-stuck-in-doors days, but feeling the sun rays on my skin has fast become one of my favorite things.
I love being able to work from home, it's definitely not a walk in the park trying to juggle Motherhood, my work and my Husband's business from home, but even so we love it. Asides from the fact that we are fortunate in that we all get to see a lot more of each other than if we worked outside of the home full time, I love mostly the flexibility that we have. I love being able to choose to take a morning or an afternoon off and make it up that evening, so that we can do something else during the day.
It's not been very often lately that we have stepped out of our normal working/parenting routine. Work's been very busy for us both and if we're honest, routine just seems to work best for us all. But I'm also very aware that the months we have left up until September are the last we have with Ethan before he is a full-timer at school.
I know that he'll have holidays and such, but we will lose the opportunities to go away or have days out during term time where everywhere is generally a lot quieter. Of course, it's just something that we will accept, but it means that I am really keen to make the most of these months and make sure that we take advantage of the flexibility we're currently lucky enough to have.
Ethan and Logan are especially big fans of being outdoors, they could quite happily spend the entire day, from the morning right up until bedtime out in the back garden, so I'm intending to make the most of our National Trust memberships this year and I'm also going to try and plan some extra fun treat days out too.
Last week, my Husband Adam and I decided to take the morning off of work and we headed over to the very beautiful, Willen Lake with the boys. I love Willen Lake, it's really picturesque and there's a fantastic play park for the kids. I had however, never visited the north side of the lake before and I can't believe I hadn't - its absolutely stunning and so peaceful. We could easily have spent the day there.
The boys loved being able to run about and explore.
And all of the daffodils looked so pretty.
This makes me laugh - Ethan's thoughts on having to stop his exploration to take a photo with his Mum! If there was ever a prize for craziest-faces pulled it would always, always have to go to Ethan. ;)
Beautiful views of the lake.
We also discovered Willen Lake's Peace Pagoda and it was simply beautiful and also true to it's name - totally peaceful. 
The statues of the lions outside are said to protect the Pagoda.
I love this photograph of me with my biggest boy - my first baby, I can't believe he'll soon be four! 
I also love this one, I think he looks so cute with his helmet on. 
We also found Willen Lake's very own mini-Stonehenge, which was pretty cool.
There are great little bird feeding areas around the lake for the kids to feed the ducks. 
Excitingly they are building a splash park at Willen Lake and Ethan (and his Dad) are currently loving watching the diggers and the excavators there. 
Willen Lake has such a fantastic playground for children. It's our favorite one to visit because there's so much for the boys to go on. We bought ourselves a cake each from the coffee shop right next to the park and sat in the sun eating them whilst the boys ran around together having fun.
We had such a lovely morning, we feel so lucky to live so close by to such a lovely lake and park to visit and take the kids. We'll definitely be back soon!
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