Oh Summer days get here faster. I am dreaming of bbq's in the garden, lunches on street tables and the sun on our faces. May has always been kind to our family of 4, bank holiday fun, house news and celebrating a big boy's birthday.

So this month's Me and Mine portrait to dedicated to Sammy. 

A precious boy who a mere 6 weeks ago was driving me to tears with outrageously bad behaviour, rudeness and being aggressive to his little brother. But something happened quite naturally over the last month, this phase of shouting at us, demanding, defiant behaviour has dissipated. To the point where we have a lovely boy, who is appreciative and grateful and kind to his brother.

Of course there are still flashes of a 5 year old's temper and frustration but 99% of the time we see a new Sammy.

And at a time when our family are reminded of how precious life can be, we felt his birthday was a perfect excuse to spoil him rotten. Reward him for his good behaviour and just generally give him the most awesome birthday ever. "Everything is awesome...!" If you've watched the Lego movie you will know what I mean ;)

We headed to my Mum's late last Friday and after a leisurely sausage sandwich breakfast we set off on our adventures at Staines station. A half hour journey on the "land train" was enough to whip them into an excitable frenzy, with every platform we stopped at enjoying Sammy's announcement "Welcome to London Waterloo." Cue ah no darling not this one.

We negotiated the hoards of people heading for the Underground and made our way across the Jubilee line to Green Park to head for The National History Museum.

We had not anticipated the queues so dived into a Lebanese restaurant for a quick lunch whilst the lunchtime queues died down. What a treat to sit on the street! We let him have his first fizzy drink - he didn't ask for a second and called it spicy, and indulged in lamb burgers, pittas, dips and grilled chicken.

Unfortunately we timed it all wrong and just as we headed to join the back of a still rather long queue, the heavens opened! We crowded under a small umbrella and got soaked. The boys thought it was hilarious and spent the rainy episode with their tongues hanging out catching raindrops like dogs, apparently!

After 40 minutes in the pouring rain we made it inside, headed for the hand dryers in the toilets and dried off as best we could. Soggy trousers didn't bother the boys one bit - there was a new world to discover!

We explored and then explored some more. There is so much to see and do I think you definitely need 3 or 4 trips. Ours enjoyed the hands on stations around the museum and I know they will enjoy it in a whole new way when they can read all the information stands.

We stayed until closing time, fulfilled one of Sammy's wishes of taking a taxi ride (Straight to Anthropologie for me to grab a couple of bits and then to Harrods to have a peek at the incredible toy department!) and ended up in Chinatown where we had promised him dinner with chopsticks!

We enjoyed a feast, made friends with the waiters and as we left Chinatown to walk to the tube station, got caught in a hare krishna demonstration. The boys loved it and ran straight onto the makeshift pavement stage, dancing with delight in front of a smiling crowd who had gathered to watch.

I had fully expected one or both of them to nod off but no they were giddy all the way home and couldn't wait to see Granny to tell her all about our day in London.

Sammy woke up to helium balloon gift wrap, lots of little presents (His main present is his fishing party today.) and a simple day of family fun followed a 6am wake up call.

A birthday roast, a trip to the park and a sleepover at Auntie and Uncle's. What more could a boy want? We ended the birthday weekend with a visit to his poorly cousin.

Happy birthday my darling, we are so lucky to have you. So lucky you are the healthy happy boy we are incredibly proud of.

ps. Can you believe I left my big camera at home? On a birthday weekend? So this month's Me and Mine is mobile all the way! 

Join in with us and share your family photo from May. I've shown you me and mine, now show me you and yours! Capturing family moments is precious. Just snap away!

I'm hoping next month will be a photo of us at our new house - we should exchange in June so fingers and toes crossed. If you fancy a nose at some house photos click here.

Now head over to Becky's ace blog and check out what her, Tom and sweet Holly have been up to!

It's like a "Through the keyhole" blog post today!

We had a second viewing this week (It seems surreal to have offered on a house after only seeing it once for an hour!) to really scope out the potential for our offices in the barn, measure up the rooms, I can never work things out looking at a flat floor plan, and let the boys explore.

Sammy was at school when we saw it and has felt a little left out when we have been discussing it. So half term holidays came at the perfect time for a day out to the Somerset countryside. He ran straight in, shook hands with the owners and blasted out of the conservatory door to the garden.

Making himself at home already!

We know we have an anxious couple of weeks ahead, as we negotiate the contracts and move towards a quick exchange, but I want to enjoy every second of the excitement. I really believe it was fate that we found this house, after such a long search, so I don't think it's tempting fate to share some more photos!

You can see the others here.

I have a thing about gates and have always dreamed of having a house with painted gates at the front! What do you think? Would you paint them?!

There's a little door to the utility room and a perfect area for washing off dirty dogs! The pathway leads to the barn above the garage and will be a wonderful separate space for Rich and I to work in.

There are 2 offices back to back and I love that you have to duck under the low beam to get into the back space. Natural light pours in from the sky light and at the opposite end is a cloakroom with the potential for a shower at some point in the future. Perfect for our teenage nephew and nieces as an overflow guest suite! 

It needs a little sprucing up.... but nothing a little bit of paint and some cheap flooring won't fix. The day bed will come out and I can finally have my lovely wooden desk back up that's been propped in the garage for 6 months. Beyond the back office is an untouched store room that with a little imagination, a good feather duster and some shelving, could be an amazing prop shop! I can store all my excess crockery, backdrops etc in there and it's almost the same size as the offices, so has great potential for the future.

A little staircase leads down to the garage and from the garage you get into a workshop! No idea what we will do with that but it may make the perfect space for workshops of my own in the future.....!

It feels so wonderful to find a space that's already full of creative life. The owners sculptures and artwork and I adore the mustard pot of old brushes on the window ledge.

Standing at the office you can peek through the trees to the house and it will be wonderful to have a clear distinction between a working space and home. I know that will help with our work/life balance that has tipped in the wrong direction of late.

The kitchen is a painted wood rustic farmhouse style with..... an AGA! I have no idea how to cook on an Aga but I am excited to learn. A cooker that never switches off?!

The utility room will be a godsend and we are planning to rejig the pantry layout to fit our big fridge freezer in but still keep the feel they have created of a boot room.

There is a large dining/family room off the stable door in the kitchen (Yes - a stable door!!!) and the boys borrowed some of their grandchildren's old games and kept entertained whilst we discussed the house in more detail.

To the right of a false bookcase wall is a glorious fire that almost rivals the whole wall of fireplace in the living room. In time, I'd love to take out this little wall so we can have our sofas in front of the fire and make it feel like a snug with the dining table behind. We learnt that under the carpets is the old wood block flooring so we definitely want to pull up the carpet!

We are in love with the mullion windows (and the window seat) and the stone window frames. The french doors lead out onto the patio and off to the left is a little potting bench and what we have nicknamed the secret garden.

The vegetable patch and the amount of flowers in the garden makes me giddy. And just when I thought it couldn't get any better, they mentioned that they had built a climbing frame especially for everlasting sweet peas. I almost fainted.

Award winning flowers no less! 

The view from the boy's attic bedroom is stunning and they have already decided which sides their beds will go and Ollie is desperate to keep the pink!

On the other side of the stairs is a little landing space that I'd love to make into a reading nook with beans bags and their sling bookcase. And there's a loft space beyond the landing that will be ideal for all our Christmas decorations and suitcases!

I can't wait to fill up the deep window ledges with photos and little vases of flowers from the garden. I am dreaming of sitting under the pergola with a basket of flowers and a glass of wine.

I'll share some more photos again soon and you can keep up with our journey to the countryside by following my Instagram account #foreverhouse #foreverhome.

Send us your best wishes for a quick exchange! 

I've seen these beautiful phone cases on the internet adorned with real pressed flowers but they are always sooooo expensive!

If in doubt make your own!

I found this press in a charity shop for £3 and I have lots of other ideas for it, so a nice investment I'd say.

I bought a pack of 2 plain plastic cases from H&M and used some flowers from the garden and a bunch that were looking a little sad on the dining table.

This is a joyful DIY, because the steps you have to go through are just so pretty.

Take your flowers and cut them at the base of their heads. Be careful to leave a little stem so the heads don't fall apart.

Place them in your flower press and leave for a few days in a warm room - an airing cupboard is ideal to dry them out.

When your flowers are dry and flat remove them from the press and place on your phone case.

Work in odd numbers, it will look nicer. 

Take your clear nail varnish and pour a little over each flower. Use your brush to smooth the polish over the case. The case will look very shiny with patches when wet but will dry smooth and even.

I used an old nail polish and you can just make out some glitter in the polish! But I quite like that.

2 cases for less than the price of a shop bought flower one!

One for day and one for night?!

Don't forget you can make your phone florally wonderful by downloading my free phone wallpaper collections. Find the latest set HERE. 

Here's a sneak peek of what you are missing...

Flowers make me happy and happiness is contagious so let's all feel some floral love today!