Another month done and the long hot summer is over. August for us was mostly about our holiday in France. We went to the Dordorgne for two weeks with my parents and brother and sister-in-law and it was fab. We celebrated Gabe’s third birthday while we were away – I wonder if it will be the first birthday he really remembers when he’s older? The two weeks since we came home have been very quiet with us spending a lot of time at home just resting, relaxing and hopefully preparing ourselves for the return to school and nursery next week.

We had a great holiday – the boys were very excited to go on a plane for the first time and despite some delays and having to land again to have the plane checked after we hit a bird on take off, they were really well behaved on the flight. The delays meant we were really late getting to the gîte – we didn’t arrive until nearly midnight, and somehow Toby was still awake!

While we were away the boys slept in two single beds pushed together. I think they actually quite like being right next to each other – one of the reasons Toby was sad to come home was because he wouldn’t be sleeping next to Gabe any more.

We had a fairly relaxed holiday – we had a few days out to a cave, a castle, and local towns and markets but it was really hot so we also spent quite a lot of time just hanging out at the gîte – swimming, reading, and playing. The boys loved having their own swimming pool, although it didn’t quite boost their confidence as much as I’d hoped it would. Toby did manage to do some jumping in, but then he was still too scared to do it once he got back to his own lessons. I guess he’ll get it in his own time. Gabe wasn’t a big fan of the slightly cool water in the pool, but he did enjoy himself once he was in, and was happy floating around (and swimming a bit) with two pool noodles like he does in his lessons at home.

You would think being on a family holiday we would have had chance to get some great family photos but it was just as difficult as ever to get the boys to have a nice picture!

We did manage this one at the Chateau de Castlenaud in our second week but even in this one Gabe isn’t looking at the camera. Toby really wasn’t in the mood for having his picture taken so I stole a tip from Colette at We’re Going on an Adventure and got everyone to pull silly faces for a picture first to then try and get natural smiles for another shot. I think it sort of worked – although the other people visiting the castle thought we were a bit bonkers…

My brother also managed to take this picture just before dinner one night using a timer on his phone – and I think we’re actually all looking in the right direction for once!

I hope you had a great summer whatever you were up to, and I’ll be back with another Me & Mine post at the end of September when hopefully we’ll all be settled back into our normal routine.