What's New With You Link Up : APRIL RECAP

As I expected it to, the short month of April totally flew by. Things were busy at work, things were busy at home, and we ended it with a bang. The weather was super sunny and beautiful at times, super stormy at other times, and it even snowed. I'd say it also rained about 70% of the month which usually dampens my spirits, but it didn't as much as usual!! :)

Linking up with my favourite Kristen today to share what's new lately!!! I'll do a brief April recap with a few pics ;) Head over to her link up to see what's new with other people this month!!

So in April Lucy did a bunch of cute things and she is doing extremely well learning to read and write - we also had a bunch of meltdowns from being overtired. The girls finished up their swimming lessons and they restart this weekend. We had a crazy hair day at school, we had two stomach bugs (ugh), we celebrated Easter with my family and we celebrated Molly's first communion this past weekend.

We also went to a skating party for some good friends of ours on Easter Saturday. On Easter Sunday, the Easter bunny gave the girls 70 clues to solve before they found their baskets in our closet. We don't do big presents for Easter - just a few clothes that they need and a little game and some chocolate. We spent tons of time with my family, with Brian's family, and our extended families and it was nice despite a rainy weekend.

I did a lot of decluttering/selling online this past month and a lot of spring cleaning too. It feels wonderful. I just need to maintain it now. Sorry for the blurry photo below - the kids were just dancing way too fast!!!

We had a lot of family time too - we rearranged the living room a bit so it now has a cabinet with all of the girls' board games and they are playing them CONSTANTLY. Together on their own, with us, with their stuffed animals...it is great and they are getting better about not having a total sobfest when they a) don't get to go first or b) don't win. Haha. To be fair, they come by these feelings honestly. Brian and I are both super competitive and like to win board games. :)

I got to go out and see my cousin and listen to some music one night before Easter and that was fun - we used to do that kind of thing all the time but now I sometimes go months without seeing him (for NO reason!). I won free tickets to an early screening of Missing Link so I went with Molly, and it was a cute kids movie!! It was fun.

Now I feel like May will go by in a flash and it will be summer. The weather outside definitely doesn't feel that way, but soon!! Of course, it goes without saying that I read some great books in April which I will talk about soon. I'm in a bit of a slump now, just overtired and not dying to pick up the books I have on the go even though they are really good!!! Hoping to cure that this weekend.

What's new with you!?!

What's New - What We Did in August

Happy Thursday!! I know I've drifted off from this space, but that's just how it goes. I am surviving the first week of school - my daughter had a great first day yesterday. She is in a 2/3 split this year (grade 2) and she loves her teacher (who is new to the school). We are so excited to see all of the things she learns this year. If there was ever a kid that was meant to be in school, she's the one.

Linking up with my AWESOME friend Kristen today to share a few of the things we did in August. Mostly, we went to the beach a lot, went on vacation, celebrated my birthday, went to the beach some more, tackled our first case of headlice (OMG), and I'd say that's about it in a nutshell. :)

Here are a few pictures:

We have these wonderful friends that we made through school last year - when my girls are at the beach with them, the hours FLY by and it is seriously some of the easiest parenting I've done. The beach near us is absolutely beautiful and has been SO warm this year (it's the Atlantic Ocean so it normally isn't) - btw - this is warm by Canadian standards LOL. We spent 3/4 days of the long weekend in August at the beach with these friends.

The following weekend we went to a family reunion with 150 people in my mom's extended family at a little cottage resort area in Cape Breton. It was tons of fun - so nice to meet cousins I'd never met and reconnect with people we hadn't seen in ages. My husband had a bit less fun although he did get to golf for 7 hours one of the days we were there. The girls were in and out of the pool and playground constantly and met a lot of their family. It was great :)

From there we packed up and took the ferry over to Prince Edward Island. We camped there for 2 nights near Cavendish (home of Anne of Green Gables) and it was really nice. We took the girls to a waterpark/amusement park and they had the time of their lives. I'm not going to lie - Brian and I loved the waterslides too and I was really just so happy that our girls are actually old enough to do stuff like this now!! Our summers moving forward are going to be incredible. 

We celebrated my birthday by eating donuts for breakfast in the campground, visiting the Green Gables historical site, going out for lunch, spending a few hours at the beach, checking out a used book store :D, and checking into an Airbnb in Charlottetown to have pizza, cheesecake, and watch Guernsey once the kids went to bed. It was perfect in every way and I am going to try my best to be on vacation for my bday moving forward - I've often worked but this was the best. :)

The day after that, Molly and I went to see Anne & Gilbert in Charlottetown and we got some Cows ice cream YUM. The Anne & Gilbert musical was SO good. It follows the second and third novels so it's more romantic than the first Anne of Green Gables and the music was incredible. It was very funny and although it is mostly about their love story, it was perfectly good for Molly (almost 7) and she laughed a lot. We then drove home (~4 hours) and it was great to be home with our air conditioning to sleep. Haha.

We took a day at home after getting back and then we took a day trip to another amusement park that we'd bought a Groupon for earlier in the summer. It was fun and a bit tiring. :) The next week we were back to reality and that was okay too.

We spent the last weekend of August at a wedding in Antigonish where my grandmother lives and where I went to university. It was a lovely wedding and we saw a lot of people I hadn't seen in years. It was definitely a very fun time and the girls enjoyed their sleepover with my in-laws. We hadn't been to a wedding in awhile and we don't have any more on the horizon - most of our friends are married now actually! Brian and I also played our favourite wedding game which is requesting certain songs from the DJ and then watching everyone flood the dance floor and love our requests ;)

The Monday after the wedding away, we realized Molly had head lice and that was probably one of the worst moments ever. I guess you could call it a parenting rite of passage but I hope it never happens to us again. I think we fought it off and none of the rest of us seem to have gotten it but it was a lot of laundry, hair combing, and shampooing. Ugh.

That's pretty much August!!! September feels fresh and new and I am loving it so far. Make sure you check out Kristen's blog to see who else is talking about what's new lately :) I will be back tomorrow for 14 Things Friday and next week is Show Us Your Books so I am trying to finish a few more before the link up! ;)

What's New (October recap)

October flew by SO quickly. I think it's because there were tons of days that still felt like summer and the girls and I took advantage of being outside as much as we could. We had a lovely Thanksgiving weekend (but busy), I am settling into my 3-day work week, and Halloween was so much fun this year!

I am excited for November to be here because I have a few projects I really want to work on, and of course, the excitement of Christmas is in full-force by the end of this month. So much to look forward to near the end of the year here :)

Linking up today with Kristen and Gretch for What's New With You?

Here are a few photos of our October adventures:

We spent Thanksgiving weekend seeing LOTS of my huge extended family. It was great, but also a bit tiring, and we all ended up with a bit of a cold afterwards so that's what happens ;) We also took the girls to the new Ikea store (the first in Halifax in many, many years!) #mindsblown They were super excited. Brian built me a desk that weekend (which is where I am currently typing this!!!) and of course, we managed to find a playground or two to play on.

After that weekend, Brian had to go away for work for a few days so I held down the fort here while simultaneously losing my voice and coughing like crazy...haha. It was then that I discovered that the audio versions of many of our favourite picture books are on YouTube, and some are read by the author! #raisingreaders Lucy ended up listening to a lot of those that week (and is still totally obsessed) because my voice just couldn't read to her.

I went to my first HUGE book sale the following weekend and picked up a few things, while Brian took the girls to the Discovery Centre and I met them there. It was fun!! We also got a chance to go back to the farm where Molly had fallen in love with the baby donkey, and this time they got to go in the pen and pet the animals more, which was a blast. This little llama is sooo fun.

Towards the end of the month, the focus of our time, was, of course, on Halloween. I have a post coming about this tomorrow but our girls have recently developed a huge obsession for owls so I made their costumes this year. I made one for myself too although I prefer to think of myself as more of a Hedwig and the girls are trying to be owls from their favourite chapter book series, Owl Diaries. I absolutely did not expect these costumes to consume as much of my time as they did. Haha. BUT it was worth it because they loved their costumes. They wore them to the Halloween howl at Molly's school, to their last race of their series, and the wore them to school on Halloween and out that night. This was the first year that both of our girls really truly embraced trick-or-treating although they were both pretty tired too. It was a fun night! Friends of ours offered to come over and help pass out candy, so it was great to catch up with them too and to see my niece all dressed up :)

I finished a few awesome books this month that I can't wait to talk about in a few days for SUYB!! I also got some Christmas presents bought, ran a 10k race (the last one for 2017), and met up with a few friends I hadn't seen in awhile. All in a month's work! Anyway, what's new with you? Anyone doing NaNoWriMo? Anyone have anything fun to share?

What's New: Summer time :)

It's time to recap the month of June here on the blog. Linking up today with the lovely Kristen & Gretch for What's New With You?

{bonfire on the beach}

Things have been a bit quiet here for a bit - life has been busy and we've been soaking up the summer!!! I have about 10 posts half drafted that I want to share soon though :)

In June, Brian and I enjoyed a wonderful weekend away to celebrate our 5 year anniversary. It was relaxing, quiet, and fun too. I think it was the longest we have both left the kids but they were obviously fine and spent one night with my parents and one night with Brian's mom at our house. It was perfect. :) We are thinking of doing it once a year because it was really a great chance to reconnect and recharge.

We also celebrated Brian's birthday and Father's Day, spent a bunch of time with my family, and work was insane for me. I didn't get through nearly as many books as I would've liked and I am still feeling super overtired, but it is getting better now that things have slowed down.

The girls started soccer (Lucy's first year playing!!). Molly plays U6 Monday and Wednesday nights and this is her first year in which parent participation isn't called for - although we do have to be present (obviously). Lucy is in U3 and parent involvement is pretty intense, especially if you are a helicopter parent like Brian thinks I am. Oops. Haha.

Brian had to take a work trip the last week of June, which was exhausting, and he's away again this week but coming home tonight (thank goodness). Solo parenting is not easy (not that I ever thought it was, haha).

Other than that, we've just been spending time outside, organizing the house, and barbecuing!! Loving the summer. July is going to be a great month - my brother is visiting from Calgary with his girlfriend, we're having a huge party for my mom's birthday, and we have some fun weekends planned!! Can't wait.

What's new with you lately?!

November Recap (What's New link up!)

November was a pretty low-key month overall, and that was just what we needed in our family. I didn't even take very many pictures so this post will be a bit boring but I like the idea of looking back on each month and I can't NOT link up with Kristen and Gretch for What's New With You?

I only worked the first Friday in November and had the next 3 off for various reasons (Remembrance Day, sick, vacation day). It was nice to have 3 long weekends in a row and I could get used to that!! We went to visit my sister, brother in law and niece on the first long weekend and hung around their house/playground and did some shopping. The girls loved it, and Lucy loved playing a different piano:

It is always so fun to see my niece (almost 1 year old!) and spend some time with family. The girls did great on the drive too (one hour each way).

We spent the next "long weekend" overnight at a friend's house for their son's 8th birthday. It was a great night with some adult beverages and board games after the kids went to sleep. BOY was I ever tired the next day though.

I also got the majority of our Christmas shopping done (mostly online) because we have an Amazon Prime trial right now...so awesome. It is such a relief to be in a good position with regards to shopping and I also know it was smart to spread it out over a few paycheques.

On the last weekend in November, Brian and I went to Fantastic Beasts (I wasn't even sure if I wanted to see it but I'm SO glad we did because I loved it!) I spent the next night binge-watching Gilmore Girls with one of my best friends and that was fun too. Look at our awesome Luke's Diner mugs!! I am totally up for talking about the new episodes if anyone wants to e-mail me!!!!

This month, Molly got her first report card from school and she is doing incredibly well, which we knew but it was such a relief to talk to her teacher and hear positive feedback about our child and parenting. I am so happy with our decision to put her into French Immersion this year and she absolutely loves school which makes our lives as parents much easier.

November went by quickly, but it was a good month. It was nice to have some downtime on the weekends and we definitely made some progress on house-cleaning, house-sorting, and preparations for December. Tomorrow we're getting our Christmas tree and decorating this weekend (the girls are BEYOND excited!) We have all been a touch under the weather off and on this month, so the downtime was really something we needed.

My reading was allllll over the place this month, and we also started watching Season 5 of Suits so that is taking up some evening time :) can't complain though!!

On to December - one of the most festive and fun months of the year! Our girls are so excited for Christmas this year and I can't wait to celebrate with them.

I have a few fun posts planned for December including a day in the life, some book round up favourites posts, goals for 2017, reflections about 2016 etc. etc.!! Let's hope they all come to fruition! haha.

What's new with you lately?? Anyone want to chat about Gilmore Girls?!

What's New and Exciting

I feel like I say this every month, but October was a busy month. BUT it was so good, too!! There was a lot of fun things on the go. I'm going to recap them all in this post & link up with Kristen & Gretch for their monthly What's New with you link up :) Kristen has some really exciting news this month - I can't believe how quickly her house sold!!!

I started October off with a bang and went to a concert with one of my favourite Celtic groups, The Barra MacNeils, that we grew up listening to - my whole family (parents, sister, aunts, uncles, grandma + me) went to the concert and it was amazing. The Barra MacNeils performed with Symphony Nova Scotia and it was incredible because the symphony really added a lot to the performance. I will for sure be attending this concert again; I think they do it almost every year but that was my first time there. 

We took the kids to a few indoor playgrounds this month because there were some really rainy days & they are at a great age to enjoy this type of thing right now:

I also got a chance to catch up with my old roommate from St. FX and her boyfriend - what a great night. I hadn't seen her in 2 years so it was great to chat. Ran into another old friend from university the same night out and that was fun too. 

Canadian Thanksgiving is in October, and it was a busy weekend for our family. We spent the entire day Sunday with our extended family - at my cousin's baby's baptism and with all of my aunts and uncles, and then we had Thanksgiving dinner at my parent's house which included 39 PEOPLE (Molly made a list of everyone). There were 2 turkeys and a ham, about 15 vegetable dishes, and pie. It was great. Brian took the girls home early & I stayed overnight at my parent's so I could chat more with my cousins (I always feel sad when I have to leave just as the party is getting started). My niece was also the life of the party ;)

We did some shopping with the kids and I got a start on Christmas shopping, too. Here are some new friends they made at Costco: 

I also took my first trip "home" to Calgary since 2013. For those who don't know, I grew up in Calgary (nestled nearby the Rocky Mountains in western Canada ;)) and lived there until I went to university. With my parents moving out east, we haven't really had as much motivation to go out to visit with the kids, even though my brother and dad's family all still live there. When one of my closest cousins got engaged, I decided to head out to Calgary for a visit and to attend the wedding - by myself! Brian stayed with the kids here. This was kind of a big deal for us because I haven't been away from the kids for that long before (5 days!) and I am more of the primary household-runner in our house, so there was a bit of anxiety leading up the trip, but I'm SO GLAD I went and it was a much-needed break. I'm very grateful too that my in-laws live close by to help Brian out :)

The Rocky Mountains near Calgary

Flying out of Halifax

Flying back into Halifax at 6pm

I read about 4 books on the trip (yay long flights!) and spent some quality time with my brother, my dad's family, and some close family friends. It was wonderful. I was pretty off when I came back (very jetlagged and tired), but we seem to be back in the swing of things now. Molly also seemed to regress a bit while I was gone and has gone back to some crazy tired tantrums, but we're working on that. She gets so overtired with school and daycare that it can be really hard to get through to her sometimes but it's coming along slowly. 

The wedding, of course, was beautiful too. It was so nice to be there & to see a few of my first cousins I hadn't seen in about 10 years. Everyone from my family except my sister & her family and Brian and the kids was able to be there, so that was really special. We had a wonderful time dancing and chatting.

Since being back from Calgary, I've been doing some more decluttering in our house while listening to audiobooks, and just getting ahead on some things that need to be done before winter comes. We also had a great Halloween. Molly had a Halloween howl night at school which was fun (but so chaotic) - she dressed up in her Belle costume for that, and then the girls went out trick-or-treating as bumblebees. And now I have two huge boxes of candy & chips sitting in the front hall closet and two girls asking for a treat every 5 seconds (don't worry, I'm going to move the box ASAP). #tempting.

Brian carving his pumpkin with a dremel drill & knife attachment

I'm really looking forward to November, because I love the holiday season and it's coming up so soon! Our girls are going to be so fun at Christmas this year. I'm going to share some other things I'm looking forward to tomorrow :) I'll also share what I've been reading next week!!!

What's new with you lately?!?!