Family day weekend

This past weekend we celebrated Family Day for the second year. It’s basically just a long weekend in February. Since our kids are so young, I kinda feel like every day is family day, but a holiday is always nice. 



On the base, they had some activities at the gym, including the huge bouncy castle and about twenty plasma cars. This was the first time Cohen has ever gone into one of those bouncy castles. He was always scared to go in. He loved it. Will was wild, and kept racing through the crowds of people to try to get into that bouncy castle. The tiny baby bouncy castle was so boring to him. He preferred being bounced like a ball in the huge one, getting balls whipped at him by kids ten times his size. He is a handful!

We did a little snowshoeing in Lindsey Valley, which is less than ten minutes from our house. As usual, the prep work for a little 45 minute walk in the snow is exhausting. By the time we get in the car to go, Jon and I are both kinda wondering if it’s worth it. And then it always is somehow. It’s so great to be outside with the boys, walking through the snow. 

The boys and I did a bunch of baking. Cohen is suddenly really into muffins, so that’s our thing right now. In the past, he is exclusively interested in the part of baking that involves eating a ton of chocolate chips from the measuring cup. I mean, I get it. I also love a fistful of chocolate chips at times. 

Also, both boys are very into their costume box right now. Actually maybe always. I would say that every single day, at least one of them pulls out the costume box from the closet. We have probably a dozen capes, and they all get so much use. Love my little Batman. 

Our Valentine’s Day family date 2019

We has such a great Valentine’s Day date with our little guys. Jon and I have never been super into the valentine’s day romantic restaurant dinner, even before we had kids. And now we pretty much make Valentine’s Day about the boys. 





Cohen loves doing family dates so much. He especially loves getting dressed up in “sharp” clothes. The boys are mostly just into the avocado rolls and the deep fried banana dessert. 

I am so lucky to get to celebrate little holidays with my three guys. Sushi works so well for us because we are in and out in like 30 minutes. We order a few rolls right away, and then just keep them coming until dessert. It’s weirdly becoming one of our favourite family restaurants. 

Some pics from the second half of our holiday

We headed home from the island on Christmas Day this year. It is so normal for us to be travelling on Christmas Day. Jon and I have always done it. Some people have asked us if we are going to start spending Christmas at our own house someday. Maybe? But not until that feels right for us. We really do love being with relatives at the holidays. 

(On New Years day we had a little drop-in party)

(Dominoes and Chinese food on NYE)

(Lots of sliding time in our backyard)

(Will loves his uncle’s computer)

(My sister and I)

(The kids did so much crafting and baking)

(These sweet cousins)

For gifting, the adults exchange names at thanksgiving, so we only buy for one person. We have been doing that for years, and I love being able to focus on just one person. 

The highlight of Christmas this year was my sister announcing she is pregnant with her third! I feel so incredibly excited. I love being an auntie sooo much. And this is the first time my sister has been pregnant when I live nearby, so I will be able to see the baby so much. 

Why I’m going a year without buying new clothing

So I used to spend a lot of money on clothes. We lived in Clarenville, Newfoundland, where the only place to buy clothes was basically the Walmart. But like not even a good Walmart. So whenever we would go to the mainland, I would drop $400 (or more) on an outfit at Foriegn Affair in Halifax. At the time, I felt like I was investing in good quality pieces that I would have forever. Except that sometimes I didn’t even like that $150 shirt when I got it home. Or Jon would shrink it in the wash so it was only useful for a ten-year-old. Or the $350 pants would get a rip in the bum and I would chuck them out. 

I realized I don’t actually know what I like to wear. I know what I like. I love bright blouses and flat front khakis and polo shirts and crop tops and the perfect collared white shirt and chambray. But I don’t like wearing those things. So I needed to figure out what I actually liked wearing before I started spending money on clothes again. So that’s where I am now. In May of 2018, I turned 34 and decided to only buy used clothing for a full year. I have about three months left, and I’ve figured out so much. 

When I look at these picture (I have like no picture of me because I’m the mom) from the past year I can see a lot of repetition. Stuff I’ve figured out about my wardrobe:

1. I love huge thick cardigans. I have two that were gifts from my mom for the last two christmases, and I reach for them multiple times a week. Also I don’t need more of those. They last so long and I don’t wash them that much. 

2. I like jeans with holes in them. I know, it’s lame because I’m 35 (almost). But I just prefer my light wash super worn jeans. The problem with jeans like that is they do get worn out fast. I tear a hole in the bum of a pair of jeans a few times a year. So I need to buy these whenever I find a pair that fits. I need dark wash jeans for times when I need to look more dressed up, but if I get to choose, I will always go for the light jeans. 

3. Even though I have to wear dress clothes sometimes for work, I don’t like to wear them. Maybe someday I’ll find a dress pant style that I like on me, but generally, the dress clothes are the things in my closet that bring me no joy and I want to throw into the giveaway pile, but I need them once or twice a month for work stuff (I wear scrubs for work on regular days).

4. I don’t actually like wearing t-shirts with logos and pictures on them. This really surprised me. Ever since middle school, I have always worn vintage t-shirts from random charity events or weird touristy spots. But lately, I’m more interested in boring t-shirts with nothing on them. 

5. Related to number 4, I basically only want to wear navy blue, black, and white. All other colours I love, but I’m just not interested in wearing them. Oh, and grey. I like wearing grey too. So that will make shopping way easier. 

6. The only way I could do this no-new-clothes year is because I have an amazing used clothing store in my town. Pretty much every month, I find an entire cool outfit there for under $20. But I find that still, sometimes I bring home something I love, only to find that I don’t like wearing it. I will try it on a lot, but always change my mind and wear something else. 

7. I seem to have a couple uniforms that are honestly so boring but maybe I don’t care? Maybe I love to dress boring. Uniform 1: faded jeans, navy plain t-shirt, huge beige or grey cardigan. Uniform 2: black jeans, black or grey t-shirt or sweatshirt. And I exclusively wear one of 4 different pairs of turquoise earrings with said uniforms. 

8. I obviously made exceptions for underwear and socks. I finished nursing in August, so I had to buy a few new bras at that time. Also, I ditched a ton of my regular clothes that I had been wearing for the past year at that point because I realized I was only wearing them for ease of breastfeeding and I didn’t actually think they looked good on me. Also I changed sizes of all clothing dramatically at that time. This past year, I have kinda accepted that my body is different now and I’m never going back to my pre-second-baby body. I’m actually really happy with the way I look right now, but some of the clothes I used to wear are almost laughable now. I’m looking at you, collection of tiny minidresses in size 4. 

I will update when my year is up. I’m thinking about the smart clothing purchases I want to make at that time. Or maybe I will try to go another few months.