A Day Spent with Family

Last weekend 

we had the privilege of hanging out with my family.

My grandma,

my aunts, uncles and cousins

were all able to be together and spend the afternoon at the beach.

We enjoyed each others company,

the sunshine,

baby kisses, 

trying new things like paddle boards and shaved ice.

Sometimes we allow months to go by

without seeing one another.

Time gets away on us too quickly.

I need to a better job

of not letting that happen!

We are a small clan

and its still relatively easy to gather in one place.

“I think togetherness is a very important ingredient to family life.”– Barbara Bush

Sophie, Ethan and Claire.

Catching jellyfish and trying new water sports. 

Auntie Barb and Jane.

My grandma and cousin Adelai keeping cool under the umbrella.

Ethan entertaining Jane in the swing.

The baby whisperer

Jane loved Jacob the dog.

“A happy family is but an earlier heaven.”– John Bowring

Links For Your Weekend

This past week 

was a bit crazy and a lot of fun.

We returned home from camping

with enough laundry to keep me busy for the rest of the week.

Camping is fun,

but oh the laundry.

Tuesday the girls and I headed out to Vancouver.

Wheat Canada,

one of my favourite children's clothing shops,

was having a pop up shop in Vancouver.

My friend Danielle,

who introduced me to Wheat,

met me there with her girls. 

We shopped for back to school clothes

and each of the girls picked out an outfit that they wore out of the store.

It was really fun to meet Katherine and her husband in person.

Then we went for lunch at Bestie.

Danielle and I each tried the Chinese 5 Spice Duck bratwurst. 

They ventured on with their day and us with ours.

It was so fun to kind of go about our day with no real agenda.

Vancouver is one of my favourite places to be on a gorgeous sunny day.

We went to Emery Barnes Park,

then made our way to Kitsilano Beach.

We walked from the beach to West 4th and back to the beach

where we played, splashed and built sand castles.

Then we went back to East Van to make a loop

and had dinner at Tacofino. 

Such a fun day with my girls.

They were both so easy going and happy.

I had a moment standing on the beach,

breeze blowing my hair, sun on my face;

I felt so blessed.

I don't want to sound cliche,

but I really did.

My girls were playing in the water,

the sun was shining and I was standing with my feet in the sea

 feeling so grateful for this life. 

It was a perfect day.

Wednesday was a quiet day at home,

a perfect balance.

Jane woke up with a yukky green snot-nose and

we just parked it indoors catching up on cartoons and laundry.

The weather was cool and rainy.

Thursday Claire and I both had dentist appointments.

It has been a great week.

What did you guys do this week? 

How did you unwind after the long weekend?

Was it back to work,

or did you try and stretch the extra Monday 

into an extra Tuesday too?

Here are some fun links for you from around the web! 

- Our guest post over at Thinking Outside the Pot

- This lipstick shade by melted is one of the top colours for summer

- Loving the look of this Kate Spade planner for 2016 

- Adding Earnest Ice Cream to my summer list. London Fog intrigues me! 

- Starting to think about planning a first birthday party for Jane. (Where did that year go?) 

- Celebrating with Codi Lynn over at Creative Wife & Joyful Worker as she relaunches her blog! 

- Have you been to the Fairy Forest? If weather permits we are heading there today! 

Happy Friday everyone!

Hope your weekend is great.

Hip hip hooray for a short week!