Mommy's Night Off!

Oh my gosh guys!  I went out for over four hours ALONE!  Without my littles!!!  With a girlfriend!  Who also has littles!!!  And we went to the Ballet!!!  AND DRANK WINE!!!

Talk about best night ever.  It was so special.  We laughed so hard I thought I was going to die.  I love my girl Nicole.  She is such an amazing and powerful woman who is killing it when it comes to motherhood.  Three boys under the age of three.  Yah - I know right?  

I chose to wear this comfy and understated long-sleeved knee length dress.  I did my hair (as you can see in the pics) but ended up taking it out last minute.  It felt just a little too stuffy for me.  We went for dinner first and drank glorious red wine.  The Ballet was Carmen so I felt right at home with my red dress on.  Here's a pic of us at dinner about to dive into our grub.

We clean up pretty nice hey?  Haha.  I can't believe that the two of us girls have FIVE children between us.  That's insane!!!  It's no wonder we look so thrilled to be out on the town enjoying food and wine and then to the gorgeous ballet.

I won't forget this night for a long long time.

Kate

XO

The fish on the t.v says it all - we're THRILLED that Spring is here!

This morning I was feeling bright and content - probably because it's 15 degrees celsius today!  That's unheard of for March in Calgary but you won't find me complaining.  Our family is going to have a BBQ in the backyard for dinner tonight because we know we have to soak up all the time outside that we can!  Hope you guys are also having some  great weather wherever you are today!  

Happy Thursday!

(A few new outfits in the 'Style' section)

Kate

XOXO

Spark Science Center!

The Best Way to Predict the Future is to Invent It...

LEFT HAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She said: "A little bit scared mommy".

I was totally obsessed with these gorgeous jars.

Of course she's going for the pink one...

Spark!

Yup - Will and his amazing cardigan were there too.  But, he slept almost the entire time so I guess that's why babies are free.  Check out those elbow patches!

Little groggy waking up.

Dzjadju keeping a close watch

The gorgeous new facility.  I felt like I was in a modern art museum!  

Nate and I have often discussed the idea of moving to a different city - especially since all but one of our siblings have left.  But the truth is, we really love our hometown and spending time with the remaining family and incredible friends we do have here.  It’s hard to come across someone who doesn’t love Calgary - the shopping is amazing, there are tons of stellar restaurants all over the city, the culture around town is artsy and creative and downtown isn't too serious and intimidating.  The weather is reasonable (and has especially been this past winter) and the sun is usually shining brightly regardless of how cold it is.  There really isn’t too much to complain about.  

In the last few years our city has had some major positive additions to it - one of which is the Telus Spark Science Centre.  Our little family unit, along with my Dad, Don, who is known as Dzjadzu in our house (Grandpa in polish) went to check it out this past weekend.  We found a ton to discover and of course take photos of.  The day was just full of discovery and exploration.  It was adventure filled to the point that it had Scarlet drifting off in her carseat on the way home.   I highly recommend a visit if your family is looking for a fun thing to do on a Saturday.  The time to go is first thing in the morning as it’s pretty dead.  By 11:00am it was swamped with other kids and families - we were lucky to have been able to play with certain exhibits when it was so quiet.  

Again, it’s times like these that I’m happy we still reside in Calgary.  That day with Dzjadzu may not be fully remembered by Scarlet but I think my Dad (who jumped at the 9am meet time) will cherish and remember the day fondly.  I know I will.  

Kate
XOXO

Body Confidence after Babies

If you had sat me down at the end of my last pregnancy and said: ‘Kate, in four months you're going to post front and back shots of yourself in a bikini on the internet’.  I would have laughed, cringed a little internally and then said ‘Wanna bet?  There’s absolutely no way’.  But when there’s a will (haha, no pun intended) there’s a way.  Here we are four months after his big birthday and wammo - I’m posting front and back shots of myself in a bikini on the internet.  Why???  Well, let’s see here.  Why am I doing this…

I guess the hard and fast answer is that I like my mama curves and battle scars.  They're little reminders of how strong I was and how difficult pregnancy and childbirth are, but that I got through it all.  I know I’m not perfect physically, but I really don’t care.  I did, once, a while ago, before kids when I was still dancing, but I’m realizing there is

SO MUCH MORE TO LIFE!!! 

I really don’t want to get wound up in the freaky thin ‘ideal’, (which I find pretty disturbing anyway).  I just want to keep this confidence after what my body has been through.  I want to keep working out to be healthy and feel good.  I want to keep eating well to be healthy and feel good.  I want to keep living life outside to be healthy and feel good.  If that’s on a beach in Mexico in a swimsuit, then dang nab it I want to be feeling healthy and good - and lately I have been.

Even before the trip, I bought a one piece BLACK bathing suit because I was still thinking to myself, ‘well, I could stand to loose a few more pounds and my measurements aren’t where they were before the pregnancy, and my scar is still lumpy and bumby’ and then one day all four of us were out shopping and Nate encouraged me to try on a cute new bikini. I was like ‘Heck!  Why not?!  I don’t want to care anymore about having the ‘perfect’ bod cause there is no such thing!!!’  

So although the fitness and food will continue to be a focus in my life it will be a healthy focus.  Anything positive, like body shape or weight loss, that comes after that is pure icing (bad comparison I know…).  But really, I’m proud of where I am today.  I want to continue to feel this confidence and work towards more health in my life.  That’s what it is - a journey, not a destination.  So happy healthy living friends.  Hope this weekend will be a feel good one for you too!!!

Kate 

XO

Grammy and Grandpa

The Mexican trip would have been a verrrry different story if it hadn’t been for these two.  I wish I could have been able to say that I could easily handled travelling with two under two and Nate, but the truth is I know there is no way it would have been fun.  As you may have seen in an earlier post, Nate and I had a date day and a date night (amazing), but we were also blessed with daily beach walks alone, major support during meal times so that we could actually eat, and constant Scarly and Will supervision so that we could honestly take a break from baby land.  I’ll admit, it was a little difficult for the first few days to let go of the reins and allow Chris and Rob to help out as much as they wanted to, but once I found my relax button - it was heaven.

Here are a few fun pics of the kids with their grandparents.  We’re hoping we’ll be able to travel again as a group really soon.

Also, tomorrow will be the last day I talk about Mexico for those of you who are over it… haha!!!

It’s like:  ‘Ok Kate, we get it.  You went to Mexico’.

Cheers to an hour of mommy time! 

Have a lovely day friends

XO