OUR NEXT CHAPTER...A FAMILY TRAVEL ADVENTURE!

“What if we just took a little break from our everyday?”, I said. “Pack our bags and take the kids around the world?”. In fairness, this conversation with my husband, Damien, started years ago. Let’s go on a big trip! When the kids are older, when we’re not working so hard, when we have the financial means, when, when, when…

A little mid-life refresh I’m calling it. Surely, we can rephrase the ol’ mid life crisis by now? With both of us firmly in our 40s and the kids teetering out of young childhood and very much transitioning into tweens, we thought there was no better time. We are going ON A TRIP OF A LIFETIME (!!!) with our kids alongside. Are we CRAZY?! Probably, yes! Excited? Absolutely. Ready for it all? Most definitely not; but really, are we ever ready for change? I have always believed that setting about trying new things brings growth in the best possible way.

I’ve been dreaming about this adventure since I was a child. I vividly remember thinking that, when I grow up, I want to take my family to see the world. It just seemed like a super fun thing to do. Travel is, and has always been, so inspiring to me. After finishing high school, I spent a summer backpacking Europe. After university, I moved to London with one of my best friends and traveled every weekend I could, then after leaving jobs in London (where Damien and I met), we traveled through the parts of the Middle East and a few countries in Africa before settling into new jobs.

While it’s always been in the back of our minds as something we’d one day do, the opportunity and decision to go for it came quickly. We decided in June 2023 that we would take the kids out of school for the year and backpack around the world!

The summer raced by in what can only be described as a whirlwind of logistics. From how to homeschool to what to pack, where to book flights and what to take (I’ll share my list soon!), what vaccines we needed and where we’d go. We felt like nothing was ready but the leaving date was coming too soon. Isn’t that always the way? When are we ever really ready for the next thing anyway.

Why now? Well, the timing was right. The kids are growing up way too fast for my liking. I know motherhood lasts for our entire lives, but I’m always very aware that the most time we ever spend with our kids happens by the time they’re 18. I love my kids more than anything and truly think they are amazing people to hang out with. All 3 are still in elementary school and I know we want to be back and settled once they reach high school.

Covid truly brought about so many changes in our young kids’ lives. There were nearly two years where they barely went into shops or interacted with a wide variety of people. I want our kids to discover that there’s a much bigger world out there to explore; one where people live in different ways than we do, eat different foods, speak different languages.

We are incredibly aware of our privilege to take this opportunity, not only to travel but also to be such an integral part of the kids’ development. We will be doing math along the way and journaling too, with most other learning being taught in terms of classes we can enrol in along the way and experiences that naturally occur.

So, if you’re up for following along with our travel adventures, I will share along the way. And now, global adventures await!

16 OF OUR FAVOURITE FAMILY GAMES!

If you follow our stories on Instagram, you’ll know by now that one of our family’s favourite thing to do together is play games. Our games cupboard sits prominently in our living room so the kids can easily access them at any time. Our kids are now 9 and 11 (the twins) and we’ve been playing games with them since they were toddlers. They often play games together independently, but we also play as a family and it’s become a weekly tradition for us that I hope continues throughout the years.

Below are the games that we love and play regularly and I’ll add the ones I’m tucking under the tree this year too!

1. SKIPBO

   I remembered playing this game at a friend’s house when I was a kid and bought it when my kids were toddlers. Once you have mastered Uno, this game is a great next step. We’ve brought this game on weekends away and even the park! The kids still love to play it.

2. RACKO

   Love this simple number ordering card game for kids. We didn’t discover it until last year but as soon as your little ones can count and order numbers to 20, 30, 40 and 50, this game is perfect. It’s quick and fun, a winning combo!

3. BLOKUS

   A game for 2-4 players that’s recommended for ages 7+. It’s a patterning game and I love that the youngest player can win as easily as the oldest once they get the hang of it. A great intro to strategy games.

4. SLEEPING QUEENS

   Kaia made sure I added this one to the list. She said it was her favourite a few years ago. It’s a simple concept that the kids seem to pick up quickly (and remember) but I feel liked tired Moms (that’s me!) need the rule book nearby to remember what each card does.

5. MONOPOLY

   The classic game from our youth; our 9 year old would play this game daily if someone would play with him! We have and love the bookshelf addition and I imagine our kids playing Monopoly for many years to come.

6. CLUE

   You likely remember this one from when you were a kid too and I had to buy the vintage edition for old times sake. Nothing like a game of mystery to keep little minds thinking! My twins especially love this game and play it often when friends come over.

7. SCRABBLE

   This beautiful wooden version is a perfect coffee table decor piece as well as a very functional take on this classic word game. When we started playing Scrabble with our kids, we quickly learned the value of a quality board that holds the letters in place after a standard board kept getting knocked and wrecked. I highly recommend investing in a quality game of this one if you and your family are avid Scrabble fans.

8. BANANAGRAMS

   This game was a gift and I love how it encourages flexible thinking with words. With simple letter tiles, you could use this game alongside learning to spell with younger kids. Although the concept is simple, this game requires quick thinking and is quite tricky to keep changing your words and thinking as the game progresses. In my opinion, it’s a step quicker (& harder!) than Scrabble or Lexicon.

9. CHINESE CHECKERS

   Simple and fun. With a little strategy, this game is fun to play with 2 players and so much more complicated once you add more players. We play this game at least 3 times a week!

10. CHESS / CHECKERS

    I have always dreamed of being an amazing Chess player, although I am not (ha!). Once we knew our family was a fan of games, we invested in this beautiful wooden game board and quality felted pieces.

11. CATAN

    I like this game, but my kids love it. Learn to trade, build and settle the island of Catan.

12. CARCASONNE

    By far my favourite game to play with our family! I’d say 8+ and this is a great first foray into strategy games. It’s a long game so you have to settle into this one for the evening, but it’s enjoyable and if you are like us, my husband and I can be competitive with each other while still playing with the kids.

13. CATCH PHRASE

    Fun for a wider group and easy to sit down and play a quick round. If you are into games with friends, this one is fun for adults and kids 8+. Younger kids may have a tricky time with the speed of it and some of the content.

14. TRIVIAL PURSUIT (KIDS VS. ADULTS)

    Fun fact: my kids almost always beat us adults! This game is great for learning random facts and testing your memory once you’ve played it multiple times. While my kids seem to remember everything they learn, they especially relish in the rounds where we’ve had the questions before and I forget the answer. Fun for the whole family.

15. YAHTZEE

    A good game list wouldn’t feel complete without Yahtzee. A simple game that can easily travel with you, this one is great for improving math skills and teaching kids the concept of probability.

16. TICKET TO RIDE

    This one is tucked under the tree and the reviews are great! Have never played, but can’t wait to try.

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HOW TO CREATE A SCHOOL MEMORY BOX!

I can hardly believe that we are more than halfway through September and that the school year is well underway. I love a fresh start and I always feel like September is the ideal opportunity for a reset. It’s the perfect chance to start a good organization project and today, I’m excited to share a project that I put together over the summer: school memory boxes for our kids! I really wanted to start this year with a place for all of their art, report cards, work we’ve kept and awards they’ve earned in one happy place. This school memory box is something I have only just discovered is ‘a thing’ and even though our kids are 8 and 10, I approached this project with the same motto I approach life…it’s never too late!

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While this is definitely not the least expensive project I’ve done, I think it’s well worth it to have a memory box that you can hand your children later in life that documents their school years in a really practical way.

Ready to make your own school memory box? Let me walk you through how I did it.

1. Order a letter file box. I ordered this clear box, but any hanging file box will work.

2. To personalize the box, use decals for either their initial or name. These white decals worked well for our kids’ boxes!

3. Choose letter-size files WITH tabs; I loved that these files had 3 different colours for our 3 kids!

4. Order labels for each category/grade that you want: I used Mabels Labels and loved that I could customize them!

If you end up doing this project, I’d love to see! Tag #WDschoolmemorybox on Instagram and I’ll share them as they come in!

KIDS BATHROOM: WHERE WE ARE STARTING AND THE PLAN

Have you been following our bathroom renovation on Instagram? The kids bathroom in our rental house started out as a completely non-functional space for our family with three kids but we have a plan and I’m sharing it with you below.

First, let’s start with some gorgeous bathroom inspiration that I used for this project!

Source: Eye for Pretty

Now, let’s take a step back and see where we started. This is the bathroom when we rented the house.

It really started out as such a non-functional space and likely the only reason that our family was lucky enough to rent this house; I said that as part of the rental, I would update the bathrooms! There was a decent amount of space here, but I truly have no idea how the previous owners functioned with it.

Let me break down the issues:

• the door opens into the bathtub

• the toilet and bathtub are brown!

• the vanity is far too large for the space

• the glass doors on the bathtub close off the space

• the entry door opens into a person standing at the vanity, or getting out of the tub!

• the tile is dirty and would be great to replace

Over the past week, I’ve been sharing the step-by-step process on Instagram stories, so let me update you in here in case you’ve missed out.

The entry door has been removed, the glass doors to the shower have been removed, the vanity and mirrors have been removed (photo on left) and the tile has been stripped out!

It’s amazing to see how far we’ve come already! I feel like you can actually see the space properly now and I can’t wait to start getting some of the new pieces in place.

So, what’s the plan? Well, one thing I won’t do in a rental is remove a bathtub (unless doing it with the owner) for fear of water damage. In this case, the tub is actually in pretty good shape and we will be having it refinished (a VERY cost effective way to refresh a tub). New tile will replace the old (our biggest cost) and yes, we will be replacing the brown toilet with a white one!

After perusing bathrooms online, I decided to really keep the colours simple and this was truly determined to find a very low cost tile for the floor and walls. Since using a professional to tile the bathroom would be our highest cost, I wanted to keep the cost of the actual tile to a minimum, as this is a rental after all.

You can imagine that white was a clear choice, and yes, the tub and walls will be white but I wanted to add something playful since this is the kids’ main bathroom and so we went for a bold patterned tile in black and white! I chose to add warmth through the vanity and you can see how the simple colours of black, white and wood go together in the board below.

1.// Boho shower curtain; 2.// Warm wood vanity; 3.// Black rim mirror; 4.// House tissue box; 5.// Black towel rail; 6.// Wood bath bar; 7.// Patterned floor tile; 8.// White subway tile; 9.// Light wood frames; 10.// Comb art print; 11.// Hairpin art print.

FREE PRINTABLE: EARTH DAY!

Did you know that Earth Day is next week, Thursday April 22nd? We love to celebrate Earth Day with our kids and wanted to offer a fun way for you to acknowledge the day too! We usually pull out some of our favourite books about our beautiful earth, talk about how we can take care of it and this year, together with Lana from Lana’s Shop (go check out her gorgeous watercolour illustrations!), we’ve created a word search for you & your kids to enjoy! Get the free printable below.

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DOWNLOAD THE EARTH DAY PRINTABLE HERE: