Our 'Staycation' Part 1

So  I guess it was a couple weeks ago now that Josh had a whole week off and we decided to try out that new fangled idea of a 'staycation' Well let me tell you, I was absolutely exhausted by the end of the week, my house was a complete disaster, and I was in desperate need of a vacation even though technically we had just finished one!! But we have over 1000 pictures, tons of memories and I quite simply wouldn't trade any of the awesome time that we had together as a family for an expensive, all-inclusive, tropical, relaxing vacation.........ok I'd seriously consider it, but all in all it was fantastic.

The whole vacation started on Sunday April 30th and after going to church in the morning we needed to head on into the big ol' city of St. Catharines to pick up my dear Auntie's lovely camera that she was generously letting us borrow to document our week together. After picking up said camera (while my aunt stuffed my children full of junk and presents) we headed on over to Value Village (please insert French accent here to make it sound exotic) to pick up a few things. I really wanted to have a puzzle that the kids and I could work on for the week and thought we could pick one up fairly cheap second hand. Josh and I had aimed on eliminating the TV for his time off (for the most part) and both the girls and I love doing puzzles.  However, over the winter our puzzle selection grew kind of thin (as we finished off a bunch) and we were in the mood for something new and Springy.

Perfectly Springy feeling:)

One for each member of our family blessed with more than enough clothes

We were also looking for some cute pillowcases that we could make into dresses for little girls around the world. A friend of mine from highschool is a partner in a fabulous little organization that makes and inspires people to make beautiful pillowcase dresses that are delivered to girls in countries across the world. Please check out her link http://sewgorgeous.org/ or like them on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/kdawnt12 My girls and I have been itching to make, find supplies, or help out for a long while now but being a single income, single vehicle family has made it challenging to find the time and supplies to do this. So we decided that while Josh was off we would try to dedicate some of our time, energy and resources to accomplish this. Here are the pillowcases we found (finished dress pics to come at a later date:)

After Value Village we proceeded to FreshCo. a grocery store that we had never been to before. I really liked it and went on to spend a fortune on the freshest, most wonderful ingredients possible as I planned on doing a lot of cooking and baking!! Actually, to be honest the prices were fairly reasonable I'm just not used to shopping without price matching and couponing and with Josh and the three girls along I wasn't even about to mention that. We also bought super healthy food (which sadly is always more expensive), we're really trying to work healthier options into our diet, and thus slowly eliminate the not-so-healthy food we love. It feels much better than completely cutting things out. I'm hoping that by increasing the good stuff there will just naturally be less room for the bad stuff and that the girls (and Josh) really won't feel like its a big change all at once.

 We started to use the borrowed camera that very afternoon as we came home to this:

through the screen door shot

getting used to using the camera

through the window

finally outside (kids stole my good colander!!) but the rabbit hears me and in .5 seconds he runs away

We finished off our very first whole day together with a really nice dinner at my in-laws. Not having to cook was a fabulous way to start off our week together:) Stay tuned for the next segment titled....(wait for it) 'Our Staycation Part 2 - In which we teach the children how to play 'Pit'....