A trip to AppleWoods farm

Posted on October 8, 2018 by Bhanu Misra Marya

It’s Canadian Thanksgiving, the leaves have officially started changing colour and I’ve started my first slow cooker soup of the season – it’s really feeling like Autumn so I thought it would be a good time to share our trip to the farm.

We actually went a few weekends ago. It was one of those beautiful Fall days, where you welcomed the crispness in the morning air, the last bright rays of the summer sun was shining in all her glory and you could just smell Autumn in the air.

I knew the weather would be perfect for a trip to the farm. So the morning of, we packed up tons of snacks, dressed up in all the layers, grabbed my camera (and lenses) and headed North-East to AppleWoods Farm.

We did all the fun farm things, took a wagon ride, picked a pumpkin and butternut squash (included in the price of admission to the farm), saw some sheeps in a barn, ran through a corn maze, picked apples in an orchard and of course ate those apples right off the tree!

Fall 2018 Bucket List

Posted on September 18, 2018 by Bhanu Misra Marya

I was putting together a list of things I wanted us to do this Fall and figured I’d share it up here as well. There are some old favourites (visit the farm, jump into a pile of leaves) and some new ones two (I just realized there is a such a thing as a fall sangria!). I love making these little mini bucket lists because it gets me excited for the seasonal activities and allows me to find focus in making memories :)

Our Trip to Mexico

Posted on June 25, 2018 by Bhanu Misra Marya

It’s been 3 months since I last published a post.

I had may reasons for not blogging and for making all my posts private. But none of them are worth typing up here. What I can say is that I MISSED blogging and that I really LIKE blogging more than social media.

Call me old school but something about getting your thoughts out without having to worry about character limits, engaging on every single platform or building metrics. Oh man it’s exhausting. I mean I understand why it’s needed but my blog isn’t about that. It’s more for me, about building personal and professional skills and documenting my life so I can look back and smile!

With that said I figure I should make my foray back into posting on my blog by reminiscing about our trip to Mexico! At the end of May, we travelled to Puerto Vallarta for my husband’s nieces wedding.Can I just say that we had SUCH a blast……!

Maybe it’s the age of our daughters, or that we were able to chill with our cousins (who are also parents to young kids) or that we got to attend a destination wedding or that we hadn’t been to a carribean resort in over 3.5 years. Well, it was most likely a combination of all of those things – and if I haven’t said it, I’ll say it again…it was such a great vacation.

Thinking back on the planning and preparation for the trip, I had zero expectations for a good time. I mean we were travelling and staying with family the ENTIRE time. We had never been to a destination wedding (and Indian weddings are a lot of work when you are part of the family). And lastly, being on a plane with 2 little ones is always daunting to me. But, I will be the first to say, I was pleasantly surprised. With some boundaries and keeping the kids top priority during the non wedding time we were able to really enjoy and relax.

Figured I’d share some pictures and some of the memories!

Miss Sanya turns FOUR

Posted on June 20, 2018 by Bhanu Misra Marya

I honestly can’t believe I am a mom to a 4 year old. It’s hard for me to believe this is my life. That said I am grateful my girls chose me and that I get to take this motherhood journey. I am learning everyday the type of mother/guide/coach/authority I want to be in my daughters life. I am learning from them, from educating myself and from my own past.

This past Sunday we did a joint 4th Birthday / Father’s day party. Having so much family in the city make every holiday messy and chaotic. And if I am being honest it’s always stressful. And because right now the adults out number the kids, the kids get shafted lol. I think if we had more littles to focus on the dynamic would be much more FUN!

With all that said I am pleased at how well the party turned out. Before we invited everyone, we confirmed with Miss S if she was OK to share her party with the dads as it was Father’s Day, and because she is incredibly understanding she said yes. We seamless integrated both events.

This year I kind of flaked on writing a birthday card for my eldest born (#momguilt in full effect). But I really hope she knows that I love her with all my heart. That even though I am not a perfect and self proclaimed bad mom that I am doing my best. I am so incredibly grateful for her independence, obedience and leadership in our family. She does try her best (even when it comes to eating foods she hates i.e. smoothies or scrambled eggs) and I do try my best to everything with love first. She’s so creative and she’s always ready to some crafty activity with her girl guide of a mom.

I pray that our relationship will grow and adapt as we both “grow up”. I will be her guiding light and voice of reason whenever she needs me. I always do my best to give her sage old advice vs what I think she should do. I promise to keep myself educated and aware so I don’t fall into typical traps as one does as a girl mom.

WildONE // 1st birthday party

Posted on March 24, 2018 by Bhanu Misra Marya

As you might now (or maybe you’ve been following along)…

Miss El turned ONE this month.

It took us a LONG time to figure out what kind of party to have for her in terms of theme and event. We went back and forth between a big hall party (typical desi style) and an intimate gathering at home. We finally went for the latter and I am so glad we did! As much as a I love the idea of a big event it was much more relaxing and engaging to do our own little thing :)

When the theme of a WILDONE popped up on one of my endless Google and Pinterest searches I was so obsessed! The words/phrase described Ellie to a T. With Miss S I had decided on a theme (Shabby-Chic) months in advance. I knew the colours for the party were pink, gold and off white. I knew the sweets I wanted to serve, the DIY burlap banners I was going to make and even the search for a perfect vendor cake started when she was 9 months old. I was a little late to DIYing for our little Lo, but I think the theme and the party came together perfectly in the end!

The colours were black, gold and green (with a little bit of pink thrown in for good measure). It was very easy to decorate the house: lots of toy animals and foliage!

For the banner:

Asked the Hubz to draw the word WILDONE in block letters
My father-in-law exactoknifed them out
I got some faux foliage (similar foliage) from Dollar Tree, cut off the leaves (in varying sizes) and hot glued them to the letters.
I felt that it was missing something so I added little white flowers (from the same said foliage) and then pops of dark or light green paint to add some more depth. I also used the left over branches on the ends.
Lastly I added the green daisies for a more feminine touch!

*This is something I saw online and then DIYed to make my one (here and here is some inspiration)

We knew that we HAD to do a cake smash (considering it didn’t really work at Miss S’s birthday). So I decorated her high chair with black and gold streamers (to match the invitation colours) and added a vine of flowers. To our sideboard we added a variety of stuffed animals and huge tropical leaves. It was a perfect set up for a WILDONE’s first sugar!

For the cake we wanted something cute and not the fondant cake that seems to be so popular these days. To be honest I am so confused by fondant! I grew up eating soft moist birthday cakes that have whip cream fillings (no custards, no butter cream and no fruit please and thanks!) and a plethora of whip cream slathered all over it! I know the more expensive cakes also have butter cream but because Miss S can’t eat that stuff (and I personally don’t like it) I was happy with whip cream :) I actually found this at Fortino’s. They do a variety of designs on cupcakes (with a count of 24 or 48) shaped into the number of your choice. I told them I wanted a nature scene (greenery and a water front) and then I added the toy animals myself!

Off the Shoulder Top | Mens Polo | Birthday Crown (ours is old, but this one is so cute!)

These cute dresses are from Marshalls (almost identical) but here is a similar option. This is our highchair and we LOVE it!

Whoa…that was picture heavy!

Outside of all this, we ordered/made Mediterranean food for lunch and had the cupcakes, fruit and ice cream for dessert. We also played 2 games. I know it’s very popular to post to social media your baby’s monthly pictures and even though I didn’t really do that I did send these update photos to my family. So one of our games was “Monthly mugshot match up” – and yep you had to guess which picture was taken in which month by solely looking at El’s face! It was surprisingly hard and everyone got majority of them wrong! The other game we played involved answering some trivia about El along with leaving her a sweet message. I kept all the trivia sheets (with the special messages) for her to read when she’s older :) I know kid’s birthday’s get a bad rep but gosh I love them!

Our Halloween 2017

Posted on November 7, 2017 by Bhanu Misra Marya

Given that we are already a week into November – I am totally over due for sharing our halloween shenanigans. There is waaayyy too much sass and last minuting in this house for a coordinated family costume idea but the fact that we ALL got into the spirit was good enough for me.

Both of my camera batteries were dead so I was only able to get a few quick shots of our costume’s with the Mister’s camera phone (which was incredibly fuzzy for some reason).

Fidget Spinner Pops Dr. Fairy Lil Kaduu & *Takes a deep breath* Daenerys Stormborn of the House Targaryen, First of Her Name, the Unburnt, Queen of the Andals and the First Men, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Breaker of Chains, The Mother of Dragons

I did however get some action shots of our pumpkin carving. It’s the hubz chance to get creative but this year we let Miss S choose the pumpkin face design.