Daria’s Life

The first two days of school are now under my belt for this year and I’m doing a bit better. I know I was pretty weepy about my boys heading back to class (I just have so much fun with them when they’re around), but they are enjoying it thus far.

Joshua scored big time in the teacher department and ended up with Dylan’s old grade 2 teacher. She promptly came over and gushed about how he looked so much like Dylan (which Dylan was pretty pleased to hear - being memorable is always a bonus). Brigs was a bit more hesitant when he hit the classroom, his new teacher seems outstanding and I’m excited to see those two work together this year. I’m going to be volunteering in both classrooms whenever I can so I can participate in what they are up to. Maybe I’ll even learn a thing or two - you never know!

Dylan shot into High School on the grade 9 technicality. Grade 9’s are included in High School here, gulp! He’s off each morning on the bus before I’m out of bed, and has reported that he knows tons of kids on the bus to school from last year. Thank goodness he didn’t have my horrific High School experience of being the new kid and not knowing anyone at all on the first day. We moved during the summer before I started High School and it felt like a huge adjustment just getting to know the kids in the school never-mind find your class, enjoy your class and actually participate. Man I’m glad its them and not me, I don’t really miss high school at all (other than a few close friends I made there).

Noah is my little man at home this year, and I’m so grateful that he is! I couldn’t bear to have them all away all day long. He’s my little sunshine buddy and we have some fun stuff planned to do while the big boys are gone this year.

September is like spring cleaning all over again. I have been ruthless in cleaning and organizing clothing and toys, bedrooms and toybins. Lots more to do but it feels so freeing to rid our home of surplus that is broken or unused. The kids can again walk into their bedroom and pick out the exact toy they want to play with - it’s BRILLIANT!! LOL!! Much better than being impaled in the foot by a swarm of GI Joe’s and plastic swords. For all my griping about organizing, I really do love things in order. (shhhh don’t tell anyone that because I can’t handle the pressure!)

Anyway, that’s my scoop today. I’ve got loads on the go with Boutique Cafe as well, I could use a nap tonight before bed. Ciao readers and thanks for dropping by my crazy life.

This morning Dylan and I routed through his entire closet and drawers, in prep for him starting High School on Tuesday. I can’t believe we moved to a city where 9th graders go to High School, I’m soooo not ready for this!!

On the bright side we organized his clothing together and have a huge donations box of stuff he had outgrown. The kid is totally growing right now and it’s crazy to see how few pants he had that actually fit him (even though there were mounds of them in the closet, all too small!).

His closet is now fit for a king, he even has a “shirts I look hot in” section!! (but I named it that). I’ve purchased a few shirts for him for the new school year, but the boy is in serious need of some great jeans/socks and maybe a new hoodie. We still need to grab him a backpack and his school supplies, but it feels good to have his closet ready for him and fully stocked with clean apparel. BooYah! Super Mom is on it!

While I was in Calgary this weekend I was able to quickly wisk my way over to Sephora with my MIL. It’s such a fun and girly place to shop, and their products are out of this world awesome. I snagged some Dior mascara and have been using it since I got back. It’s the most amazing mascara I’ve ever used!!

Confession: I have puny, blonde eyelashes hence my lash envy with certain people who have killer lashes that I know. Surprisingly with the DiorShow mascara I can sweep them to new lengths and with no clumping. Definietly worth sharing because I’m not regretting this purchase at all, it’s all sunshine and lashes around here.

I was feeling sorry for myself today, my son Brigs is celebrating his 6th Birthday and it’s been emotional for me. I guess it’s just because he still feels so little to me, and the number SIX just blares out how truly grownup my kids are getting!

In the midst of my mid-morning Mommy Grief, I opened the mail to find this deliriously beautiful card with “I LOVE YOU” on the front. Only to discover that my dear friend Patty has sent me the sweetest note inside one of the cards she designed!!

There’s something so special about having someone take the time to handwrite you a thank you card (something I fall short on often). As I opened it and read her words I felt so happy. Thrilled that she thought of me, but even more that she saw so much positive attention and traffic from the surprise feature I did on her new line of greeting cards called ModGreetings. It’s so rewarding to know that the small things I do on BC can have a big impact for the ladies in our community that I adore. I just want to sing about you talented gals from the rooftops and thankfully a few people enjoy listening in and subscribing to my joyous tune!

Thank you Patty for being a darling and wonderful friend to me, your thoughtfulness touched my heart today. I might even allow Brigs to turn SEVEN next year because I have such a great support system of friends.

*now everyone go buy some of Patty’s greeting cards - they change people’s lives! Daria

As I said to Nathan after trekking through the entire Living Desert Zoo, its more like Desert of the Living Dead because man was it scorching hot! I have never experienced such blistering temperatures, luckily we toted water everywhere we went and plied ourselves with sun-block! (yes we’re the wimpy Canadian tourists). By the end of our excursion I was certain that I had heat stroke, I felt so gross!






Aside from heat exhaustion we totally loved checking out The Living Desert exhibit. The animals were cool, they had a petting zoo with little goats, a village with native drums and a shop with mediocre slushies (they can’t touch our Canadian Slurpees in the US, I’m sorry but slushes in the US are weak and way to air filled) . The zoo was really well done. The baby giraffe was the ultimate favorite among us all.

Hang in there with me people - I’m nearing our Disneyland pics I promise!! - Daria

OK so I slacked off yesterday and didn’t continue with the run down, that’s only because I feel soooo run down!



Easing into vacation life was pretty easy for us, we stayed at the gorgeous Club Intrawest Resort in Palm Desert and had a two bedroom lock-out type of room. It was nice for us because the kids were on one side and we were on the other. We just had the doors open between our suites most of the time. Each room has a kitchenette, we found this IDEAL for our situation with four kids and needing frequent meals. We decided that we would eat breakfast and lunch each day in our kitchen, and then take the kids out to dinner each night. They loved going out to dinner and so did we!


Noah our youngest has had a track record for being pretty scared of the water. When we first arrived our room wasn’t quite ready so they suggested we take a dip in the pool. When I walked out onto the pool deck I fell in love, Palm Trees swaying in the blistering hot breeze, a gorgeous pool, mist spraying from areas around it. Dylan, Joshy and Brigs all jumped in and were having a blast, but Noah started freaking out. I knew we had days of scorching heat ahead of us so I persevered with him in the water and within a few minutes he had calmed down and was splashing too. In about thirty minutes he was fully prepared to be carried around the pool by someone other than me. And then Dylan was able to get him into a floating tube and kick around on his own!!

Now onto the BIG news of the trip. I relaxed enough to wear my hair curly the entire time! This doesn’t happen very often, I usually straighten it. There was no way I was going to spend 2 hours a day straightening my hair on vacation!! Thanks to some sweet remarks from my darling hubby I decided I had to let it go and just have a blast.

Dylan and Joshy were quite the pair, they had frequent “holding our breath under water” contests. As I look through our pics I’m shocked to see that I have none of Nathan playing in the pool!! Sorry honey, it sucks when you’re the only one taking pictures!

We have arrived back to our home from our 10 day vacation extravaganza in Palm Desert California, and a three day blissful time in Anaheim at Disneyland. This has been our first major family vacation ever, and by that I mean that typically for holidays we pack up the family and drive to visit our parents and family. So going away to some new land “just us” felt perfectly decadent and thrilling to us.

I had no gage at all as to how the kids would travel on a plane, handle all the waiting in lines at Disney, brave the 100+ weather, airports at 5 in the morning, and enjoy each other 24/7….I just didn’t know what to expect. I must say that I have been pleasantly surprised by my sweet children who did so very well with the heat, upheaval, and change and were able to sink into vacation mode along with us without many issues at all. They LOVED it, and I found my love for them expanding throughout our experiences together. You just can’t beat the wonder in your child’s eyes when they discover sometime new, its precious. I feel so very blessed that we were able to go all together and share in many memories. That’s what it’s all about to me, giving my children great experiences together because I saw so much interest, excitement and hilarity in them experiencing new things they’d never done before.

While on our vacation, Nathan and I also celebrated our 8th Anniversary on Aug. 12th! I must say that I feel so lucky to have Nathan as my companion, he is my rock and my supporter in everything I do. I just love him so deeply and love him far more 8 years later, even though I have discovered a few minor flaws over the years! LOL! He’s my prince and my dream guy all rolled up into the most gorgeous guy I have ever seen. Thank you Honey for the best 8 years so far of my life - as we have always said “The honeymoon never ends, now we just take more little people along with us!” I love reflecting back on our wedding day and get butterflies at all we felt then, and all we have gone through together since. (this pic was taken at Newport Beach, see what I mean?? HOT!!)

I’m just going through our holiday pics right now and will be sharing shortly. For now, it’s nice to be home and I appreciate that the weather is almost comparable in temperature to what we’ve been dealing with in the desert! Nice not to have a shock to the system with snow or something crazy.

Our dreams are coming true, Boutique Cafe is heading to California!! We’re going to be taping a Video podcast for Boutique Cafe at Disneyland next week!

I’ll be at the park next Tues, Wed, Thursday. If you’re going to be there with your kids, dress them in Boutique, we’ll be watching for you - I’d love to get them into the segment! If you’re a designer this would be a great way to showcase your designs in the happiest place on earth!

We hope to meet several of our Boutique Moms there, and your Disney-kids too!! If you’re going to be in the area, please leave me a comment below and I’ll email you my cell number so we can hook up at the Disneyland park.

See you there! - Daria

***Shhh!!! Don’t tell my kids, they don’t know we’re going there yet!! hee hee

Last night I was honored to tag along to Nathan’s big Staff Appreciation dinner at The Keg. He took his three wonder-assistants and myself out for a spectacular dinner. I must say that I was so throughly impressed with Nathan as he shared with each of them what he felt their individual strengths were, and how much he enjoyed having them on his team! It was so lovely for me to see my husband in this situation and how eloquently he thanked them each for their hard work. I know that they couldn’t help but feel his sincerity, and who wouldn’t want to bust their butt to work for someone who actually appreciates them??!

Nathan loves his profession and I constantly discover him talking in his sleep about dental procedures! I’m thrilled that he can be passionate about his career and find so much fulfillment in what he does daily to provide for our family. He is my hero!

I’ve been bitten by the bug to get my entire kitchen cleaned and organized again. Last night I did floors, counters, and cleaned out the fridge and all the refrigerator shelves. Today I’ve been working on organizing the massive pile of junk that I had piled on top of my fridge and giving everything a home. I also cleaned out my spice cupboard and threw out old spices that had been kicking around for a long long time. It’s starting to come together but I still have a long way to go…pantry, dish cupboards, cook books etc. But I must admit that it feels really good to be getting somewhere and might actually inspire me to use my kitchen to create a culinary masterpiece…or at least some chocolate chip cookies for my kids!

What I’d really love to own is a Kitchen Aid Mixer, that’s been on my list of desires for about 8 years now. I have complete jealousy over Katie and Mom owning them now, but perhaps it’s a good thing I haven’t got mine yet because I just can’t decide what color I want. (Red, White, Black, Silver - uggh!! so many mixers so little time)!

And on another yummy note:
some good friends of mine have put together an awesome thing called Cook it Blog it. It’s a group that makes up delicious dishes, baking etc. and takes pics of their yummies, then blogs about it. Joining in is easy and you get your blog listed in their blogroll when you participate. I can think of several people I know and love that would be awesome additions to this fun club. Go for it!!