Explore Our Side Dishes Archives

Anniversary Photo Album

September 27, 2024

To celebrate our ten year wedding anniversary, we treated ourselves to a summer vacation on Martha's Vineyard. However, I wanted to get another little something for Fatima. We have a big gallery wall and some photos around the house, but not many photo albums. I thought maybe I could design an anniversary photo album that captured the last ten years of our time together, our travels, and our kids. I…

September 27, 2024 By Brian

Product Review/ Side Dishes/ Wedding

Wedding Registry Ideas: Where Are They Now?

September 20, 2024

Oh the Wedding Registry. Over the last 10 years, things have changed. When we started the registry, we built it with practicality at the foundation. While we were building our registry at Macy's and Bed Bath and Beyond (RIP and hello again), we were encouraged to "throw everything we could scan on there". I went to locate our registries to remind myself what we selected, but they've been lost to…

September 20, 2024 By Brian

Side Dishes/ Wedding

Wedding Film Rolls

September 13, 2024

For the kids at our wedding, we put together these little fun bags. We included a scavenger hunt and a disposable camera. We thought it would give the kids fun thing to do and help us capture some moments during the reception. We never developed those film rolls until very recently.…

September 13, 2024 By Brian

Celebrations/ New England/ Travel/ Wedding

Martha’s Vineyard in October: Revisiting our Honeymoon

September 4, 2024

When we were planning our honeymoon, we were set on Cabo San Lucas. About two weeks before our wedding, hurricane Odile terrorized the Baja California Peninsula, with Cabo getting hit hard. It was the most violent hurricane in Cabo's history. We prayed for everyone's safety and the area's recovery. We put our Cabo plans on ice, and pivoted to Martha's Vineyard in October.…

September 4, 2024 By Brian

Celebrations/ Wedding

Revisiting our Wedding a Decade Later

August 16, 2024

In just six weeks, Fatima and I will be celebrating our 10th Wedding Anniversary! It is absolutely WILD to think we will be hitting this milestone. So much as happened in these last ten years, yet there’s so much more to do. One of the best things to happen since we’ve been married, has been starting our family. Fatima and I wanted to revisit our wedding: the good, the great,…

August 16, 2024 By Brian

Birthday/ DIY/ Family Fun/ Parenting/ Side Dishes

Blair’s Second Birthday: Disney Pixar Cars

January 24, 2024

Our youngest is now two years old and we are still recovering. We asked Blair how he wanted to celebrate his birthday, and he replied, “cars.” And that’s how we ended up with a 2 Fast 2 Furious Pixar Cars theme. Blair loves cars. Hot Wheels, Jeeps, Hess trucks, pretty much any vehicle. But above all else, he loves Pixar’s Cars. He loves the movies, he loves the merch, he…

January 24, 2024 By Brian

Celebrations/ New Year/ Side Dishes

2023 Round Up: Best of the Blog

January 8, 2024

Happy New Year! 2023 was filled with so many family adventures, milestones, and delicious food. 2024 will have a lot more of that, and we are looking forward to celebrating everything, including our youngest’s second birthday (his first). But first, here’s a round up of our top posts and videos in 2023. 2023 Round Up: Best of the Blog Favorite Glow Up Post We like to go back to our…

January 8, 2024 By Brian

Family Fun/ Parenting/ Side Dishes

Liam’s Christmas Train Time

December 21, 2023

We’re celebrating trains for the holidays! We’re giving you the gift of new videos on Liam’s Christmas Train Time. Check out our holiday playlist and our channel for more. From now until the New Year, we’re dropping new videos almost every day, including a few LIVE track builds! We’ve set all of our uploads to premieres, so you’ll know just when to tune in. https://youtu.be/y7LSuzJgEuk…

December 21, 2023 By Brian

DIY/ Family Fun/ Parenting/ Side Dishes

Christmas Crafts for Kids

December 8, 2023

It’s tiiiiiimmmeee! We are well into the Christmas season and I am here for all the holiday vibes. Like the elves in Santa’s workshop, we’re hard at work on Christmas crafts. When the weather outside gets frightful, stay inside and craft! These crafts are perfect for the whole family, even your younger kids. They can work on motor skills, exercise their creativity, and bring joy to others as these make…

December 8, 2023 By Brian

DIY/ Family Fun/ Parenting/ Side Dishes

December First Box

November 29, 2023

A December First is akin to an Easter or Boo basket. It’s another take on a Christmas Eve box. It’s a box of fun gifts for someone to enjoy ahead of Christmas. In our house, we love to do December First boxes to kick off the season. A December First box is exactly what it sounds like. One would receive this box of goodies on…December First! It’s like an advent…

November 29, 2023 By Brian

Birthday/ DIY/ Family Fun/ Parenting/ Side Dishes

Liam’s Subway Themed Birthday

November 25, 2023

We have a five year old. When Liam was born, I couldn’t imagine him at a year old, let alone five years old. It’s bonkers, but here we are. When talking to Liam about what he wanted to do for his birthday, the first thing that came to mind was the subway: he wanted a subway themed birthday. So how do we pull this off? He also wanted to go…

November 25, 2023 By Brian

DIY/ Side Dishes

Autumn Handprint Craft Two Ways! (aka handprint turkey)

November 15, 2023

What do I love more than a quick craft? A craft that uses all the same supplies I already have. And these next two crafts use the same exact supplies, but we reimagined our process to create two beautiful works of art. First, the handprint turkey. We have a lot of family, and this year, I am feeling more crafty. You get a handmade Halloween card, and you get a…

November 15, 2023 By Brian

DIY/ Family Fun/ Parenting/ Side Dishes

LEGO Binder

November 8, 2023

Where do you put all of those LEGO manuals? Sometimes your creations fall apart and you need to figure out how to put them back together. For the most part, I can do it from memory or figure out how it should go back together. However, sometimes, I need to check that manual. But where are all the manuals?! More often than not it’s in the trash or misplaced. Growing…

November 8, 2023 By Brian

DIY/ Family Fun/ Halloween/ Parenting/ Side Dishes

Super Mario Costumes: Halloween 2023

October 27, 2023

Another Halloween is upon us! When brainstorming for our Halloween costumes this year, Fatima and I looked to our kids. What did they do this year, what did they watch, what were they obsessed with? We had short list: Cars, Paw Patrol, Super Mario. Spoiler alert, we went with Super Mario costumes. Cars was easy to remove from the list. Too involved. We seriously considered Paw Patrol. We looked at…

October 27, 2023 By Brian

DIY/ Family Fun/ Parenting/ Side Dishes

DIY Paper Plate Spiders

October 26, 2023

Oh so spooky! I had two predictions for the Halloween and Christmas seasons: 1. Bats and Spiders would be trendy for Halloween and 2. Gingerbread would be trendy for Christmas. I see bat and spider decorations and pajamas everywhere! Even Dunkin Donuts made a blowup of their spider donut. Let’s see where Christmas takes us. I already see Pottery Barn’s collection filled with all things gingerbread. In an effort to…

October 26, 2023 By Brian

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