Life Musings

Summer is slowly wrapping up and I feel like this is the best time for me to recap how my summer 2019 went.

To be honest, this summer has to be my best summer so far since I left Nigeria. I went all the way out and I totally had fun. Below are my top 5 highlights of my summer 2019 and some of the activities/events we attended as a family. To start with, June weather in Calgary wasn't as sunny as I expected (In comparison to Sweden weather) but July and August weather were so good (I mean we had some 25 degrees and even went up to 30 degrees maybe once or twice). Well this is not a comparison post,. So, let's get right into it:

We started off our summer with

1. Canada Day - This event happened on the 1st of July and I wrote an article about it here. It was our first Canada day for us here in Calgary and we definitely had fun that day eating, dancing and taking pictures (lol).

2. After the Canada Day, came the popular Stampede event. Stampede is one of the oldest and most popular events that happens in Calgary yearly. You can read more about the event here and what it entails. Myself and my family joined in the event this year and we also wore the 'cow boy' costume which is basically the theme/costume for the yearly event. I got the "super pass" ticket which allows us to go in anytime of the day (excluding food, rides and rodeo). In order to participate in the fun rides, we had to buy coupons. We did a couple of rides with some of our friends. There was also a BMO kids' day which myself and Teni went for on a different day. She was able to see a lot of kids, watch some stage performances and lest I forget, there was free breakfast (pancakes and orange juice). Generally, I had fun attending Stampede 2019. I am not so sure if we will be going every year but this first one was worth all the money spent.

3. Grilling/Meet Up with Friends - What is life without friends? In Sweden, during the summer, grilling and meet ups was a thing for me and my family. We would meet up with our Zambian friends a couple of times and play scrabble. We also had a couple of Naija (Nigerian Association) meet ups before we left which was always nice. This summer wasn't an exemption as we did a couple of meet ups with friends. The first was a grilling/chill day at bowness park while the second one was a potluck at a friend's place. This basically for me enhances bonding and since our lives are so busy here. The few times we have together with friends are always memorable for me

Barbecue Grill at a friend's place

4. Teni's Brithday - Of course what is summer without my summer baby's birthday. My Teni darling #SharkTwoTwoTwo. My baby had her birthday on the 25th of July and it was a beautiful and memorable day for me as a Mum. I took the rest of that week off, from a day before her birthday. We all had a good time singing and celebrating our 'not so little' baby girl. I ordered a cake and packed some party parks for her to celebrate with her friends in school. We also had a mini photoshoot for her at the park. Alhough she wasn't really interested in the "picture thing" and we had to do a bit of running arounds (thanks to toddler life, lol), but we tried our best to get one good shot for her (All you just need is that one good one, and you are good, trust me....lolllz)  which I absolutely loved. I also ordered some Nigerian jollof rice from a caterer just for us to have a party feel at home (hahhhahaha, what is a party without Nigerian jollof rice😜). Btw, I wrote a short poem to celebrate her birthday & also shared her birthday shoot picture(s) aka that one picture in this article. Check it out here

5. 5th Year Anniversary Getaway- Finally to wrap the summer up, guess what? our marriage made it to the 5th year. What a beautiful and memorable journey I must say. Definitely not a walk in the park nor perfect but we have learnt to manage our indifferences well and joke as much as we can. One thing I know for sure that has helped us is laughing a lot. We joke and have a LOT of inhouse slangs. We also make sure to have a family time at least once in a week. Finally we always work as a team to achieve everything we want to do. Remember, team work makes the dream work. I am definitely proud of our journey and love the way we have grown over these passing years and we are still growing for sure #ForeverAWorkInProgress. To celebrate this milestone, we had a mini photo shoot which I enlarged as a family portrait frame beneath our wedding photo frame#Aww. And yes, we had a weekend getaway to Edmonton. We spent two nights exploring the city. We visited the popular West Edmonton Mall (WEM) and generally just had fun by resting from the hustle and bustle and reminiscing on our journey so far while hoping for better years ahead.

Well, this is just a short recap of my top 5 highlights for this summer. Like I said before, this has been my best summer so far. I wouldn't change anything about it. Of course, all these events were not free nor cheap. But as always, I ALWAYS plan everything ahead. What if I tell you I had mapped out everything in my head at the beginning of this  year? Oh yeah, that is how early I plan my summer, trips or vacations. you don't want to be stressed, broke or burnt out all in the name of summer. If you are looking for a clue on having a stress-free summer, my advice will definitely be to PLAN AHEAD. I am definitely looking forward to recreating more beautiful summers with my family in the coming years but for now, 2019 summer stays the best💃🏽

I will be concluding this article today by saying thank you as always for stopping by in my little corner and I hope to see you again...💋