Bunchland

Bunchland families could teach you a thing or two about having fun. You see, for them, hangtime is serious business. In Play List, we ask families about the top five awesomest things they have ever done together and get an amazing illustrator to draw them, and we get blown away every time.

Kagan McLeod is an insanely talented artist who has illustrated for Nintendo, Hasbro and Nickelodeon, among others. We love his drawings and were super excited to have him illustrate his own family’s Play List. We are also huge fans of his educational and stunning History of Rap poster, which you can totally win a signed print of if you become our 600th Facebook fan.

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Bunchland loves to hop on our imaginary jet plane and take imaginary trips to amazing places all over the world. Sometimes the families who live there even show us around. How cool is that?

Murray and Natalia went from bandmates in critically-acclaimed indie band The Dears to husband and wife in 2005. Now they live with their daughter, Neptune, in Park Extension, known to the locals as “Park X”, in Montreal.

What’s the most beautiful thing about living in your hometown?

After I had Neptune, I discovered Montreal’s green spaces, like Jarry Park.

What is your favourite local event/tradition?  Read more...

Bunchland likes to give props to families who love helping the planet and getting down and dirty with nature. The ones who really knock our organic, pesticide-free cotton socks off get our coveted Gosh Darn Green! Award.

Bridgitte and Allan sell beautiful green items through the company they co-own, Natural Pod. But they also know how to make turn someone else’s junk into something beautiful.

Hand-me-down bikes don’t always suit the kid they’re given to, and Bridgitte and Allan wanted their son Arc’s bike to be a perfect fit. So they built him one out of old bike parts, with a little help from the University of British Columbia’s Bike Kitchen. To find the parts they needed, they scoured garage sales and asked their friends and family to donate their unused bikes. The total cost? Twenty bucks, spent on parts they couldn’t locate from older bikes, such as new inner tubes.  Read more...

Squished between all the dentist appointments and teacher conferences on our calendars are those wonderful things called “holidays.” Or sometimes they’re called “birthdays” or even “parties.” For Bunchland families, there’s always a reason to celebrate.

We really think someone needs to make Anne’s family the subject of a reality show. They’re obsessed with wacky inter-family competitions, whether it’s a karaoke sing-off, ping-pong tournament or their Christmas Ugly Sweater Contest. Below, you can behold a slideshow of their annual Easter Egg Decorating Contest, which has been going on for five solid years now. These guys are stone-cold serious about this contest: the entire extended family participates, and sometimes friends get roped in as well. The judge is always someone from outside the family (one year it was the mayor!) and attempts to bribe the judge with wine and other goodies are commonplace. Anne does a great job of chronicling the insanity on her blog. We’re big fans of the Beatles eggs. Let us know your favourite in the comments!  Read more...

Every family does mealtime differently. All we know is food and family go together like PB and J. In Munchland, you show us how your family fills up their tummies.

The zany “Larseid” family (a mashup of the last names Larsen and Arbeid) are unabashed junk food lovers, so it’s fitting that their Munchland video would demonstrate how to make a supremely chocolatey, gooey treat inspired by a candy bar. The recipe comes from Bella and Charlie’s Aunt Patty a.k.a. Auntie Patty Cake, who is such a good baker everyone tells her she should open a store. The family also enjoys real, non-junk food, like pasta and chicken quesadillas. Their family mealtimes always involve candles and music. Everyone gets to take turns picking the dinner music, which means they listen to anything from Mozart to the Clash.  Read more...

Bunchland is kicking down your front door and invading your home sweet home. Well, after you’ve politely invited us in, served us tea and offered to show us your family’s treasures.

Kara Janx met her husband, Sharone, 12 years ago when she moved to New York from South Africa and he lived down the hall from her. They would occasionally bump into each other on the street randomly, which as any New Yorker will tell you is extremely rare. It was as if someone, wanting to thrust them together, had planned it out. Their Midtown West apartment is small, but it never feels cramped. The place’s feeling of openness and spaciousness can be credited to their big windows that offer enviable views of the city. And it’s also due to Kara’s penchant for organization, a trait that helped her out when she was a contestant on Project Runway, along with the ability to stay sane.  Read more...

Bunchland families could teach you a thing or two about having fun. You see, for them, hangtime is serious business. In Play List, we ask families about the top five awesomest things they have ever done together and get an amazing illustrator to draw them, and we get blown away every time.

Scott Schultz is probably one of the coolest people we’ve ever had the pleasure of interviewing, for a number of reasons. 1. He comes across as a super nice, genuinely friendly guy. We totally want to go for ice cream with him and his brood. 2. He’s a loving dad with three kids, a new baby daughter on the way and a dog who he says resembles either Toto or Benji. 3. He’s just, you know, only the co-creator of Yo Gabba Gabba, possibly the most mind-blowingly amazing kids’ show ever to grace our TV screens since the golden heyday of Sesame Street.  Read more...