Sean Connery: What is Febtober?
(Courtesy of SNL Celebrity Jeopardy of which I cannot find a suitable clip to post here. You'll either get it and a half smile will form on your face or you won't and you'll be slightly confused. Either way, I have just caused an emotion in your life. Cherish it!)
Yes, this post is about February. Apparently I'm doing entire months in a single bound these days. Let's see if we can catch up!
On February 1st we had a little milestone in our family. Our 9th wedding anniversary! We spent a quiet evening at home and celebrated by going out for a wonderful date on the weekend. I can safely say that I lucked out in finding such a great guy. He works so hard for our family. He loves me despite my many inherent flaws. He supports me and the kids in all our endeavours. I can count on him for everything and I love him with all my heart.
We have a lot of dance parties in our house. Ryan's got the best moves - as evidenced by his impressive high scores on Dance Central!
It's fun to get Claire out of her chair and realize how tall she really is.
Where did she learn this one?!
The piano is a much loved tool in our household.
Madeline has taken to writing compositions and getting Claire to accompany her.
I love the sweet music that Claire makes, even if others might consider it...a raucous 20th century-type compositional style. :)
I liked this picture of Madeline - caught in mid-thought.
Just when we had foolishly convinced ourselves that Spring was on the way...
we finally got to use the snowblower again!
Why didn't we buy one of these years ago? It's perfect because Ryan can do up and down the whole street to pave a path to get Claire to school.
A winter wonderland?
A certain someone is ALWAYS excited about more snow.
Ryan bought the girls a cool light thingie (yes, the technical term) that creates a strobe light/disco ball effect in a room.
We use it often now to get the perfect atmosphere in our living room for dance nights.
Oh, that hair.
Claire likes to grab it!
Our little technophile. She loves watching Netflix on the iPad.
Claire's school had a "Pink Shirt Day" to raise awareness about the anti-bully campaign. Her class performed two happy songs for the assembly and they were also featured in a very cute slideshow illustrating ways for kids to encourage and build up their friends. Claire played the maracas. :)
Apparently this is how I fell asleep on the couch one day. I think I was attempting to hide. Notice the decorative flower in my hair.
Madeline ended her stint in gymnastics. I think we'll have her take classes again after ballet and yoga are done. She had a great time and is completely fearless.
Claire and some of her best friends on Pajama Day at school.
I was rather impressed at Madeline's sleeping technique in the van.
We had an extremely fancy Valentine's Day dinner. If Madeline had her way, we'd make a fuss like this over every meal, but we convinced her that specialness is diluted by frequency...or something like that.
The girls have started ballet again. They're working on a dance to Swan Lake. I can't wait for their performance!
A big project I worked on for February was a Magic Night Fundraiser for Claire's school. We were able to get donations to cover the magician's fee and for ice cream treats. All the admission profit is going towards subsidizing a Red Cross babysitting course for the grade six students in the school. The event was a great success! Madeline and I both got called up on the stage to be volunteers. She was a very brave helper and got lots of laughs from her performance
The girls and I were able to attend two very fancy and cultural events one weekend. First we were given tickets to the Cinderella ballet at the Jubilee. We took the LRT to avoid parking hassles and because....the train is fun!
In the picture below you can see Claire making her characteristic "Buh" sounds. I think she was enjoying the performance so much, she couldn't contain her happy expressions. Unfortunately, that meant that we felt a bit uncomfortable in the EXTREME silence of the auditorium, aside from the quiet orchestra. But we did discover something neat about the Jubilee. The usher told us there was a "SITUATION ROOM" on the main floor that was a soundproof space where we could watch the performance. At first I railed a bit against this, trying to maintain that we had just as much right to be watching from our assigned seats with our group of friends, as anyone else, but as Claire became louder, I knew we had to try something to allow others to enjoy the performance as well. It turned out to be a good thing in the end. The room (although scarily named) was very lovely and much closer than our original seats anyway. We could talk and laugh and adjust the volume of the orchestra through the little sound system.
The next day we went to hear the Edmonton Symphony play songs from Disney movies (a great Christmas present from Aunties Olivia and Natalie!). I was a bit worried after our somewhat stressful experience at the ballet, but this turned out to be a wonderful experience where Claire's appreciative outbursts were not a cause for alarm.
Grandma Patterson got to come with us because Ryan had to work that day. It was lots of fun and everyone enjoyed themselves.
We were surprised to see some familiar faces there and Madeline was beside herself with joy because they gave her autographs as well! We really do need to go to Disneyland one of these days...
My best little helper has been obsessed with doing dishes lately. She begs me to let her do them and I grudgingly agree. ;) She actually does a pretty good job!
We also had a really relaxing Family Day in Wetaskiwin enjoying the hot tub and the company of our family. What better way to spend it?
In other news, for the sake of preserving memories:
Ryan:
Attended Teacher's Conference with his partner in crime, Jason and they were very well educated.
Donned his persona as DJ Samurai to run his school's latest dance.
Took some additional training through Apple and is now shadowing the technicians to quite possibly become one of them someday.
Jacky:
Had a lovely girls' night out with Kathy in which absolutely no errant calories were consumed. That's their story and they're sticking to it.
Helped run an open house and registration night for the preschool. Her last one!
Had her first colonoscopy. The after effects of the drugs were strangely...amnesia-inducing.
Got back into the swing of things with preschool meetings, parent council meetings, fundraising society meetings and park redevelopment committee meetings. Ugh.
Claire:
Had a fun Valentine's day party at school.
Finally got her new tilt wheelchair frame that glides gracefully and is still her signature pink colour.
Claire lets her whole family attend Yogabees with her, a yoga class through the Cerebral Palsy Association of Alberta. Lots of fun!
Had many visits from PT/OT/Vision Consultants/SLP at school. They're all very impressed with her improvement and level of engagement, which is always encouraging!
Madeline:
Had an "Around the World" day at school where she took her outfit from Nepal (from Auntie Val), a doll from Cuba (from Auntie Natalie) and some of Ryan's treasures from France and Korea to share with her class.
Can now write all her classmates' names after making her very own Valentines!
Participated in a winter nature walk at school.
Had her very first girls sleepover with Auntie Stephanie and Auntie Natalie. They did makeovers, watched movies, ate yummy food and stayed up late.
Had ponytails all over her head for "Crazy Hair Day" at school.
Visited with Great Grandma Janet and had a fun tea party at her place.
