January is Artichoke and Asparagus Month!

January.  Oh January.  

This month always seems so long but it's almost over now!

We actually did a lot of fun things lately.  It all began with Ryan going to the dentist!  Yay!

He and I also saw a fun comedy show by Demetri Martin at the Winspear Centre.  It was very fun.

Here's a clip of another show by him:  (the visual quality isn't great, but you get the idea)

Demetri clip

We danced the night away at a family dance that Rob's band played at.  

It was a lot of fun and they did very well.

Although exhausted, Madeline managed to make it to the very end of the dance.

A very rare, almost unheard of, photo of Ryan and I dancing.

You can check out my brother's band here:

Pants and Animals Facebook

Or here:

Pants and Animals Youtube

This video of Claire and Madeline just makes my day.  

The fun one can have with bubble wrap, indeed.

 The Patterson gang got together for a fun night at an Oil Kings game.  Here are a few pictures that represent the debut of "THE NEW CAMERA."  The Oil Kings won, we ate some yummy treats, had fun cheering and it was a lovely night for all.

 When one has such a prolific artist in the family (Madeline), one often wonders what one should do with all of the excessively creative and excessively large works of art that are churned out on a daily basis.  Our new technique is to display some, but preserve most via our digital camera.  

Some daily faces:

 Claire has a special, cozy bathtub chair.  

As you can see, she'll often get a little too comfortable while bathing.

 Claire's grade 1 teacher features a Star Student each week.  This student gets to be first in line for everything, can bring in special toys to share with the class and other privileges.  They're also featured on a special wall in the classroom and last week it was Claire's turn.  

Here is the wall of fame, including her interview questions.  

Each child in the class will write her a special letter to keep in a memory book.

 She also got to wear the special Star Student vest all week!  (It took quite a beating, as you can see)

 While Claire is busy learning and growing at school, Madeline and I have to keep ourselves busy.  So...

we catch butterflies

 we build forts

we make obstacle courses

and we construct beautiful play dough delicacies.

 Ryan discovered a bag of marbles while cleaning out some old memory items.  He introduced the girls to the wonderful world of steelies, cat eyes and rootbeers and it was a lot of fun.

 I was the parent helper on a day when Madeline and her class explored the music room, so I was able to sneak this photo of her having fun.

Aside from the activities that have pictures to go along with them, we've had other things on the go.  Over the holidays we saw The Muppet Movie with Val and Justin and celebrated Noah and Greg's birthdays with a party at their place.  Ryan took his track team to a meet and they did very well.  Madeline and I had a fun visit with Kathy and Christopher.  I'm back in the swing of things for committee meetings.  Ryan took Claire to a nutrition appointment at the Stollery and things are going well.  Claire also invited Madeline and I to attend her special pizza lunch day at school.  The girls started a special yoga class called Yogabees, put on by the CPAA and our first class last week was very enjoyable.  Madeline continues to do well in gymnastics but we'll take a short break while we're in yoga and ballet, which started this weekend.

We're looking ahead to many more busy days to come!

A quick picture blog

Because I'm so far behind, I keep putting off doing this entry. So I'm going to do a lightning picture round to catch up!

A rare, rare napping moment. I had to get pictorial evidence.

Claire's been doing really well at riding again.

Luckily it's been nice enough to ride outside lately - she enjoys that so much more!

Since Ryan and I have both been working on the computers in the basement during the evenings lately, Madeline's learned that she can sneak around upstairs without us hearing. We've found her tucked into our bed a few times when we come up. :)

Here's Claire and her class performing for an assembly at school. :)

I was very spoiled for Mother's Day.

I attended a special "Muffins with Mom" day at preschool. The kids made juice and muffins and served them to us. Then they sang some very cute songs and presented us with a gift - a hand-painted picture frame with a family photo! Claire also made me a beautiful flower present at school.

Oh Mother's Day proper, I awoke to a delicious French toast breakfast. I got a new yoga mat complete with a carrier, my favourite Satsuma body butter and tickets to Wicked! We got to spend time with our mothers/grandmas in Wetaskiwin as well. It was a very good day.

Grandpa Layton has the same special touch with Claire as Ryan.

The moment they cuddle, both fall asleep. :)

:)

Ryan and his mom. :)

Me and my crazy chicklets.

Ryan got his bike all fixed up and washed, even donning a new jacket to make early morning rides a warm possibility. Then his bike was vandalized while he was at work! Someone tried to cut through the clutch cable, apparently for kicks? Luckily he's become somewhat of a guru and repaired it himself. :)

He's training the new generation of bikers. :)

She LOVED this!

Some big news - we finally got Claire's wheelchair lift installed! After Trevor helped us build a deck last year, and Uncle Travis did all the electrical work, and we waited 8 months for funding, it's done! What a help and what a relief! We call it Claire's Elevator. :)

The empty spot.

The inaugural ride!

We're on the cusp of an awesome long, long weekend, so I will be more diligent in posting something about that right away!

Arrested Development

I couldn't think of a title. I'm downstairs working on this blog entry, watching Arrested Development on....

...our "new-to-us" TV! This is what we'd envisioned for the basement and as fortune would have it, a friend was upgrading to a bigger (yes bigger!) tv and gave us a great deal. Movie night at our house!

In other news....Madeline got her first "salon" haircut at Auntie Natalie's!

She also attended a birthday party for a friend at West Ed. I couldn't catch her still for one moment, hence the blurred photo.

She also had a preschool field trip to the Muttart Conservatory. They learned about ladybugs and visited all the pyramids before planting their own flower to take home.

Claire and I tagged along and had fun exploring the different landscapes.

Claire's also been busy with Little Bits horse riding and kindergarten. Her birthday party has been the talk of her class for an entire week. :)

Ryan's taken up early morning swimming to keep in shape - if anyone wants to tag along, he's looking for company! He's also put his motorcycle back together and went out for his first ride today. It's officially Spring!

We had a wonderful Easter long, long weekend. Good Friday was spent with the Laytons at Nelda's school gym. We played variations of hockey, lacrosse, volleyball, bowling, badminton, soccer and basketball and had a great time. We had so much fun that we all forgot to take pictures! However, I was reminded how sporadic I am at sports. I'm either really good or really awful and there's no predicting the outcome from one shot to the next. It's so exciting. We also had a lovely turkey dinner and celebrated Jim's birthday with the traditional ice cream cake.

Sunday was the Easter celebration at my Aunt Sheila's. We were all surprised at how warm it was. Most of us had left the house without any thought to sunscreen or hats and then found ourselves in need of them once we settled down in the back yard.

Madeline is such a little dare devil. She hopped on top of the car as Luke was barrelling down the hill and they ran into the snowbank at the bottom.

We were lucky to have Olivia, Rob and Cairo come with us to share the day.

Claire and I on the hunt for some eggs. I actually found the coveted Golden Egg that came with a grand prize! Madeline took all the credit though.

Hanging out with the horses.

A child's paradise.

Claire's fancy new glasses.

The Easter Bunny came early Monday morning. He must have known that we'd overdone it with the sweets already, since he only brought dresses, socks and toys.

I'm sure Claire is thinking, "Seriously? These ears? Every year you take of picture of me wearing these. It's getting old."

I'm always thrown off by a holiday Monday. I'll wake up tomorrow and it will feel like Monday, but be Tuesday and I'll be behind a day all week. It's a small price to pay for a day off, but it's still a rather strange feeling. I hope everyone had a lovely Easter break!