Happy Survival

We had a fun long weekend. The day was lazy and great, then we had family over for a BBQ.

Claire and I on the swing.


Rob trying out his new skid gloves on our neighbour's driveway.


We set up our ping pong table in the back yard because we're like that. And it was fun.


Grandma and the girls.


Ryan and Claire, tired after a fun day.




This week Claire lost her first tooth, and promptly swallowed it. We should have just yanked it out but she is a very difficult customer when it comes to dental care. Just ask my dad. She bites. She got a nice little card from the Tooth Fairy, who apparently has a great tolerance for swallowed teeth and prize giving.


Here's Madeline on her first day of preschool! She'd been to the class many times last year with Claire so it wasn't a surprise that she felt comfortable there. I had to remind her to say goodbye to me when the other children were still clinging to their parents. I'm glad for her. She's so excited and completely ready for this type of experience.


We had a fun visit with Cairo, Olivia and Rob's little guy. We had a whole afternoon with him and got to know him better. Here are Maddie and Cairo playing footsies and giggling.


He's got some sweet dance moves. What a cutie!


I just had to put this picture up. It's a good thing she has long hair to cover those ears. :)



We had our good friends, The Thompsons, over this weekend. They made a quick trip down just in time for Liam to arrive so we had a good sleepover with their boys and a brief visit with their family. It was nice to finally meet him!

Madeline holding Liam. She was thrilled! He's such a sweetheart.


We spent some time this weekend doing landscaping! Now I know what Ryan goes through everyday in the summers. Shoveling rock and digging up sod is hard!

Here's the site of our future deck. Ryan cut all the sod out and we hauled it away. We also ripped out the "grass" behind the garage and put rock back there. I'm really excited for it all to be finished!


Madeline can't wait for the deck to be done either.



Madeline loves to do photo shoots. This is one in a series of "Kung Fu Madeline."


Parenting issue of the day - I know the idea of equal attention and opportunity for your kids is always a juggling act, but I wonder if I stress about it too much. I even worry about the ratio of Claire/Madeline pictures in my blog posts. It might be an attempt at EXTREME inclusion for Claire, to make sure that she does everything that Madeline does as far as it is possible.

I do realize that children can be extremely different from one another. I suppose I find it more difficult because Claire can't voice her opinions in a typical way and so I'm always speaking for her and making decisions for her when it comes to things we do together. I know in some families that each plate has to have the same number of peas on it or the kids complain. I know that Claire doesn't care, but for some reason, I feel like her plate has to have as many as the other kids! I feel so protective of her, so it's definitely a tricky balance to maintain.

This will be our first full week of school for Ryan, kindergarten for Claire, preschool for Madeline and horseback riding and trying to finish our deck, etc. etc. I hope we all survive and are happy about it (SEE TITLE).

Tick tick boom

So, I was going to have Ryan write this, since he's the big Boom fan, but I would hate to break my streak of writing every single entry. :) Remember kids - red words are links and pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Sonic Boom

Apparently almost 15000 people were there. That's a lot of damage done to those porta-potties.

Up at the front, waiting for it to start.


Here's the set list and my summation remarks:

11:25am to 11:50am KO - druggie. Smoked a blunt on stage while lamenting the drug problems of others in his songs. Inspiring. Or not.

12:05pm to 12:45pm The Dirty Heads - very Californian, very white boys reggae rapping type of deal, but strangely enjoyable. They had a good stage presence.



1:00pm to 1:40pm The Arkells - Wow! My favourite, after Weezer. Quirky, fun, awesome songs. Very engaging. Max got the whole crowd doing singing contests and snapping games.


Pulling Punches - great song

1:55pm to 2:35pm Mother, Mother - fun, but not as enthusiastic as we expected. Their songs are so good though.


Wrecking Ball - good song

2:50pm to 3:40pm Tokyo Police Club - good, it was fun to watch Graham do 50 things at once. Look at me, calling him Graham like we're best friends. Oh we are now.


Nature of the Experiment - good song

3:55pm to 4:45pm Wintersleep - kind of sleepy. Maybe it was the rain, maybe it was because we were sitting on bumpy concrete eating cheese buns.



5:00pm to 6:00pm Bad Religion - all their songs sounded the same after awhile and Rob almost got crushed to death in the mega mosh pit. Thankfully Ryan and I were safely in the wuss zone. Congratulations on punking out for 30 years though. Ryan realized that all the shirts proclaiming 1980-2010 looked familiar. Yeah, he's almost 30.

6:15pm to 7:15 City & Colour - very mellow. Seemingly out of place after the punk thrashing we had previously. My opinion fluctuated between appreciating the tenor of his voice and guitar skills and being really bored.

Sleeping Sickness - my favourite song of his

7:40pm to 8:55pm Weezer - Awesome. Basically the reason I went. Rivers Cuomo is very good at climbing on things and jumping on a trampoline while playing the guitar. Who knew? They played so many old songs and it was fun to sing along.







The Weezer boys, Kyle and Rob.


9:20pm to 10:35pm Rise Against - We were all very confused as to why the evening didn't end with Weezer. It would have been such a great parting note. We actually skipped out after 2.5 songs and got some free Dr. Pepper on the way out. Well, not me. There are 22 superfluous flavours in there for my taste.

Yoda backpack! It had to be documented. His girlfriend thought it was a bit weird that we were taking pictures of it.


On the way out, Rise Against on the stage.



Mosh pits = not my cup of tea. Reasons for this:
1. Unanticipated sideways crowd surges.
2. Foot stomps.
3. People who are too big to be crowd surfing.
3.a. Bums in my face.
3.b. Shoes in my face.
4. Rabid, chemically influenced teenagers.
5. B.O.
6. Rude people pushing through the crowd.

Hey Green Man! Thanks for wearing boxers. I think they were sewn on.


But oh, it's so fun to be at the very front! I only lasted about 3.5 hours up there before I had to drag Ryan to the outlying areas.

Rob stayed up front the whole time, even through Bad Religion, which was loud enough from half a kilometre away. What a trooper, even though he now has bruised armpits from being pushed up against the barrier. Kyle got paid $20 by some couple to give up his spot. Hilarious.



Remember the feeling of knowing that you're yelling, but you can't hear any sound? That's how loud it was the whole time. At one point Ryan was screaming in my ear but I couldn't hear him. Our ears were definitely ringing when we got home and it took a conscious effort to speak at a normal level... :)

We're already excited, wondering about who will be on the list for next year. Perhaps I will be brave enough to go crowd surfing? Yeah, probably not.

Fall is in the air. Also dust.

To begin, a hilarious photo.

Madeline's typical get-up. What a fun kid!


It's amazing how much can happen in just a few weeks.

We've said goodbye to summer and with it, Lisa. We shall miss her! Luckily we got to go swimming one last time, even though I did forget to wear my contacts and had to swim with glasses on. I don't recommend it, although I saw at least 2 other people wearing them in the pool so I wasn't alone.

We had the Thompsons over for a great visit. It's always such a treat to have friends stay over and Madeline asked about their anticipated arrival multiple times every day for about a week before. Next time I won't tell her they're coming until 2.5 days before they get here.

Madeline and Brigham. I have envisioned two options for their collective futures. 1. They get married. and/or 2. They take over the world together with a league of evil henchmen.


I had to put this picture up because it's freaking hilarious. Ryan's two favourite things. Technology and steak. iPad and BBQing some man meat. The steaks were deliciously provided by the Thompsons and were enjoyed by all. Well....all the parents.


I love this picture of all the kids having fun on the swing set. I plan on making them all pose for the exact same photograph in 15 years. I promise to post it as well.


Jason giving Ben a vigorous ride on the swirling circle of death at the park.


Claire and I navigating the wood chips. Surprisingly wood chips are one of the best park fillers to drive a wheelchair over.



We had a lovely evening at the Olive Garden with the fam and Brandon's parents after Steph went through the temple for the first time. We took the bike for our trip and it was lots of fun.

I've been busy with Malmo Parents Association stuff. It's been incredibly busy and the year hasn't officially started yet. I hope that things will calm down as we get into the schedule. We've managed to hire a TA with one week's notice and our Annual General meeting went off without a hitch, although I was hoping someone else would volunteer to be the president so I could graciously step down and do a dance of joy. Alas, it did not happen.

We saw Scott Pilgrim and Inception. Well, Ryan saw Scott Pilgrim three times. Once with Rob. Once with Jason. Once with me. I think it still wasn't enough for him.

Ryan took a lovely trip to the dump! I know you're excited to read this, but it was a very cathartic experience for us. We got rid of a bunch of weeds/trees that were growing beside the garage. It had to be documented because it looks so nice out there now.

Madeline had a fun playdate with Abby and luckily it was a beautiful, warm day so we even broke out the sprinkler again and had a lovely outdoor tea party as well.

Ryan's been having fun with Young Men's activities, including a boating extravaganza and a game of Running Scared (kind of like Fugitive).

Then there was the wedding. The event of the summer we'd all been looking forward to. Unfortunately Ryan couldn't make the trek down to Cardston because he had school meetings, so Rob took one for the team and traveled with me and the girls. Dad put us up in a lovely hotel with awesome water slides.

The happy couple!


Mom & Dad and all their kids. Half of us are married off now.


Claire and Madeline, being beautiful in their princess dresses.


Steph and Brandon and their unofficial flower girl nieces (minus the littlest one, who was having a sad day). It was fun to get to know Brandon's family a bit better.


There were lots of hair-blowing incidents in the pictures. 'Twas a typical Southern Alberta windy day.


Madeline viewed the grass area in front of the temple as her personal twirling zone, and acted accordingly. She was also doing loops around the flower beds on the concrete edging. Luckily she kept her dress quite clean, until we gave her chocolate cookies to tide her over until the family dinner.


After the wedding we switched to Back To School mode. Ryan's teaching grade 5 again at Campbelltown and Claire started kindergarten at Grace Martin, right across the street from our house. She's got a great aide and a good support system and we think it's going to be an exciting year for her. Madeline starts preschool next week and will go two mornings a week. Then horseback riding starts the week after and then possibly ballet class. It's all coming together. Soon we will have no free time! Isn't that the goal? :)

Claire and all of her paraphernalia on her first day of school. She's a high maintenance diva who requires a lot of accoutrements.


We had one last summer hurrah at Mom and Dad's house. They recently acquired a lovely hot tub and we just had to go and test it out. Claire is the hot tub connoisseur. She approves whole heartedly.

Ryan and Claire. She's awake but in a state of extreme relaxation. That's what hot tubs do to her and she loves it.


Mel and Maddie, Claire and I enjoying the water.


We're one step closer to completing our deck project. That is, we now have the door that will lead out on to the deck.

Our window that became a door. What a beautiful transformation.


Our new door.


Snacks that I like:

PhillySwirl Stix (the best popsicles I have ever had)
Heinz Bagel Bites (a satisfying snack)
Fruitsations (like eating actual fruit!)

*(P.S. None of these products has any actual nutritional value)

*(P.P.S. No, I am not getting paid to endorse any of these products but I will gladly accept monetary compensation for my glowing recommendations if it happens to come my way)