WHOA NELLY

We have been busy as usual. It's funny - I always look forward a few weeks and think, "Oh things will have slowed down then and we'll finally have time to relax." But that never seems to be the case. So here's what we've been doing lately.

Madeline attended Abby's Tinkerbell birthday party and had a blast. The "real" Tinkerbell even made an appearance!

Ryan took his Young Men geocaching and has acquired his own GPS. We're going to plant some caches and do some hunting. It's quite a fun idea.

He's also been busy training for his new job during his winter break from school. He's met some great people and feels like working for Apple will be a lot of fun. I'm excited for him! Next week will be a shock - from having him home to him working two jobs. Such is life though.

I've been quite busy with work as well, transcriptions and other projects at home. I'm very grateful for the opportunities I have to work and to exercise my brain a bit.

Maddie built this tower all by herself. She is proud.

Claire had her first kindergarten field trip! I'm used to going on most school events, but this time the parent volunteer spots filled up very fast. We had to send our big girl on a bus, for her first field trip, all by herself. We watched them load her chair and waved as they drove off. It made me a little sad to not share that with her, but I know I can't go with her everywhere, right? She had a wonderful time with her friends and her helpers at the Royal Alberta Museum.

Cuddling with my happy girls. :)

Ryan took Madeline to run errands at the mall one evening. A lady at a kiosk stopped them and asked if she could curl Madeline's hair. This what she looked like when they came home.

The following morning we were awoken by screams of "THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG WITH MY HAIR." I had neglected to explain to her that curls like that don't last forever. She was quite distraught.

We've been having fun with some old game favourites at home. Red light, green light, What time is it Mr. Wolf and Charades have all become the girls' new fascination.

Madeline and Ryan had an adventure at the World of Science with Rob, Olivia and Cairo.

Here are the big kids making a fort out of all the blocks they could find.

Love it!

There is a cool Lego exhibit on now.

Rob was brave and tried this. We have a bunch of blurry pictures of the action.

The fart piano!

The first thing Maddie said to me when she got home? "I got licked by a giant tongue!" She also has a new fascination with "taste bloods (buds)."

We had a quick visit from the Thompsons which included yummy food, Rock Band, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World and a fun sleepover.

Here is our new acquisition. DRUMS! We are one step closer to taking over the world via a musical revolution of awesomeness.

We attended a lovely Remembrance Day ceremony at Claire's school on Wednesday. Having moments to reflect on those who have fought for us, and still do sacrifice, is very humbling. It makes me proud to be a Canadian.

A belated Halloweeny post

As stated above, I am late posting these pictures. And mostly pictures it shall be:

(As a side note, if you are a faithful blog reader [do I have any of those?!] there is another new post after this one cataloging the miscellany of the weeks preceding Halloween)

Some of our spooky decorations. (Thanks Dollarama!)

Carving the pumpkins.

I included this photo just for Ryan's facial expression. That's how he truly feels about the smell of pumpkin guts but he took one for the team and got in to the spirit of things.

The finished products.

Here is Madeline, being a scary pumpkin, in heels no less.
Our little Tinkerbell wore her costume for 4 days in a row. At least we got our money's worth!

I got to be one of the parent helpers at Maddie's preschool Halloween party
but was the only parent who dressed up! Boo.

We went to the CNIB children's Halloween party that same day and it was lots of fun.

Here's Claire testing out some of the gross items on the table.
She liked touching the brains (warm spaghetti.....*shudder*) the best.

Ryan was a good sport and participated in gummy worm bobbing in whipped cream.

The whole fam.

Carving pumpkins yet again. Ryan bowed out of the scraping this time... :)

The cutest pirate I've ever seen. Her little bandana wouldn't stay on though!

Trick or treating at the mall.

Games for prizes.

I thought this picture was very sweet. She's about ready to fall asleep here and you can tell.

Getting our Halloween Orange Julius's.

Ryan and I attended a lovely Halloween/Rock Band 3 party at the Hewitt's and indulged in good scary food, drink and extreme karaoke. Fun was had by all! Next time photographic evidence will be provided, or maybe it's best for all parties if no such evidence arises. :)

EXTRA EXTRA READ ALL ABOUT IT

I wrote my attention grabbing blog title in all caps to disguise the fact that I have again left blogging for too long and have many subjects to cover.

But now I have undermined my own genius with excessive explanation.

NEWS:

Ryan is now an Apple employee. A few hours a week he will providing expert service at the Apple Store in Southgate so if anyone needs advice on how to spend lots of money, he will be available to help you along the way.

I've had a few fun nights out with Emily. We've decided that instead of indulging in sweets, we will start walking and talking. I think it will be beautiful.

The deck is done! Please stay tuned for a blog post devoted to the wonderful work of TWP Carpentry.

Ryan attended an Eskimos game with his Dad, Rob, Broc and friends.

I ran my first Malmo Parents Meeting at my house and it was not as scary as I imagined it to be.

We worried a bit about Mom's health this past little while, but she has pulled through with nary a word of complaint.

I've been lucky to play the piano for Natalie a little bit, as she takes voice lessons. She has a great talent!

Ryan and I got to attend our first Oiler's game with our shared season's tickets.
We sat in the true fans section, a.k.a. the nosebleeds.
But it was a great time....despite the loss.
At least they gave us two goals to cheer about, yay!

The view from nearly as far away as you can get from the ice!

Every time I take Maddie to school, I drive by this "art," but have never gotten close
to it until we took the LRT home from the game. I remember watching them build it thinking, "What the heck is that going to be....?!"
So, now I have touched the giant disembodied feet. I have truly lived.

Maddie is getting quite good at the interwebs. It's a little scary actually.

While the boys were putting the finishing touches on the deck one Saturday, we braved the cool weather for a little while to show our support, then promptly headed inside.

Cold weather is very tough on a girl who likes to wear dresses for every occasion.
Tyler was so cute, trying to copy what Maddie was doing.

We still had fun inside though.

Claire loves to lay and scoot on the floor. :)

One morning I woke up to this and it made me happy.

I swear she is slowly winning this cat's affections.

Claire is doing so well at riding! I know I have posted a million pictures of her like this, but it's great to have something that she enjoys and that we can see measurable progress in!

After that first blast of snow, we've been enjoying lovely days this past week. I'm trying hard to forget that it is November and that weather can change very quickly!

Two random Madeline quotes:

Mom, does the sun have a mustache and wings?

Mom, I love your feelings.