What is an elephant's favourite game to play with ants?

Squash!

(This joke is brought to you by the internet, which I have to search every school day to find jokes for Madeline's snack bag note.  It started out sporadically, but she insists upon it now!)

This will be a quick (ha ha) recap of our activities the past little while.  I hope to do better in the future with providing timely updates, but such is life.  It gets away from me quite often.

Madeline's bed got a little upgrade.  She was a bit leery at first about having such a high bed, but has quickly become used to being the Princess and the Pea.

Madeline's been a busy girl this month.  Some things she's been involved with include:

~She had playdates with friends like Isabella and Hayley

~She attended two musicals with me:  Annie and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (she has a taste for the theatre now!)

~She had a very fun tea party with Janet

~At preschool she presented her "All About Me" bag of precious things, had a teddy bear's picnic, attended a puppet show and had a library fieldtrip.

~She had a few fun dates with Grandma Patterson.

I think Maddie was the only one of us happy to see all the snow begin to fall!

Ryan came up with this interesting way to hold Claire.  She's such a flexible little pretzel girl!

Claire's also been busy with:

~Having school pictures taken and helping mom with Parent Council meetings.

~Attending the Glenrose seating clinic to figure out her new wheelchair.  Hopefully it comes in soon!

~Spending an evening with Grandpa Patterson

~Staying awake at school more regularly and having some really positive experiences there.

Madeline passed Level 3 gymnastics with flying colours and is on to Level 4!

Claire's last day of horseback riding was Achievement Days where her goal was to have a relaxed ride. She did well!

Here is Claire with her faithful helpers, Stewart and Hilary.  Little Bits volunteers are the best!

Auntie Olivia and Cairo surprised us by coming to support Claire.  Here are Madeline and Cairo getting ready for when they start horseback riding lessons someday!

Madeline got her teeth checked by Grandpa Patterson.  She was very brave and had great teeth.  Claire's check ups usually happen at impromptu moments when she's sleeping and grandpa can take a quick look without getting chomped.

Ryan and I got a fun night out to see one of our favourite bands, The Arkells.  We snuck right up to the front and stayed against the stage the whole time.  The opening act included chanting, confetti bombs, serious crowd interaction and a giant parachute.  It was a really fun night!

Ryan and I have also been busy, don't you worry.

I've been working with the Lee Ridge Park Redevelopment Project group and we had our big Silent Auction fundraiser which was a great success.  The Malmo Preschool also had a big Silent Auction fundraiser.  Both were on the same day!  I helped out one night selling programs at the CFR for Little Bits.  Every time I do that I think, "I should buy tickets for the rodeo and actually attend next year!"  I had a fun night out with my sisters and another girl's night with Kathy.   I also, unfortunately, got pretty sick recently, and had to rely on the kindness of friends and family to get through.  Luckily things seem to be back to normal.

Ryan's been busy as usual with work and work.  He was acting admin at his school for a couple of days.  He had a Christmas activity with his Apple co-workers.  He managed to make it through a bout of the flu.  Recently his class did very well at their Christmas concert and he's making his way through report cards and parent/teacher interviews this week.

One morning Madeline woke up early, spread out a picnic blanket and got a fancy breakfast all ready for us.  It was the cutest thing.

And let the Christmas festivities begin!

This year we started things off by attending the Legislature Christmas light-up.  It was a lot of fun and I hope to make this a yearly tradition.

Here's Claire and I before things got started.

We were lucky to have Grandma Patterson and Auntie Steph come along.  

The girls were pretty excited about being there.  Claire really enjoyed feeling all the marble on the walls and bannisters.  Madeline was impressed with all the gold.

The University Mixed Chorus sang some really beautiful songs and we had a great view from the second floor.

The lights were beautiful and it was a lovely warm night.  We couldn't have asked for better conditions!

A very important event of the Christmas season is the Ballerina Dreams recital.  

For 8 weeks the girls practiced with their mentors. 

Here they are, seriously contemplating life at the dress rehearsal.

 

Here's one of our little reindeer before the show began.

 Here's Claire and her helper Mark.  They did a great job!

 It was a lovely evening and we were very proud of the girls.

In between the concert and the Edmonton Cerebral Palsy Association Christmas party, we braved West Ed on a Saturday and Madeline rode a couple of rides, we ate some food and then headed over to the party.  

At the party, for the ECPA, a wonderful group helped with all the crafts and activities.  INspired made it a very wonderful night and it was great to meet new families and interact with old friends.

Here are the girls working on some crafts with a little helper.

We finally managed to get the tree decorated, but it was while I was still sick so Madeline and Ryan took over all the duties.  It turned out wonderfully!

We got to attend a fancy dinner at Beijing Beijing with my family to celebrate my dad's birthday.  Madeline enjoyed spinning the lazy susan around the table and Claire slept through the entire thing, but it was a lot of fun.

I got to attend a special night with Claire where she showed me some things she's learning at school.  She was very excited to show me her beautiful snowman picture!

 This picture is presented without comment.

 Claire and I got to attend a play at the Jubilee with her school.  It was a lot of fun.  She wasn't too impressed with me trying to take photos of her, but here she is in front of one of the beautiful trees at the Jubilee.

We got to break some rules and have her wheelchair near the front of the stage.  I was really disappointed when we first got there because the wheelchair seating was quite far away and since Claire has a visual impairment, I didn't think she'd get much out of the performance from such a distance.  Luckily an usher heard our debate about what to do and suggested that we take a secret passageway down to the front.  It was pretty cool.

Here are the girls cuddling with Grandma Patterson.  She basically took over their care for a good portion of a week while I had tests done and recovered.  I was so grateful for her help and for everyone else who pitched in.

We're in the midst of Christmas preparations - cards, baking, concerts, presents, activities, etc.  School goes right until December 23rd so we won't have much time to rest before Christmas is upon us!  Luckily that means the holiday extends to January 9th so we'll have some downtime before the schedule kicks in again!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Merry Halloween!

Things Madeline has said lately:

She calls toy catalogues "menus" and has been circling all the things she wants in the latest Toys R Us circular.  Her Christmas list is going to be extensive.

When I make her clean her room she says:  "You make me feel like I'm your peasant."

While stalling at bedtime:  "Mom, where is Truthland?"  "Truthland?"  "Yeah."  "Where did you hear about Truthland?"  "I made it up."

Aside from all the Halloween festivities....

Jacky has been busy with many committees, organizing and participating in fundraisers and meetings galore.

(Shameless plug:  If anyone would like to buy Oil Kings tickets for $25 or $10 tickets to a fun dinner/dance/silent auction on November 26 that would both support the rebuilding of a park in the Leeridge neighbourhood, please let me know!)

Ryan is busy juggling home life, school life and Apple life.  He's doing a great job everywhere.  :) He was even acting principal at his school the past couple of days.

Claire is getting used to staying awake ALL day at school and is having lots of fun.  She's been trying out a new tilting wheelchair that gives more options for positioning throughout the day and soon she'll get one of her very own.  

Madeline has been busy, busy, busy creating art galore, learning lots at preschool and having visits with  people she loves, like Janet and aunties.

We had fun doing our pumpkins this year, even though both Ryan and I dislike scraping out pumpkin guts.

Claire was very happy that evening.

Me and cheery Madeline.  Doesn't that look send shivers down your spine?  I see it all the time.  Ha ha.

Admiring their handiwork.

The finished product.

Our cute little front step.

Natalie took some great photos of Madeline at a Gymboree birthday party.

We enjoyed some lovely fall weather at Claire's horseback riding lesson, complete with leaf fights.

She's been doing so well and has great helpers. :)

Madeline saw a pristine canvas of sand and had a craving for creation.  

She really loves art.

This is typically the result at the end of school days.  :)

 During the Halloween week, Madeline even got to dress up for gymnastics class!

Claire was so tired one night that she fell asleep in the tub...she can fall asleep ANYWHERE.

The girls have been enjoying dance lessons at Ballerina Dreams.  There's another great group of volunteers helping some of the kids out this year.

It's very physically taxing, as you can see.

Ryan got us the new Dance Central game and of course, Madeline was eager to participate, but not before donning the proper footwear.

Our next Halloween activity was the CNIB party.  Here's our little Ariel playing with her favourite thing:  cords/strings/tubes, etc.  That often makes it difficult while she's hooked up to her feeding tube and wants to play with it...ha ha.

Here's our southern belle doing some colouring sheets.

Claire enjoyed this game of "Pin the nose on the pumpkin" because they had outlined the facial features with pipecleaners and she liked to run her hands over them.

The girls and I won the mummy contest.  Claire really enjoyed being our model!

When we went to pick out costumes, Madeline gravitated instantly to this dress because it was so fancy.  I think it suits her very well.

 This side by side, compilation of photos is as close as we got to a family Halloween picture, but you get the general idea.  :)  Ryan's students had some really great costumes but the best one, in my opinion, was a girl who dressed up as him!  She wore cargo pants, a green hoodie, a dark wig and glasses and made a cardboard iPad with a sign on the back telling everyone to "Parle Francais."  Oh, it was excellent.  Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?

I was lucky enough to be a parent helper at Madeline's Halloween party at preschool.  Those kids were SO excited for the events. 

Here she is, showing her outfit to everyone.

Here's Claire with one of her best friends at school.  They had a fun afternoon of activities.

This was the resulting effect.

We went trick or treating at Southgate and had lots of fun.  

We got to spend Ryan's break with him.  

 Good times were had by all and copious amounts of candy flowed.