Quick picks

Just a quick post to catalogue what we've been up to.

Claire started riding lessons again. It's become a very comfortable place for us. She doesn't need her extra cushion for support and trotted on the very first lesson. I'm excited to see how well she can do this session!

Having fun with her pompom. She tore that sucker to shreds. Claire is doing really well in kindergarten. The kids in her class are kind and accepting. She has a little entourage that follows us to the door each morning. She has great helpers and a great teacher. We had a "Meet the Teacher" night at her school and we already feel like a part of an inclusive community.

Ryan had a Meet the Teacher night at his school and a pool party with the Youth at church.
We had a fun lunch with him at the school on his PD day. We saw the new park and tried out the drum set in his room. Lots of fun :)

Hanging out on a cool fall day while the boys worked on the deck.

I went to the dentist. No matter how well I try to take care of my teeth, it seems like there's always work to do. So, I need to go back for a few small fillings. Blargh. At least I can watch TV while Dr. Stringham fixes me up.

Reading bedtime stories the old fashioned way. On the iPad.
(I apologize for the topless chick here.)

The aftermath of playdough. I just had to document it.

I had my first Duty Day in Madeline's preschool class. It was very fun to see her interacting with her peers. Her first order of business? Getting a frilly dress from the house and claiming all of the purses. Luckily she is learning to share and has some fun kids in her class.


I got a fun girls night out with Em eating pretentious cupcakes at Fuss. It was a fun atmosphere and the cakes have such great names. I had the Scarlett O'Hara. :)

We've been working hard on the deck. Pictures to come when it's all finished.

Nice. Bra on the head. Standing in a box. But....wearing fancy shoes!

We had a fun date night and saw The Other Guys. It's quite hilarious, but you have to be in a "stupid funny movie" kind of mood. You also have to like Will Ferrell.

We've had our first dose of sickness and gotten over it just fine. Fingers crossed that we're done for the season! Yeah right.

I think that covers it!

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.