After months of living a devil-may-care lifestyle in the backwoods of England, the Clan has moved onto the next leg of the wacky adventure and are transported back to the unruly urban melting pot of Vancouver, Canada. Let's move closer to see what Daddy Michael, Mommy Vashti, Big Sister Maeve and Little sister Madigan are up to now...
Ok, this is so cute! Madigan wanted a backpack for her baby! Maeve of course will have the same!!
Now back to a time where Maeve wasn't being cute at all! We have these sort of give and takes a few times a day! The grunting sound you might hear is Danica,my sister the videographer, trying not to laugh as the scene unfolds! Enjoy!
Hello everyone! Sorry for the lack of blogging. We came back from the Island on sunday for mother's day and I haven't blogged since saturday! For shame!! haha.. This is what Michael did while we were gone, note the smiles and happiness.. er.. i mean sadness and the rather obvious sorrow for not having one's wife and children with him! Poor guy.
On Monday we hit the Vancouver Children's Festival with team Kwan D'Eon! It was great! The kids did well and Madigan even peed on a porta potty potty! Here are the girls dancing at Bob's & LoLo a very cool children's musical group.
We are all well and good here. Maeve is back in school just in time to pick up a potentially awesome case of lice! Yahoo! When I picked her up today they handed me a leaflet saying that someone in her class has a case. Finger's crossed she doesn't get it. I know it isn't a dirty thing, but it comes with such a heavy negative connotation.. ya know what I mean? Maeve had a great day at school tho, it was her friend Jessica's birthday! Everyone got a cupcake and some bubbles! Great gift idea those little bottles of wedding bubbles. Right now Maeve is playing with her petshop animals in her old skool fisher price house. She is also currently chasing down a bug that has flown into the house. If only you could hear her saying, "here buggy buggy, here buggy buggy.. bugggggggy!" Funny girl, can't wait to see what she does when it actually comes close to her! Madigan is currently sleeping off a rather long and loud tantrum that lasted from our park to our apartment. Sweet! Nothing like seeing your adorable baby twisting and writhing while screaming like you are pulling off her skin.. ahh this is the life!! On a happier note, Madigan no longer wears diapers during the day! I love summer! Best time to parent train or "potty train" of year! We do have at least a daily accident but she is doing amazing.. rather I am! hahah
Here is a pic of the love.. this isn't wrestling, just hugging!
Big big congratulations to Craig, Roan and Hilary! Little Halen Decker McEwen was born yesterday after a stunning 54 minutes of labour!! My god, Hilary was born to give birth! They are all doing well and were on their way home when I last spoke to Hilary! Yay Team McEwen! On other unrelated news, life on the farm is.... farmtastic? The girls LOVE it here during the daytime. Night time seems to be a little challenging for Madigan who was up ALL night as tho she had reverted back to some sort of infant nursing schedule! I so thought we were weaning. Oh well... Big Robin brought me a coffee and donuts as a consolation prize for winning the award for; " Child up all night with AMAZING vocal range"
Yesterday Danica, the girls and I all went to Swy A Lana Lagoon. I haven't been there in EONS! As it turns out Civic arena is a thing of the past. Yes yes, I do recall you all telling me but I didn't believve you until I saw it myself!!
Well happy hump day to you all out there! Poor Michael, no hump day again! Why you ask? Because the girls and I are over at "The Farm". We hopped on the ferry yesterday and my Mom picked us up! Wahoo, we are having a BLAST! I have been trying to cash in on a little Saige love but so far its a no go! God that baby is so cute, I could almost lean over and bite her! Lindsay has been keeping me company today and Maeve and Makenna are playing SO nicely! Madigan and the Mommy toilet training is going pretty well too! Both of my children (who were up until at least 10 last night) absolutely and totally crashed out due to exhaustion by 8:15. BEAUTIFUL! My Mom who loves me has bought a plethera of gossip rags and we are chillaxing and making fun of Big Robin. Ahh this is the life bitches!!
Hahaha here are the girls in action. We brought the girls to my Mom's work today. Oh heads up all you bitches, I know you read this so start admitting it by commenting! I now have faces to go with all your names and I'm eagerly awaiting your witty comments..Felix, you know I'm talking to you!
Today my sister Danica took her drivers test and PASSED!!! I am so proud of her! She has been doing such a good job practicing all the time and she did it.. she did it... she did it.. YEAH! Dink, I love you and I'm super proud!
Hallo faithful readers! Yesterday was a short blog day. I'm doing my best to get our Jakers... oh and Sara and Brad too... over to the Wet Coast!!!
Today, Tuesday, finds us in a whole heap of cute!
The plan was to head out to a drop in at Trout Lake Community Center. Sadly, it isn't going to happen! I do have dinner in Auntie Erin's crock pot tho. Its been in there since 9 am! Unfortch, I just realized now at 10:30 that it wasn't even plugged in!! hahah what a tool i am! Oh well, at least I found out before dinner time!
sooooo we are homebound for at least the am.. hopefully Madigan will nap!
Here are some shots of Papa George's visit this weekend! Oh and some naked hockey shots!!
OOOOOh lala what a day what a day! Soooo.. this morning was pretty slow going because someone (Madigan) thought that a 5am wake up call was in order. It wasn't. Much screaming later, sleeping was back on the agenda. We all got up around 8:30. Late breakfast with the girls and then decided to get ready to get rolling. Dressed, washed, teeth brushed, hair did... great Madigan wants to have a nap at 11am. Yay for naps boo for timing. We had planned to meet the Kwan D'Eons to kick it until around 3pm. The 3pm marked Madigan's first attempt at going to work with Daddy. I KNOW how awesome! Anyhoo I digress... so, Madigan goes down for about an hour which was good because in that time I made a fantastic lunch! Wake up, kids fed, re washed/brushed./hair did and away we go to meet the Kwan D'Eon clan at our fave park under the Cambie St. bridge!
Sun is shining, kids are GREAT! Milo and Theo are gorgeous as ever! Fun times had, chalk was broken out.. Maeve was shown how Milo makes 'guys'. Look at this Milo, you are totally famous! Thanks for letting me host your youtube debut!! Then Mommies decide on coffee time! Ahhh Coffee was had, and we continued on to Dorothy Lam park. Very nice park, unfortch it was also pretty busy. No big whoop tho, nothing major. The kids all did well except sand chucker Madigan who had to sit in the stroller while we talked about things that can and can't be thrown! Some more playing and then I sense some pre meltdown symptoms... theirs not mine for a change!!!
I put both kids in the stroller.. yes BOTH those lardies in one stroller despite the warning label ON the stroller advising not to! They both had to go in because I had to haul ass back to the car so I didn't get towed!! Please attempt to ignore the rather large 3 1/2 year old with a SOOTHER in her mouth! hahah I get them in the car and phone Michael to cancel our drop off Madigan at work day because I deem her too tired. Michael sounds all dissappointed so after discussing we decide, sure lets give it a try!
We decide to have Michael keep BOTH girls and he brought me upstairs to have a look at his work place. For as far as the eye can see, there are these gorgeous girls SURROUNDING Michael's work station! Harumph! Then I hear squeals and oohs and ahhs... yes EVERYONE is in love with the girls! Two of these adorable ladies that Michael works with have brought in their puppies so the level of cute is nearly intoxicating! Much love, good girls ZERO work done... ahhhh friday!
As a side note, I got to have coffee with my friend Mel and do a little Robson window shopping... add friday Daddy and girl work day as another reason why Michael is fantastic! Not to mention the girls who are so polite, so well behaved and it is agreed by Michaels workmates that they are just an absolute joy to be around!!!
After we get home from the day's excitement, there is more excitement in store for me. Besides the above pictures of Madigan attempting some sort of bird bath action on the balconey.
Anna has left a voice mail. Seems she is thinking about flying in to visit us instead of the co camping expedition. I of course toss down everything and call her back.. get this, SHE IS COMING ....AND....SHE IS GOING TO STAY AT OUR PLACE AND HAVE A GIRLS NIGHT OUT 'CANUCK' STYLE!! Ok, hopefully we wont lose anything at this Ladies night.. you heard it.. so girls if you are near and dear, mark it down that June 26 is ladies night and we are going to party like it is 1999!!
Damn them. I blame them entirely for everything on tuesday! I blame them for making me drink so much. I blame them for making me go out and have SO much fun. I blame them and shame on them for not maintaining a 2 -0 lead!!!!
Tuesday I drove the girls into town, picked up Michael and jumped out of the car to have game night with the girls! My friends Mel "Fellers" Troyer and Vannessa "Stuart" Valerio. It was a BLAST! Seriously, my cheeks hurt I laughed so much. I laughed with, not at, Vannessa is feeling very sad. I gave Auntie Erin a ring and she came down to enjoy the festivities! She ordered THE most awesome Martini and then it was a slippery sIope! I drank waaaaaaaay too much and it could have gone downhill fast!
Yesterday (wednesday) was a tough tough day for me! I almost broke my 7 year stretch!!! It is all good, I maintain the stretch and got Maeve off for her first day at school! More to post later.. the phone is ringing!
Ok, so this is what Michael and the girls did while I was out getting my drink on
And this is what we did today.. thursday...
Mommy love is different than Daddy love! Either way these girls are pretty balanced!
Last night was a bit of a tough night.. as was friday. We are going through a bit of a rough patch with Miss Madigan Mussellam. If I happen to take Maeve to the potty or do something without her, she screams. She screams LOUD. She screams for a LONG TIME! Unfortunately, Michael is left holding the screaming child and I can only assume that it is not only embarassing but very frustrating. We are working to help Madigan understand that Daddy is just as good as Mommy and it is tough. We are all working together to help Madigan learn that screaming doesn't get what you want. Calmly asking does but screaming doesn't. Michael did an amazing job with Madigan at Canadian Tire last night and it was really really awful. We stuck with it, stuck to our guns and worked our way through. I just wanted to take this blog opportunity to thank Michael.
Well I have to say. Michael is the best father of my children and husband I've ever had. Why you ask? Here is a brief bulletpoint list of his pros!
*Michael loves his children more than me. *Michael loves his children equally. *Michael works and then comes home and works some more. *Michael ALWAYS does the dinner dishes. *Michael bathes, brushes teeth, reads stories and tucks in our girls every night. *Michael supports me in my decisions. *Michael loves me almost as much as he loves the girls. *Michael completes our family.
Michael these are just some of the reasons why I love you. Sometimes you aggravate me, as I'm sure I do you but I'm certain we help each other be better people and parents!
After we recovered from the great marshmallow consumption fest that was '07, Maeve and I had a date! Yes that is right. Maeve and I ditched Michael and Madigan and went for brunch with my friend Mel. "Melly" as Maeve calls her was a good date! We had french toast, some expensive coffee, and did alot of window shopping! Mel didn't complain once! How nice! Maeve had a tough time walking and requested some sort of Camel service. Being said Camel, I drew the line and said for every block she walked I'd carry her one! We made it to the bay and picked up (after what seemed like hours) a couple of things for the girls. Bubbles and a barbie kite! Mel found the kite and Maeve found the bubbles.
After our awesome bay finds, we sent Mel home and Michael came and picked us up. Off we went to Kits beach for some spectacular weather and kite flying! Not to mention the serious bubble blowing. It was AWESOME! We had literally GAZILLIONS of bubbles! The wind was perfect! If you squint you can see Madigan flying the kite by herself too! She amazed everyone walking past! They couldn't believe a "baby" was flying a kite... ok ok as usual I exaggerate.. it was just one lady that said it! but you know how we like to exaggerate in the blogosphere!
We just have to keep Paul Pat away from our kite and maybe it'll last longer than the last one did! hahaha burn paul.. burn!
How GORGEOUS was it this weekend? So gorgeous we went alllll the way out to Maple Ridge to kick it with Uncle Kenny. Uncle Kenny bought a boat last weekend and he was itching to take it out for a spin this weekend. So wagons ho, we started out for Aloette Lake. SSOOOOOOO gorgeous! Great provincial campground to boot! Unfortch, no dock so we couldn't launch Uncle Kenny's new boat. Boo... no worries tho, we are in BC! So, back up into the wagons we go and head out for Pitt Lake! Success!! We launched the boat.. unfortch again, the battery was dead! Poor Poor Uncle Kenny! Uncle Kenny took the boat home and we stayed at Pitt Lake to let the girls roam! How 'bout that view!!!!!!
After the day's excitement we sparked up the firepit and Unkle Ken crisped up a couple of marshmallows for Maeve. She loved the first one perferred then told Uncle Kenny, " I want a clean one not a dirty one." Hahahah after he painstakingly roasted one to a perfect shade of caramel the little ingrate requests a clean one... Classic! Daddy, was forced to eat the rest of the roasted ones.
Haha I think that was some sort of old Burger King commercial. I think it was two little burgers sort of stuck together!! hahahahah ahh memories?
So, tuesday afternoon we had a visitor at Casa Mussellam. Our friend Roan is expecting a baby brother or sister sometime in May. Midwives were called, beginnings of labour were begun and Roan got to come and stay at our place for a couple of hours. Unfortunately it was a false alarm and alas no baby as of yet but we did get this gem!
Ahhh Monday.. back to the grind! It is a GORGEOUS day today! We have to stick around here this am to ensure Madigan gets a good nap! Also I put in a bid for an ikea table and chair set for the girls and hopefully I get it! Here they are in all their gorgeosity!
Yesterday was a GREAT day! The sun was shining so, with our double stroller back in action, I loaded up the girls and struck out towards Kensignton Community Center. I've registered Maeve for a few preschool type classes and Yoga for myself! I figured it was going to be at least a half hour walk and to tell the truth, I was totally dreading it! Turns out it is a less than 10 minute walk along some cherry tree lined streets! Sweet! The park is great, they had sand, swings and a pretty cool climber with sides for big kids and sides for littler ones! So this was the first YAY.
Today Mark from Shaw came and hooked a brother up. We now have cable, internet and digital phone! Wahoooo, YAY number two!
Two lovely gentlemans from a little company called, "IKEA" phoned me to tell me my couch will be arriving in 5 minutes! Not 5 weeks, not 5 days, 5 minutes! Yay number 3
Now the boo stuff... boo means Vashti's oral surgery.... boo also means all the people at th eoffice who said, "its not a big deal" were not only liars, but liars that have never experienced the pain that is the first stage of a tooth implant. It is not fine, it is not easy.. I would rather give birth to be perfectly honest!
So, tooth removed, implant placed, bone graft done.. check check check.. last thing is my "flipper" tooth.. basically a tooth on a retainer to hold the space open, and also so i don't look any more hill billy than i already do... Well, wonderful Dentist places flipper tooth retainer in my mouth and... of course it doesn't fit! He says, you are ok to go without one until we get a new one right'? I was... uhh... ya.. really what are my options.. he sort of laughs and says.. well I'll just modify this one and we'll get anew one for you on tuesday... nice.. so that is yay yay yay boo boo booooo day from me...
The above pic is me and my new fake tooth on my sweet sweet couch with just one of the three people that I love so much
Well boys and girls this is it. Our bed has finally arrived! Yahooooo! It got here in WAY better time than last time! The only thing is.... two boxes didn't make the trip. They weren't accounted for when they were unloaded from the container. boo... booooooooo guess what is inside? Photo albums.. you know, replaceable stuff... wahhhhh Oh well, it is only fair seeing as we lost ALL the pictures of Madigan's birth soon after she was born! Also the kids cd player, all my baskets for storing their clothes, AND my gorgeous cermaic bowl that we got for our wedding... wah wah snivel snivel.. ok I'm better... at least we have the girls toys!
They have SO many toys! I'm so glad there is finally stuff for them to do! Maeve is playing with her old skool fisher price people and Madigan is riding her billion dollar car/riding toy!
I have to go and put the bread in the oven!
Michael's happy our bed is here because he is going to try and put a bun in my oven!
Here are the girls horsing around! Hahah So far the weekend has been great! We were at Horshoe Bay Ferry terminal for just over 3 hours... y es yes, awesome I know! Made it to Gramma Luvvies house on the Island, had some eats and went to bed...zzzzzzz
Saturday was fun got some great visiting in with Makenna Dawn and the cutest Saige ever!
I'll post some pics of the Eggstravaganza later! Happy Easter Everyone!
We have been busy! We successfully moved into our new place!~ Yay! Big thanks to Uncle Kenny and Auntie Erin.. no, not as a couple, as individuals! Auntie Erin cooked us a fab dinner on sunday night and let us stay at her place and Uncle Kenny slaved, heaved, ho'ed and drove to hither dither and yon to get some rather large pieces of furniture to us. Thank you both so much!
Short blog and no pics. Sorry, as usual we are 'borrowing' internet! We have ordered internet thru shaw so we wont be pirates forever!
Saturday we had brunch with Granny Gracie then back to her place to check and see if a rabbit made a brief appearance.. surprise surprise he had!
Sunday as mentioned before we had to leave our luscious apartment downtown and head over to the ever hospitable Aunite Erin's. We had a wonderful dinner and Madigan did a REALLY good job sleeping! (ie only screamed like we were peeling off her skin once through the night!)
Monday brought the big move to our new place. Uncle Kenny (lifesaver) and Daddy (wonderful) did all the heavy lifting and driving and picking up of things. Monday also brought us a surprise visitl from Papa! Big ups for Papa as he played monster with the girls and they had SO much fun! He also brought some boxes of ours from Powell River! In those boxes were several items that I didn't expect... ie.. my cutlery & tray, my knife block with knives AND my toaster! I was going to go and buy all of those things on tuesday but super Papa to the rescue brought them to me and they are mine and I can't believe I packed those things and they were in with the few boxes he brought us! KARMIC! Totally bizarre the way the world works!
Helloo boys and girls! We are pretty good. Madigan managed to pull an allnighter last night!!! What I mean is she slept from 8am until 6am! I of course was up at 5 to check and make sure she was still breathing. Michael, god love him, was up at 2am for the same reason! That little bugger sure has us trained!!!
Yesterday we didn't leave the apartment! How awesome was that.. NOT... I felt like poop and the girls didn't seem to mind! This might sound horribly offensive to some of you but the girls logged alot of balconey time! I like to think they were viewing the urban jungle! Madigan got a little playtime on the computer. As you can see she loved it! PS turn down your speakers!
Today we hit Science world with the Kwan D'eons. We played in the kids section for a bit and then had a very cool picnic. The kids seem to really get along together. REally nice for me and Ange! After lunch we hit the first of 2 playgrounds. Fun fun fun! We only played at the first playground for a bit and i didn't actually grab any pics. Ange did and she is going to send them to me... Park #2 was a big hit! We slid, mokey barred (me not the kids) and goofed around! Poor Ange discovered where Maeve gets her heriditary plumbers bum. Sorry bout that my friend! And here are all the kids at the same time!! In the same pic!!!
