Birthday Fun
November 11, 2011 By 3 Comments
To celebrate Mic’s birthday I had the sisters that are home and mom and dad over for dinner. We had pizza casserole (because I know you were wondering) that was delish and marble birthday cake for dessert! It was a noisy fun party.
Most of the fun happened after dinner. The kids were messy from eating so a bath was necessary. Hailey and Casey got their first cousin bath. I think more are needed in the future because the kids loved it and everyone else had fun just watching them. After bath time they had play time with crazy uncle Denis and reading time with aunt Erica. They are doing well training for parenthood come February!
Blonde Idol
May 12, 2011 By 4 Comments
No, we’re not holding a competition on the best blonde (although I’m not saying I wouldn’t win that!). While watching American Idol last night we realized that American Idol is our family. As in, four of the top six contestants had the same name as people in our immediate family. I’m not saying that we look like them, but you can make that decision for yourself!
Their Scott(y):
Our Scott:
Their Haley:
Our Hailey:
Their Lauren:
Our Lauren:
Their Casey:
Our Casey:
Only little differences…right? 
Welcome Casey Donovan!
December 30, 2010 By 17 Comments
We are SO excited to welcome the adorable Casey Donovan into our ever growing family. Mom, Dad and I went to visit the proud parents in the hospital just hours after the birth. They were tired and overwhelmed, but very happy and healthy! Kate, Erica, Hailey and our friend Laura L. went to visit them today, and took plenty of pictures, and had some fun introducing the cousins.
Casey Donovan was born on December 28, 2010, weighing a very healthy 7 pounds, 1 ounce.
Kisses from his cousin Hailey!
Oma and Opa
Erica getting one of Hailey’s famous hugs
Thanksgiving
November 25, 2010 By 4 Comments
Although Canadian Thanksgiving was a few weeks ago, I have a couple cheerleading friends on Facebook from Texas who go to school in Ottawa, and I can’t help but notice them planning their annual American Thanksgiving feast this weekend. Because we only did this briefly for our Canadian Thanksgiving (and because I love lists), here’s a list of what I’m thankful for this holiday season (in no particular order):
1) My cheerleading team
Being a part of a cheerleading team basically means that you have 35 other people who you are with for 2 hours, 3 times a week, who you have to get along with. You can’t really fight with them, because one of them may save a part of your body from being injured. We try not to hurt them, and they try not to hurt us, but it happens sometimes, and we get over it. We have to learn how to work together, and even though I’ve only known most of these people for 3 months now, being with them feels like being with family. Over the past couple of weeks we’ve been getting stressed out and frustrated at things that aren’t going as planned, or people getting hurt, or school assignments, but as soon as someone sees one of their teammates start to well up and start crying, there is always someone there to help- I know from many experiences. Someone is always there to lift your spirits, and say ‘why don’t we try it again, and maybe we’ll try something different this time?’, and it always helps.
Below: My team! This was taken last week after practice. 5 points if you can find me!
2) School
This is my last year at Carleton, and although there has been construction going on during all 4 of my years here, I’ve just been realizing that we have a beautiful campus, and I’m lucky to have gone here. I’ve met all sorts of awesome people- most through the cheerleading team, who have made my time here even better. I’ve had my fair share of stressful living conditions and ‘friend’ drama, but the library or the ‘couch room’ as I like to call it, have made a great getaway for me.
3) Food and Shelter
I’m pretty sure this is a given, but as I said before, I’ve had my fair share of stressful living conditions. That being said, I’ve always had a place to go if I wanted to get away from it all, whether it be a family friends house, or one of my friends apartments. As for food, when I was home this past weekend I made some banana chocolate chip muffins. And since, well, I love them, I brought some home with me. The other day I brought 2 to school. One to eat on the way to school, and one for the middle of my class when I’m feeling tired and want to sleep right there on the desk. On my way to school I passed a couple of guys asking for food/money. I learned somewhere not to give them money, because who knows how they will spend it- I know all people on the street asking for money aren’t looking to spend it on bad things, I’m just saying- if I’m giving my money to someone who is hungry, I expect them to spend it on food. Since I had a muffin on the seat next to me, I decided to give them that. Well, in the end I don’t think they ate it, because when I gave it to them they looked at it like it could have been poisoned. But hey, I tried, right?
4) Family and Friends
And lastly, the most obvious one. Something that mostly everyone is thankful for, and needs no explanation.
Lessons from Dad
November 19, 2010 By 8 Comments
Having had grown up in a family with five daughters, we often heard the words “Your poor father!” In my youth, I never really understood what people meant by that – I had a house full of people and lots of love and toys and books, how could it get any better? Eventually, I kinda ‘got it’ -sure, Dad sometimes got overshadowed by the overbearing estrogen that radiated through our house, but I don’t think he ever felt sorry for himself. And even though him and my Mom had originally wanted a house full of boys (true story), in my biased opinion, I’m quite positive that he feels he feels he got a pretty good deal with us girls. I’ve learned a lot from my Dad over the years, and here is some wisdom from my Dad to share with you.
1.) ‘Loser’ is a swear word. My Dad would NOT permit use of this word in our house. He would look past a few eff bombs before he would let this one by. Maybe he was the original anti-bullying campaigner.
2.) Love is the most important possession. When us girls were just wee curly haired bleach blondes running around in our underwear, we lived in a trailer on our grandparents property. That means five rambunctious children and two adults living in a small trailer – can you say cramped? This was while my parents were preparing to buy our Farm, and I’m pretty sure we lived off of love at the time. To this day, my Dad says these were some of the best years of his life, and he would give anything to go back to then. We didn’t have much, but we had each other and that was the most important thing.
3.) If you can’t say anything nice then don’t say anything at all. I heard this so often during my childhood that I can actually hear my Dad’s voice saying this in my head when I write it down. I still try to live by this rule.
4.) Bribery works. When we were teenagers, Mom and Dad told us they would pay us each $500 when we turned 18 if we didn’t smoke. Let’s just say they are $2500 poorer and our lungs have a clean bill of health. Dad says that it was a waste of money because none of us would have been smokers anyways, but I think he just doesn’t know how often I have used that excuse in my younger days while turning down a cigarette…
5.) If you have a plugged up nose, sleep on the opposite side. When you wake up your nose will be drained and fresh as a daisy. This one is slightly random, but whenever I fall asleep with a stuffed nose I think of this and make sure I follow Dad’s advice. It works, trust.
People always comment on how terrified our boyfriends must have been to pick us up for dates, etc. In reality, our Dad was a little bit starved for conversations about sports, farming, etc. so when the boys did come get us they were usually greeted by Dad who would subject force encourage them to sit down and talk to him – maybe this was his pre-screening.. Really, he’s harmless – it was our mother, ‘The Dragon Lady’, who the boys were afraid of (there were threats of castration involved…). Then there was that time Micaela got picked up for a date on a motorcycle. Oooh, that was a funny night in the Blonde household.
So thanks Dad for many years of love and lessons, here’s to many, many more to come.
We love you very much.
Keeping it in the family.
September 15, 2010 By 5 Comments
Alternatively titled: That time I almost accidentally dated my cousin.
Halfway through my second year of University, I started dating my boyfriend. We were that annoying couple that dropped everything else in their lives to spend everypossiblesecond together. We had a lot in common as we were both Dutch, Catholic pig farmers from Southwestern Ontario with big, Dutch families. Don’t worry, we had other things in common too, but for the purpose of this story the other stuff is not important.
As we were getting to know each other we started talking about our families. Somehow, a specific family came up in conversation – let’s call them the DeCalms. As he talked, I realized I knew the family he was elaborating on. I blurted out – “Wait, are you talking about the DeCalms as in M&J DeCalm?? Because I think they’re my second cousins or something.” Tim just stared at me with a face that was starting to get a little red and sweaty and informed me that the DeCalms were also his second cousins.
Insert awkward silence here as we put two and two together.
“Uhh, this is weird. Are we related?” I awkwardly asked him. You see, when you come from families like ours – big and Dutch and very friendly – you kind of just assume that if someone is also Dutch and they hang out with your family all the time and you’ve known them forever that they are somehow related to you. I’d known the DeCalms forever and they were Dutch (and awesome) and they were close with many members of my family. Alas, I assumed they were some sort of cousins of my parents.
I quickly called my Dad to get this whole incestuous issue sorted out. To my relief, it turns out that the DeCalms used to work for my grandparents and had just remained close with our family AND WERE NOT AT ALL RELATED. “Why do you want to know?” my Dad asked. “NO REASON, no reason at all.” I hastily replied, not yet ready to announce this embarrassing misunderstanding to the world. Tim and I sighed big sighs of relief and laughed at each other and tried not to think about the possible genetically freaky babies we could have had someday.
(Props for the title idea given to the awesome Calgarian @Darlinglilred.)
Raspbaby Shower
January 6, 2010 By 19 Comments
On Sunday my sisters threw me a baby shower! Mic was the main organizer and she did a great job. The theme was RED for RASPBABY. The shower was for my family and friends, after the baby arrives Scott’s side of the family is going to throw one (they are the lucky ones who get to actually hold the baby at the shower).
We got lots of clothes, nice warm outfits and blankets, a cradle, an amazing quilt, diaper bag (that matches the stroller perfectly), and a MEC baby carrier!
We played a few fun games
- break the baby’s water – They froze little babies into ice cubes and the guests had to melt the baby out without touching the ice (it was in a plastic cup)
- Mingling Bingo- get signatures from someone who… went to university with Kate, knows Kate’s birth weight, knows Kate’s birthday… etc.
- Guess the size of Kate’s belly- my sisters thought I wouldn’t like this game but it was just fun to see what people guessed. Most guessed way too large! It turns out that my belly is 41inches around.
- Left-Right Story. Mom read a story and 2 people held prizes, whenever she said left or right people would have to pass the gift left or right.
I took photos at the beginning and Lauren was nice enough to take photos during the gift opening.
Happy New Year!
January 1, 2010 By 5 Comments
We blondes party in style!
We’ve had a few year in review posts and posts about the last decade, but the new year is finally here! And a snowy one at that! I usually don’t think about making a resolution, but this year I’m resolving to work harder in school.
Here’s to hoping everyone had an AMAZING new years, and that your 2010 is the best yet!
What are your new years resolutions?
My Birthday Party Crasher
December 5, 2009 By 7 Comments
After having been living in Calgary (across the country from the rest of my famjam) for a year and a half now, I have been blessed with tons of visitors. And there is nothing I love more than visitors (hint, hint!). At one point, when two groups of visitors overlapped, there were seven (SEVEN!) extra people sleeping in my one-bedroom condo. It was a snuggly night, to say the least.
A certain person, my mother, hadn’t been out to see me at all and was feeling kind of bad about it. I assured her not to worry, she had a lot going on in her own life and that there would never, ever be hard feelings for not coming out to see me. And I truly, honestly meant it.
As many of you know, it was my birthday this past week. My aunt had asked if she could take me to lunch and of course I wanted to. I got there first, and when she got there she sat down, we made a small talk and she just so happened to see someone she knew, who she ran over and gave a big hug to. “Funny,” I thought to myself. “The restaurant is dead, what a small world that she would see someone she knew.” The hug finished, and as my aunt turned around, there stood …
MY MOM!!!!
“Mom?” I sputtered as I stared at her, not sure if it was real or not. “What are you doing here?” Well, she came to crash my birthday party! That is the most dedicated party guest I had ever seen. We had an amazing visit, although I spent the day in Canmore after my birthday party in a fairly crapulous state.
We had an amazing, relaxing visit and I am SO GLAD she came!
Me & Mom
I had an amazing birthday party that was everything I wanted it to be and more. Thanks to the help of these girls!
Cousin Em, Nat, Me & Mich
My cousin Em is just kind of awesome, Nat is the one who wrote this post and Mich blogs here. She organized a meet-up in July and we have stayed friends because she is so wonderful. True story. Nat is even trying to steal her away from me. (I can’t blame her, I’d probably do the same.)
For those of you who asked about my birthday shoes, they came, and were too big for me 
I’ll still post a picture soon.
And my top is from H&M, since I know at least one person will be asking!
Recent Comments