steveprattfamily.com The adventures of the Pratt family in Vancouver - Steve, Lisa, Cedar, Dawson, and Sandy (the dog).

Lisa had her 35th birthday this week, and despite being an INSANE week (with school assignments, a P.A.C. auction to organize, a craft fair booth to manage, and me being out of town for most of the week), it ended with a great night out with friends.

We had dinner at Grub (an amazing new restaurant on Main St), followed by bowling, and then poker.  As usual, Maggot The Robot Bowler destroyed the competition in both 5 and 10 pin bowling.

The highlight of the birthday for me, though, was what the kids did.  They were SO excited for Lisa’s birthday, that for the entire week leading up to it, they wrapped up almost everything in the entire house with whatever they could find for wrapping paper - in the picture, it’s an old Rubik’s cube wrapped in a dinner napkin and held together with a hair tie.  They hid the presents all over the house and brought them all down for Lisa on the morning of her big day.  Very funny to see the kids giving her insane things like a Cribbage board (they don’t even know what it is).

Posted under Family

Just got back from a 4 day trip to Hornby Island last night and it’s amazing how refreshing and recharging a trip can be when you get the right place and the right weather.

With young kids, we’ve been searching a couple years for a place where they can run free and have lots of fun without a lot of danger or running around behind them in case they trip and split their head open on a rock.  And we finally found it.

Hornby is spectacular, but more importantly, it is perfect for families.  Gorgeous white sandy beaches with no rocks, shallow water, WARM water, tidals pools to play in… it was just perfect.

And for an amateur photographer, there were loads of spectacular pictures, too.
Check ‘em out…

Posted under Family

It’s true.  I discovered the sad, ugly truth this weekend.  The Maggot has been playing games behind my back… with several of my closest friends.  And all of it has been cloaked under a veil of secrecy, designed to keep me in the dark.

This is the man at the epicenter of it all: Clax Vandle (not his real name - more on that in a minute…)

I USED to consider him one of my best friends.  You see, I was under the impression that Clax hated and despised Facebook and had decided to never join.  However, due to several factors (including alcohol), it came to my attention this weekend that he is indeed on Facebook using the pseudonym of ‘Clax Vandle’ in place of his real name (which will now remain anonymous).

THEN I found out that he has been ‘friends’ with my wife on Facebook for almost a month… as ‘Clax.’

And THEN I found out that the two of them have been playing Scrabulous games online since he joined!!!  (AND my wife only invited me to play Scrabulous last week!!!)  THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!

And THEN I discovered that my wife has been playing Scrabulous with several of my other friends, none of whom have ever invited ME to play Scrabulous.  THIS IS A DOUBLE OUTRAGE!

You think you know someone and then they stab you in the heart with a virtual scrabble tile.  My wife is a Facebook floozie.  A two-timing social networking tart.

And I am a cuckold.  A Scrabulous-ed, Facebooked, friendless cuckold.

Posted under Family, Humour, Rant, Web/Tech

Cedar draws constantly.  We go through a ream of paper a week.  Usually, she draws about 1,000 of the same thing - a princess over and over and over again. 
This week, she started trying to draw a bunch of family members.  Here are her final portraits, plus a recent photo of her subject (although she draws without any reference photos).  I LOVE the phonetic spelling of all our names: Lisa becomes ‘lesu’ (lee-suh), Steve becomes ’sdev’, Dawson becomes ‘dosin’, Kooky becomes ‘coce’ (coo-kee).  Why I am the only one with ears, I don’t know.
And, as for her self-portrait, she nails the spelling of her own name, but the nose is somewhat… er, disturbing.

Posted under Cedar News, Children, Family

It’s been so busy the last two weeks that I’m very late in putting this up.  My brother, Brian, his wife, Kerri-Lynn, and their one-year old daughter, Sydney, came out here for Christmas week with my parents, so the whole Pratt clan was together for the holidays.

As evidenced in the top picture, Cedar wrote her note to Santa by herself for the first time.

The tree was ridiculous this year, with presents for 9 people, including 3 young children. 
There were lots of gift highlights:

Cedar:
-A Snow White doll
-A Baby Alive that pees itself
-A giant play kitchen where she now regularly whips up imaginary pancakes, muffins, and ice cream

Dawson
-A wagon
-A ton of wooden train tracks
-Trains, planes and automobiles

Lisa:
-A book on cooking omelettes from Courtney (a taunt, as there is an ongoing competition for reigning omelette champion of the Pratt family)
-Sweaters, shirts, and a cape / shawl from a local designer that transforms Lisa into Super Maggot
-iPod nano

Me:
-Blue Rodeo tickets at the Orpheum
-Steve Martin’s book about his standup comedy career
-Guitar Hero III for the Wii, which I’ve been playing constantly for the last week

Other good moments:
-My mother opening up the gag-gift of a stringy thong
-Courtney getting a brain-training game and quickly determining that his mental age is 80.
-Some gorgeous weather with spectacular views of the city.

Posted under Children, Christmas, Family

We’re in Maui for a week and so far, 2 days in, it’s spectacular.  Not going to spend a lot of time on here, but wanted to post some pics.  They’re are a lot on Flickr, so check them out here.
 
Good news  - for those who know me, there are LOTS of pictures of waves hitting rocks like this…

Posted under Family, Travel

Not that I was EVER at the pinnacle of cool, hip, or edgy… but this week marked the beginning of what I am sure is a steep descent into middle-age squarishness.
We leased a mini-van.
Goodbye Volvo sedan with your sun-roof, turbo, and plush leather , power-adjustable seats.
Hello Toyota Sienna, with your scotchguarded fabric seats, your hideaway third row, and your 1,000 litres of storage capacity.
I work at Radio 3, one of the coolest places in the country.  I’m not supposed to be getting a mini-van.  If anything, I should be buying an old Chevy Vandura or Ford Econoline with dragons, lightning bolts, and electric guitars airbrushed on the side panels.
But no - believe it or not, both Lisa and I are extremely excited about it.  Today, we had to transport a baby’s high-chair.  BAM! Rear seat goes down in 5 seconds, high chair in, and zoom, we’re off!  We actually gave each other a high-five. (dear god, why am I putting this in a blog post that will come back and haunt me?)
Even more exciting? Maintenance costs are projected at about $1600 over the course of a 4 year lease.  The Volvo… um about $1600 every 6 months.
And so it begins…  excitement and glee at the arrival of a mini-van.  Soon to come - knee high socks, sans-a-belt slacks, and a new fondness for According To Jim.  (and check out how thrilled the kids are to have their own captain’s seats… Saweeeeet!)

Posted under Family, Humour

Posted under Children, Christmas, Family, Sandy The Dog

FINALLY, some sun out here today!  We took the kids and the dog to Jericho Beach for a long walk and got some great year-end pics of Cedar and Dawson.

Posted under Children, Family, Vancouver

Cedar’s whoopee cushion.  Loads of laughs.  (Kerri-Lynn got one, too, and apparently it’s been a huge hit in Kanata as well).  One dollar + on-demand fart sounds = great Christmas.

Posted under Cedar News, Children, Christmas, Family, Humour