Puzzlemania

Something clicked in Kieran, kind of like two pieces of a puzzle that click together,
and ever since we have had puzzlemania here.
Makaila has always, always, enjoyed puzzles, but something rather puzzling happened to Kieran... Puzzles in the morning, puzzles in the afternoon and puzzles at night.
He just wants to stay at home and do puzzles.

And when he has completed them a few times, he turns them upside down
and does them that way. All with the help of his big sister.

Business Network International (BNI)

Went to a BNI meeting this morning which was a bit of a shock to the system. The group meet at 6.45 at Scandic Hotel in Bromma - 6.45 am that is, as in early morning!! That involved setting my alarm for before 6am and stumbling out the door at 6.15 AND I had to be dressed in business attire - had almost forgotten what that is - it required a lot of scrounging around in the cupboard. Not to mention I had to leave the car so Tyler could take the kids to daycare. On the train before 6.30AM - that could be a first!

I think my body is still recovering....

Anyway I came in contact with this network through my mentor who is also a member. I have also read a little about it on the net and met another BNI person at one of the American Club networking nights. It feels like it is a spin-off of one of those American pyramid sales organisations, of which I am usually very "anti".

But curious as I am, I went along to see if it is of any interest to me.

A breakfast meeting includes of course breakfast and after some introductions we filled our plates with eggs and bacon, bread and cheese, coffee and juice. The meeting follows a fairly formal agenda and the introductions around the table of both members and visitors made it immediately clear that there could be a lot of value in this network for me.

Not only does BNI follow a formal agenda but they also have very clear goals with the network, so clear that they almost sound crude in my ears. Each member spends a certain amount of energy not only recruiting new members but also inviting guests to the meetings to add to the network, even if only on an informal level.

The members are also focused on satisfying needs, if not their own then the needs of those in their network. A printed sheet is given to each participant with a list of members and what they are looking for. As we went round the group they put forth a contact that they themselves are looking for or on behalf of someone else. Agneta was looking for people interested in installing water filters or contacts in the kitchen renovation or sales business who might be interested in the filters. Roger was looking for companies interested in profiling themselves through golfing products. Ms Lindgren was looking for a sponge supplier, Lars promoted someone else's business and many promoted their own.

The other main part of the meeting included handing out Reference Cards. Again this is a fairly formal procedure with the cards being printed sheets of paper. One copy goes to the person being referred and another is to be filed. The Reference Cards state the name and number of someone who is interested either in your services or the services of someone you have promoted. It needs to be a solid reference and you need to have spoken to the other party so that they are aware that you are passing on their details and can thus anticipate a phone call.

As I said, it all feels very American, but the advantages are clear. I am going to sell advertising, advertising on a website that is new and so far has no visitors. And it is the number of visitors to a site that help sell advertising, the more visitors, the more expensive the advertising. I don't expect it to be easy and I have had any number of experienced people tell me that it is indeed a difficult task, a time consuming task. I was recently given estimates of about 10 phone calls to a company before you get to speak to the right person, then another 6-10 phone calls and meetings before you get close to signing a contract with them. And that information came from an experienced banner salesman...

Any roads in are going to make it easier, quicken the process, improve my success rate. These people are interesting because even if they are not decision-makers likely to buy advertising on my site, they probably know others who are.

The reaction to my business concept was again, very positive. One of the members, a partner in a law firm, expressed immediate interest in advertising on the site.

Why do I hesitate? 600kr or 110 dollars a month makes me hesitate. A high price to pay, or is it?

Protecting our Children

Neither of my babes were particularly enthusiastic about going to Lillgården today, not even Makaila. Kieran was home Friday after ear-aches during the night and had basically been at home, inside, for three days. Breaking the habit is hard.

I left Makaila sitting on Anette's knee and I started to wonder how much she was missing Lucille. Lucille returned to her native France at Easter and Makaila lost one of her friends, again. Now there are three girls in her group, and even if they mix around we all know three is an odd number. Luckily she has a brother and doesn't think twice about playing with the boys. But boys will be boys, and she says she "hates" cars.



So I asked her and she said, yes, she was missing Lucille........

I took Kieran out to Eija and held him for a while while I talked to her. He had been telling me all morning he wasn't going. He was staying home with me. As we walked out he asked me if Nora was there, I didn't have the heart to tell him she wasn't coming today. I passed him over to Eija and went inside again without any of the dreaded tears. She held him for a moment before he wanted to get down and play.

I stopped on my way past to talk to Eija and we stood watching the boys play. There has been a change to his little group of five with the oldest moving to another group and a younger child coming in. I watched them play and saw how it has changed the dynamics, Kieran no longer has Josef all to himself. Needless to say the language hinders him as does his shy, gentle nature. He stood to the side and watched the other two boys. No wonder he was asking after Nora......

I know I have many of these times ahead. Watching my children in difficult situations, guiding them and waiting for it to pass. It doesn't make it any easier. In time the dynamics will change again, Kieran's Swedish will improve, and tomorrow Nora will be there. The other little boy arrived as I left and I walked away hoping that would improve the dynamics. It is tough being a kid, it is tough being a mum.

I walked to the station, grabbing a paper on my way in and sat on the train reading about the dreaded Engla case. I was saddened last night to hear that they had found her body, it hit home this morning as I read the details.

10 year old Engla went missing last weekend. She was riding her bike home from football training for the first time, her bike was found a street away from her home. Such a short distance, several calls on her phone to her mother along the way, yet, she didn't make it home.


She went missing the day after we had been to see Lova and her 10 year old siblings, less than a week after we had said goodbye to 9 1/2 Ellandi at the airport, an excited Ellandi who will be able to ride to school once they move in May........

The tears welled as I read the news, they flowed as I read Hillevi Wahl's column in Metro. She describes how I feel to a T. Engla's mum was quoted as saying she would not give up until she could bring Engla home, well now she can. What parent is not morning with Engla's parents? The worst that can happen, has happened.

Rest In Peace Engla.

As Hillevi says, no matter how much we want to protect our children, we can never protect them from everything. Not from losing friends, not from group dynamics, and not from unknown danger. Not now, not when they are ten, not ever......

But mum, you already know that now don't you.

Dinner and discussion

We had a lovely dinner last night with Helena, Patrik and Kristi.

Kristi called in to say hello before she leaves for the States for a month and ended up staying. It had been a couple of years since she had seen Helena and Patrik so it was nice for everyone.

The night progressed and the "photobooth" application produced a lot of funny pictures and a lot of laughter.

As it got later we settled in to the more serious discussion of equality...........
Let me say today is a sour one.

How do couples get equality in their relationships?

Especially when one has been either on maternity leave, unemployed or scraping together little assignments here and there for over 5 years and now wants to change the balance between taking care of children and having time to work?

Things are so sour today that I wasn't "allowed" out to go and do some work, but it was ok if I took the kids with me.

Life sucks!!!

GI Method??

Someone asked Ty recently if he knew what the GI method was.
Clearly, he doesn't.
The bread baking continues.
As does the eating.......
Yum yum!!

Snow turns to slush and then to puddles

When I left the kids this morning at Lillgården they were building a snölykta and when I picked them up a mere six hours later they were playing in a very wet forest and covered from head to toe (faces included) with sand and dirt.

Getting them in the car on a day like today is an ugly event, and the car ends up worse for wear (good reason for not buying a new one huh?).

As we reached home I was telling Makaila how Suparb used to get them clean by turning the hose on them on days like today, when what was before our very eyes as we got out of the car??

A giant puddle!

Telling Kieran to keep out is impossible, he heads straight for them at any time, today he at least had his gumboots and waterproof pants on. Not that he usually cares....

It turned out to be a great way to get the sand off them before we went inside. And they loved it! Whoever invented the song "rain, rain go away, come again another day" was NOT a Swedish kid!!

Snow!!

The snow has been a mysterious creature this year.

It's absence was felt by everyone through December, January and February. And then it reared its ugly head in March when it was most unwelcome.

By everyone except for the kids.

Ellandi in particular was very enthusiastic about seeing snow in March, snow for Easter.
And we did have a great time in Judarskogen Easter Monday making snow angels, throwing snowballs and skidding on the ice.

But then snow again this morning? This was not what we expected to see when we opened the blinds this morning, even if it was a cold one yesterday.

It is spring - the flowers tell us so and the hire bikes have even been placed around town. It is spring, what is the good of all that snow that just turns to slush?

The Dentist

I took Kieran to the dentist yesterday- just the routine check up they have once they turn 3.
For a while there I thought it was going to be a "no show" and he was going to refuse to open his mouth.

Kieran shied away when the dentist talked to him but I did manage to sit up in the chair with him on my lap, still shying away from her. She had success when she pulled out a toothbrush that matched his top and started poking it in his mouth. She gradually managed to get him to open up and let her brush his teeth (without any toothpaste) although he (gently) clamped down on her finger a couple of times. The mirror was introduced and then the poker thingy and she managed to get a good look at his teeth, counting them and telling him what a good boy he was.

He gladly took his new toothbrush, including the little house to put it in and chose a ring from her box of goodies. He even got a little book (brochure), which was actually for mum and dad, telling him how to brush his teeth.

I had been sitting there thinking that 3 is just too young for a child to experience this sort of thing and had been dreading the confrontation that was likely to come. When Makaila was three and refused to be accommodating the same dentist was quite annoyed with me because my child would not do as she was told and her mother would not make her. I refused to force my child to sit there and I refused to force her mouth open. Is that so strange?

This time we survived this first trip to the dentist without too much of a drama. Thankfully Kieran is a bit more pliable. And Makaila sat and watched the whole thing, encouraging her little brother and wishing she too could have another turn....

Thanks but no thanks

I have had another company express interest in part ownership of my business, my website. We didn't discuss the details but the offer included office space, a platform to build the website on, a sounding board, direct access to their contacts etc etc.

It would be fantastic to have somewhere to work from and to be in a group of people that are clearly dynamic, ahead of the pack and working with some very interesting things. The owner gets a lot of media attention and is very progressive, someone I had respect for even before I came in contact with him a few weeks ago.

I have given it a lot of thought the last few days and decided to decline the offer. It is very flattering, it tells me I am heading in the right direction and that there is value in what I am doing. His final words in our meeting were that he thinks it is great that I am doing this. It is hard to say NO, but NO feels right. Their market segment is similar to mine, but different and making the adjustments that he would want would completely change my profile.

I have to go ahead with this on my own. For now......

A kid's kind of weekend

When Kieran woke on Friday morning his first question was "Am I going to Lillgården today?" and when the answer was Yes he cried so hard that Tyler decided to stay at home with them. Makaila was exhausted too and only woke at 8.30 when K had a tantrum over me leaving for the day.

They went in to work with Tyler for his hour long mentor meeting where the student's got the chance to oooh and ahhh over the kids. K fell asleep on his shoulder during the lesson and Makaila sat quietly with a book at the front of the class. Our shy children loved the experience but didn't dare say "boo" to anyone.

Saturday morning we got up nice and early and were at Yvonne's just after 8am. We picked up her, her almost 12 year old daughter Yvette and Maggie Rose (their three-legged dog) and drove out to Yvette's horse-riding school. The kids were enthralled with the pre-class grooming of the horses and then sat attentively through the 40 minute lesson. Kieran hardly blinked!

We went back to their place afterwards - with Kieran protesting saying he just wanted to go home. His toilet-training started over the Easter weekend and since then he has not wanted to go anywhere - he only wants to sit on the toilet at home! But we endured, he settled and sat and drank hot chocolate. Afterwards Kieran was still eager to go home but Makaila was upset because we had to leave. I think she likes being anywhere but home and an older child and a dog definitely made it an attractive place to be.

After an afternoon nap (all but M) we went over to Lova's place. Lova and Makaila went to Suparb's family daycare together when they were just 2 years old. Lova then moved over to the daycare beside Kristofferskolan where her brother and sister go. The girls got along very well, as did the parents, so we continued to stay in contact although so much time has passed that the girls no longer remembered each other.

Still it didn't take long for them to warm up and a couple of guinea pigs certainly helped things go smoothly. Kieran, on the other hand, sat on the step by the front door, he wanted to go home and didn't want any dinner. Tyler eventually talked him round and he sat up with us and ate too. It was a lovely evening and really nice to see them again. We talked, and talked and talked and then talked some more. All the kids played, both young and old and Lova's 10yr old brother and sister were involved most of the evening. They either sat with us and talked, played with the girls or helped Kieran build train track. Lovely kids! We finally dragged ourselves out of there at 10.30 to take the tired little ones home to bed.

Today, Sunday we had a working bee at Lillgården. There is going to be a new group after the summer and Kieran's group is getting a new room. So Makaila and I were part of the team and we sanded walls, puttied and stripped wall paper for a couple of hours. Makaila was actually quite a good help and she enjoyed running between the adults and a new boy who was in "her" room playing with the toys. She also enjoyed sitting outside drinking cordial and eating a sandwich with all the adults. She sat in her "normal" spot.

Meanwhile Tyler and Kieran were doing the weekly grocery shopping - thank goodness I didn't have to do it. I HATE grocery shopping!

All in all it has been a nice, kid-oriented kind of weekend.

Athena & Ellandi have been and gone

April is here and they are in Paris. No more can we say "When Athena and Ellandi come we will......" Years of talking about them coming and thinking about what we'll do has evaporated in just three little weeks. What will we look forward to now? Will it be another 10 years before my sister visits me??

It is not normal for my sister and I to live under the same roof, it is not normal for us to live in the same country! We have hardly done it as adults. The longest time we have spent together in the years gone by is a week. A week at the beach, at mum's, at her place. Now we survived 3 weeks under the same roof and we didn't even argue...... We must be mellowing in our old age.

I'm going to miss my sister so much, I am so grateful that she took a few weeks out to spend them with us, in our life. It means a lot to me.


Now it is back to work for me, time to put my head down and get serious. Time is ticking by and decisions need to be made.

Family Concert

Saturday afternoon we went to Konserthuset at Hötorget and saw an hour long family concert called Vi äro musikanter or "We are musicians".
We initially had poor seats but snuck down to some empty seats overlooking the stage.
Two crazy clowns entertained the kids and the orchestra played great music. They brought out a balloon and sent it around the audience which resulted in a lot of laughter and audience involvement.

It is great to take the kids in to this beautiful building and have them listen to the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. Such a pleasurable experience for both young and old.
We went and had "fika" afterwards at Vete-Katten.

Night out with the girls

We met Lynessa and Anne at Berns for a drink. It was great to catch up with Lynessa after her recent trip home to the US and I hadn't seen Anne in months.

After a beer we headed across the road to a Lebanese restaurant for dinner where we were served way more than we could eat.
Good food, great company and great wine - what more could you want - except a little less of a bill at the end of it - I guess I am all too used to the prices here in Stockholm....

Day 5 Ellandi at Lillgården with Kieran

Kieran's teacher Eija invited Ellandi to spend the day with them Friday.

We left her holding Kieran and another child's hands, walking in a line off to the forest. They spent a couple of hours there playing as they do every Friday. They came back and had their picnic lunch inside before lying down for a sleep. We picked them up at 2pm before they headed off outside to play.

Eija was a little worried that Ellandi had been bored but she assured us she had had a great time. And I imagine K loved having her with him. M on the other hand was very jealous.

Athena and I got a little time to ourselves. A went to see an osteopath and I went to a meeting before meeting up again for lunch. We were very grateful to Eija for giving us a precious few hours and Ellandi showed her appreciation by giving her a koala pin.

Day 4 in Stockholm

Makaila went and saw Pippi - again!! She loved it this time too. She Athena and Ellandi with her and despite not understanding a word of it they loved it too.

We now sing it on a daily basis - someone starts and everyone ends up getting it stuck in their heads. I think Pippi has definitely been the theme of this trip.

Day 3 in Stockholm

The kids went off to Lillgården this morning and Athena, Ellandi and I went in to town to explore. They have been waking up a 4am and wanting to go to bed early although on the whole I think E had been coping really well with the jet lag.

We got off at Odenplan and walked to Gamla Stan where we finally stopped for lunch.

It took me a while to find it but success was ours to be had. We headed down into a cafe in a vault - one that was a little more original than the first one we went in to. Cafe Art has a nice feel to it and much to our surprise the girl working there was a fellow Aussie!!

After lunch I went off to my afternoon-long meeting leaving A & E to explore Gamla Stan before heading out to pick up M & K.

My meeting went well and I am pleased to say that A & E managed to find the kids and even get them home safely on the train (not that I expected anything else of course, just thought I'd check with them JUST in case they needed any help... )

And it is always nice to come home and find dinner on the table. Mmmmm.... babysitting, meal cooking, I wonder how long I can keep them??

Another 1700s skåp

Not too sure how this happened actually, and I'm not so sure it was such a smart thing. All I did is put in one little bid on the net and he told me there were lots of people looking at it so we probably wouldn't get it and it would probably go up a lot.

It didn't, and we did.

After dropping Athena and the kids at home I headed in to town to meet Tyler and picked up the bottom part of it. Couldn't get the top section in the car so after dinner A and I went over to Kristi's and borrowed her car (turned our Kristi's Puegeot wagon was A's most desired car so I had to keep her from drooling all over the place) and went in and picked up the little number before heading back to K's to drop off, and unfortunately drop off the red beast. Quite the round trip around town.

And we ended up with quite the mess in the lounge room which is taking an eternity to sort out.

I have to confess it is a cute little piece - little in comparison with the other two and it fits in quite nicely. We managed to condense our stuff from the big modern piece in to this little one and it goes well with the green floral couch. Perhaps ONE day we will be able to put them together in some quaint little study or guest room (in another life perhaps......).

One thing is for sure is that we have been able to rearrange the lounge room and it now looks SO much better than it did. I HATED those three couches together! It feels so much roomier (ha ha!!) now.

Ahhh the trials and tribulations of life..... Remind me NOT to let him trick me in to bidding on a piece of furniture next time a family member arrives on my doorstep. I just know he is going to try and sneak a grandfather clock in here too!

Day 2 in Stockholm

I have two kids here who are very excited to have their cousin here. It is play, play and more play. Nothing more, nothing less.

The highlight of the day was going out for a walk around Traneberg. We headed down to Johannelund and up to the bench on Himmelfärdsberget looking across to Huvudsta gård where we ate lunch in the icy conditions (it was a mild 5°C but after leaving temperatures of 40° they were freezing). we continued around along the water to Tranebergssund and played in the park for an hour or so before heading home.

We then jumped in the car and headed off around Bromma for a drive. I wanted to show Athena where Lillgården was so that she and Ellandi could find their way there the next day to pick up the kids from daycare. They got the grand tour of the area - enough to confuse the life out of them and they were forced to suffer from information overload before we headed home - just wanted them to have a little look around.........

Athena & Ellandi are here

I left daycare at 8.30 (pretty good timing for us) and headed straight for the airport - I knew their flight landed at about 9am but I figured I would be there by the time they got out.

I contemplated dashing home and getting my forgotten coffee, I contemplated parking in the cheaper car park a little further away, I did neither and went straight past go without collecting 200 dollars.

I rushed in to the airport .... and whoops.... there they were standing waiting for me. They landed at 9.05 and it was 9.20. Talk about fast!

I dragged them to the grocery store (COOP forum!!) in the search for decaff coffee amongst other things. There were endless kinds of organic and fair trade coffee but not decaff. We got everything else, came home, had a grand tour of the palace, looked at some photos, unpacked, ate lunch and drank coffee - with caffine!

Caffine did nothing for Athena who snoozed while I did some work before taking the very awake Ellandi to get Makaila and Kieran. Ellandi had a tour of Lillgården while we waited for M to finish her snack before heading home.

Once at home I did some more work amidst the chaos of three children very excited to be playing together. K was very weary of the now awake Athena but happy to chat away to Ellandi.
They built a castle with blocks and a fort with blankets.

T came home and made dinner while I continued with my last minute assignment. The kids played and Athena zombied.

Dinner, bath and teeth brushing came and went. Stories were read and the light turned out. Didn't take long before three kids were fast asleep. Athena was long gone, on the couch.

Somewhere in all this we brought another 1700's skåp. Not sure where this one is going to go??

We'll see what the night brings......

Sour dough

What else is a novice going to do other than take on the seemingly difficult task of making sour dough bread - from scratch. And it wasn't just seemingly difficult, it was complex too.

The sour stuff sat for 5 days, then he mixed 2 other kinds of doughs and put all three together and they sat for 18 hours. Tonight he baked the bread and it was yummy!!!

He bought me a Kitchen Aid, I bought him a bread book and he makes the bread (clever huh?!). So far I've used the Kitchen Aid once, he has used it countless times.



The bread has been delicious every time, which is great when you are on a diet..........

Makaila has lost another tooth

Each tooth has been an event, each tooth has its own story.
This is the first one she grew, and the first one she lost. It surfaced when she was just 4 months old, and left for the land of baby teeth when she was just 4 1/2.
She had been complaining towards the end of last summer that her tooth hurt and that she couldn't bite on it. Great, I thought, bad parents - she has a hole in her tooth.

When she told me that it was loose I was so shocked that she burst into tears and got scared. I was worried and I can tell you, I am not a worrier. I rang the advice line and they said, much to my disbelief - nope it's ok, she is in the right age range to be losing teeth. I am still in shock - you lose teeth when you are 7 - not 4 1/2!! They said it could take a couple of weeks.

A couple of days later T went away over night and M was sitting on her little bike when she kind of froze and then burst in to tears. She was quite distressed and held her hand at her mouth. She pulled it away and it had a tooth in it.

Her reaction was so, so sweet, so innocent that I had to stifle a chuckle. I reassured and comforted her. Actually I tell a lie - I did all of that and in the end she was laughing her head off - and was in shock at the same time. She was proud too. A few days later the tooth fairy brought her a bike (what can you do when your birthday is in winter??)

The next tooth brought with it a little anxiety and anticipation. It was the other of the two front ones. It was also an event and in some ways more traumatic than the first. It started with the taste of blood in her mouth. She ran in to the bathroom and spat in the basin. I remember the tears. The four of us ended up sitting on the couch trying to reassure and comfort her, but it didn't help. It was hanging by a mere thread....

Remember those ones? Everyone has a story to tell about those teeth.

So we just sat on the couch waiting for it to miraculously fall out on its own. Of course it didn't.

She wouldn't pull it out and she wouldn't let us touch it. I finally took Kieran and went to bed about 10.30. With M being so upset he hadn't been able to sleep. M and T got in to our bed and fell asleep about 11.30. She was so worried about swallowing it in her sleep.

The next morning I awoke to their chattering in the shower and heard that she had been awake on and off during the night worrying about it. When I asked her about it she realised it wasn't in her mouth and wondered where it was. I found it under her pillow. She was relieved, and proud. She had just turned 5 and lost a second tooth.

We've been guessing for a while now which one will be next. She reported a couple of days ago that she bit in to a carrot at daycare and suddenly the one on the other side of her first lost tooth was loose and got looser and looser as the day progressed (wonder how that happened??).
She showed her teacher the next morning along with my prediction that it would be that day or the next.

When I picked her up that afternoon (Tuesday) she had a surprise for me - a little tooth wrapped up in a package. She had taken a bite of an apple and felt something hard in her mouth so she spat it out - it was a tooth.

This third tooth was not nearly as traumatic as the first two, but the fear and anticipation was there. She didn't sleep well Monday night, worrying again about swallowing it, and I could see that it filled her with tension - the not knowing how it would end.

When I picked her up she burst in to tears. The tooth was out, the anxiety had come to an end and she was proud again - and excited about the tooth fairy's visit (just doll house furniture this time).

Kieran's Birthday Party Sunday

We started the day with ice-skating. Can't believe I managed to get T out of the house the same day others were expected, but we managed. Skating with our neighbours is almost becoming a Sunday morning tradition - just hope they don't close the rink for public skating anytime soon.

We came home and frantically cleaned up, vacumed and I iced the cake I had baked that morning. As I was going to bed Saturday night I realised that I had doubled all the liquid ingredients for the banana cake but not the dry ones - so very clever of me. So I quickly whipped up another, simpler one and put the two together. Lucky K woke up early this morning (I think it was is as early as 6.30?)

As I was busy icing and the kids were passified with a movie, T went off in to town with Christian to look at an auction. And I mean why not? He bought our big piece just days after K was born so it seemed fitting he should go buy another the day we were celebrating his 3rd birthday. However a new piece was not to be had - I guess he decided it got too expensive.

The cake was in the fridge and I was fussing around doing a few things when Sandee and Leo arrived. Poor Josh was at home sick. T and C arrived back, picked up the rest of the gang and had not long been in the door when the phone rang. It was Mel & Ondi - could they come and get Sasha? Sure, cake and coffee are ready in 30 minutes. They came back from Oz on Friday and their call couldn't have been timed better - I had wanted to invite them but hadn't been sure when they were due back.
We had to wait a while for Luca but it was worth it. Sandee was in charge of entertaining the kids and helped them build the new puzzle from Noa and Zach.

Once Luca had arrived (or was it once they had cake?) we had 6 crazy kids running (literally) around in our palace, and five adults struggling to hear what the person beside them was saying. But it was fun and the birthday boy had a great time!!

They had mostly been waiting for cake and it was finally produced and the kids all sat up at the table ready for their sugar kick.

Kieran really has the hang of this birthday business and he loves it when we sing Happy Birthday - and he is right there with us singing in both English and Swedish.
He was thrilled with his car and while he initially decided it should be yellow like Patrik's, he changed his mind and wanted green. I'm glad he didn't change his mind again - any other colour might have been a little hard to produce!


It seemed criminal to cut it but.... easy come, easy go. Actually it wasn't all that difficult to make - thanks to the Women's Weekly Party Cake Book. It took no more than an hour to cut and decorate.
The licorice details helped a lot, but were less than popular with the kids - don't kids like licorice any more?? The adults still do.......

All in all it didn't taste too bad - even with the heavy banana cake on the bottom and the lighter one on top. The icing is a favorite of mine - cream cheese and icing sugar with melted white chocolate mixed into make it a little more firm. Yum...
And so we could hear ourselves and actually talk to each other we went with another child pacifying trick - I think it was "Cars" which is why M is not in the photo - she simply REFUSED to watch it AGAIN!!

It was a crazy, fun Sunday. It was, as usual, lovely to bring people together, to be social and to celebrate. What more is there to life?

Pippi Longstocking

Makaila, Kristi and I met for lunch on Saturday at The Culture House and then went to see Pippi Longstocking (Långstrump in Swedish). It was fantastic. I'm not sure what I preferred - watching M or watching the production. She was delighted and so were we! It was so much fun that I want to go back again.
Mind you nothing will ever beat watching her watch live theatre for the first time.

Our visit to the Fire Station Thursday

Being the school holidays the fire stations were all open to the public. We went to a fairly new one in Vällingby and the kids LOVED it!!

We were there for an hour and a half - much longer than anyone else there that afternoon.

The kids climbed all over the 3 vehicles, looked at the gym, kitchen etc and watched a movie on fire fighting and rescue. They drank cordial and ate pepparkakor. K even accidently leant on the horn and frightened the life out of himself and others.

The fire fighters were all there on stand-by to answer any questions that the kids or parents had.

We had a great time and I would love to go to a different one, perhaps a city one and take a look around there too.

And it didn't cost us a cent! (or a öre) Can definitely recommend a trip to the local fire station on the next school holidays - we'll be going again.