Homemade birthday cupcakes for Sienna’s class, a dangerously leaning tree in the process of coming down with my brother Jacobs help, Elliot working hard on homework and on power washing the driveway, Elliot sporting his own design (a custom made ‘Stop Dabbing Be Happy’ sweatshirt) and also a picture where he is all dressed up for a party at school, and kids/cousins/uncles relaxing and playing various games..
Every year I try to make sure that we make it to the forest in time to see all the anemones and green leaves come out. We had a nice little picnic in the sun and afterwards we went through the bog, which recently had a walkway built over it. We liked this new addition to the area as it gave us a better chance to explore and see new things (in the one picture that doesn’t really look like anything you can see parts of a black adder if you look really close and use your imagination). Elliot didn’t believe you could sink down into the bog but when he had the chance to get a closer look upside down, he decided he did not want to try and find out!
We had a nice sunny spring day available so we headed out to our favourite museum of modern art, Louisiana, to take in the current exhibit. Picasso was on display and we all practiced doing some Picasso inspired animal drawings and sculptures. Afterwards we had a delicious lunch at the café and enjoyed the gorgeous day in the museum garden.
Wednesdays are digi free around our house, which implies no computer, Ipad, or phone. It’s my favourite day of the week as it most often includes board games and other creative initiatives such as pine cone sculptures.
Sienna with her friend Filippa from school, Ella from skating, and cousin Maximillian. Elliot with his friend Marius from school and with some sand craft.
We got half a day of snow this winter so you had to be fast to enjoy it. Also pictured is Sienna and Mormor playing the fun game Patchwork, Elliot getting ready to eat his salami rice cake sandwich creation, Elliot doing homework with Mormor, and finally, Elliot and Sienna posing as models for a Amazon.com cutting board listing.
Elliot got a new bed for Christmas and in addition we also spiked up his room by painting green mountains on one of the walls. Other than that, the kids were busy with indoor activities such as various crafts, puzzles, LEGO, and movie making.
Since this is Elliot’s first year playing badminton, he also got the chance to play at his first badminton tournament. There were many players who had been playing for years but Elliot held his ground and performed really well despite being a beginner. On the pictures he is featured playing double with Samuel, one of Elliot’s class mates.
Three out of four household members have been hit with fever this weekend, so there is not much interesting to tell about. Instead, I am posting some pictures from last weekend, where we had one very nice day of relaxing and another day filled with activities. On the relaxing day we stayed in our pajamas all day long while doing puzzles for hours and lots of crafts and colouring. On the busy day Elliot went to a hockey tournament in Sweden while I drove Sienna a total of 600 km, so that she could do 2½ minutes on ice in the Danish Skating Cup. Slightly crazy if you ask me, but she told me how grateful she was 10 times before we went, 10 times while we were driving across the country, and 10 times after we got back home. Amazing how far gratitude can get you. I did not take the pictures of Elliot and his hockey team below, but I did make the cookies with his hockey jersey, as there was a bake sale at his club this weekend.
Elliot is starting to look like a pro on the ice and these days he hardly complains when he has to go.
December has been a fun month where we found the time to uphold many of our December family traditions. It was Shawn’s year to decorate the tree with the kids and it ended up looking very colourful. Christmas gift production was also at its highest ever, and we went through several roles of tape and paper as everything had to be meticulously wrapped. On top of the traditional cookie decorating, Sienna and I found time to try out a recipe from 1866 for “rustic crunchy vanilla donuts”. I don’t know what they are called in English, but in Danish they are called “vaniljekranse”. For Christmas Eve Sienna made some nice place cards and we had fun setting the table together. We were both really pleased with how it turned out.
The kids spent a week in August at tennis camp where they got to practice the basics. The weather turned out to be spectacular and they both thought it was a success, particularly because they got their own racket and tennis bag.
Sienna is becoming the little entrepreneur of the family. With some help from her dad she has found a good place to by merchandise such as jewellery, watches, and sun glasses, which she intends to sell at flea markets. Here she is with her part-time co-worker Elliot at the local garden centre. They invited kids to come by and set up their stands but as they didn’t advertise the event, and because everyone is away on vacation these days, the turnout was very limited. At the end of the day, however, Sienna had a revenue of 40$ which was not bad at all, considering. She has already re-invested this money in new merchandise and she is keeping track of her finances in an Excel sheet. Her parents are very proud of the initiative and skill she is showing.
Speaking of “keeping track” I have made it almost impossible to follow the blog, because I am so behind with the sorting and posting of pictures. Although it may seem like I haven’t posted anything for a very long time, I actually have. All the posts are backdated, though, as I want them to appear in the months they took place. There are pictures from Halloween, our trip to Ireland, a picture from when Sienna won 1st place in the skating club, and pictures from Christmas and Christmas morning. Finally, there are also pictures from a cookie decorating session with my sister, from when Sienna made a snowman with the very little snow we got this winter, and from one of Elliot’s hockey training sessions.
Play dates, roller skates, pizza making, cup cake baking, bouncing, Minecrafting, and lots of giggling were some of the keywords for the month of June.
Sienna asked Mormor to teach her to knit. Elliot was inspired and got started as well. It takes balls to knit!
Elliot had his first season of hockey this year and although he started off slowly he ended the season skating like a pro. He had a friend from his class join halfway through the season which helped a bit with his confidence too. There is a short video of his skating skills here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckQbVu1RnZY
As always, Sienna and I have fun crafting and preparing for her birthday party. This year we have decided on an ice cream theme. On the pictures below Sienna is preparing ice cream invitations and ice cream cookies. Her cookies are starting to look like they were made by a pro.
On top of the Easter egg hunt we had in Sweden, we also had our traditional hunt around the house. This year, I had put four eggs of each color out in the backyard except for the orange ones where I only put two. The kids then had to pair eggs of every color and in the end decide which egg that didn’t have a partner. Sometimes they had to leave eggs behind because they had already collected a pair of that particular color, so this made the hunt less frantic and more challenging, as it required a bit of thinking and keeping track.
We took a day trip on our Easter holiday just across the water to Sweden where we visited Helsingborg and Landskrona. Landskrona does not have much to offer but it is directly across the water on the Swedish side from where we live and it has an old Danish castle (from when that part of Sweden was Danish) from the 1500’s which is in fairly good condition. I played a trick on the kids and pretended to give Shawn a text from the Easter bunny which said they had to go out and hunt for some Easter treats which I had hid in the cannons by the water. From Landskrona we went to Helsingborg and visited the old part of town where there was another old Danish castle on top of the hill in the city center. Sienna and Shawn climbed to the while Elliot and I enjoyed the nice Spring weather on a bench below. Finally, we then went to visit an outdoor air museum with some old farm buildings and other Swedish heritage buildings from a few hundred years ago.
