Celebrations

Pictures from birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, and other happy events

Happy Birthday Elliot

On Friday this handsome young man turned 9 years old. It was still very dark outside as we all got out of bed to start the day off with pancakes, ice cream, and sprinkles. After that, it was time to go to school. Elliot brought a homemade alligator pull-apart-cupcake-cake with him, which all the kids really liked. Upon his return from school there were more surprises. In his room, mormor was hiding in a giant box. She brought Lego and a cool/cute homemade moose. Elliot was also ecstatic to learn about the Apple gift certificate which Farmor had sent (thank you Farmor), and Sienna had crafted a personal greeting card with two of Elliot’s favorite foods, soy sauce and salmon. Finally, Elliot also found the time to color in the greeting card from great grandma in Canada (thank you great grandma). After a lovely and sunny afternoon, we headed downtown to meet up with Shawn for a game of petanque and some juicy burgers.

The 40th

With a little bit of delay I celebrated my 40th birthday on the 20th of August. We started out in the afternoon with a cake and dessert buffet which I had prepared. The buffet was adorned by a timeline with pictures of my friends dating back 25 years (including the few ones who couldn’t make it). After the cake we moved on to the entertainment. It was produced by some utterly brilliant people and I cannot remember the last time I laughed so hard and for so long. Finally, we sat down for an exquisite dinner, which I cannot take credit for as it was prepared by a professional and very skillful chef, Morten Vagner. Thank you to my amazing friends for making this event a bigger success than I had ever dreamed of.

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Happy 10th Birthday to Sienna

It was one very happy 10-year old who got out of bed this morning. She started out the day with some nice new clothes including some cool neon items, which she will need for the neon-themed birthday party we are throwing for her class at the end of May. She also got some rolling shoes from her cousins in Canada and she got a weekend trip to Barcelona from us. After opening the presents there was time for some cinnamon waffles with ice cream and sprinkles. After that she was off to school. To commemorate the day, she brought homemade party puppies to her teachers and all of her class mates. Before lunch I picked her up from school again, and as tradition goes we headed to Tivoli to celebrate the big day with Mormor.

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Christmas time…

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.

 

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17th of November

On the morning of November the 17th we all got up early to celebrate that Elliot was turning 7 years old. He had a breakfast of his requested favourite (white toast) and he got to open presents which more or less all featured a Minecraft/LEGO theme. As he didn’t want a big party, but had specifically requested to do something low key with the immediate family, we went out to a restaurant and celebrated there.  At the restaurant he got to open a few more presents while we waited for the food to be served. He was very pleased with how the day turned out.

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A weekend trip to Sweden

Shawn’s birthday gift to me this year was a weekend trip to southern Sweden through an area called Skåne/Scania (the part of Sweden that was once part of Denmark until around 1650).  We had a couple of days to explore and relax and enjoy each other’s company while the kids were visiting my parents for a mini holiday of their own.  We had great weather and stayed at a spa hotel the first night where we enjoyed a relaxing dinner, a refreshing spa treatment, and great views of the Baltic Sea.  We drove around the coast taking in the sights to a small town called Kristianstad where we stayed another night before driving back in the morning to pick up the kids.

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29th of April

When Sienna turned nine, she had the same traditional birthday as she has had pretty much all of her life. Breakfast and presents in the morning, then off to school with a tray of cupcakes (this time in the shape of little owls or birds of some sort). After school it was time to go to Tivoli to celebrate with Mormor. A great day as usual.

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The Easter Egg Hunt

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.

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Christmas Morning

As is tradition the kids opens presents from the Canadian side of the family on the morning of the 25th. Thanks to Kenzy and Logan for Sienna’s Lego Friends and half of Elliot’s Lego City Airport, Tessa for Sienna’s talking bird and Elliot’s other half of the Lego City Airport, Owen and Kyle for Sienna’s Spy kit and Elliot’s Nerf bow and arrow, and Farmor for Sienna’s top model book and stuffed bear and Elliot’s cash register. A special thanks also goes out to Shawn’s friend Gus and his wife Nathalie who had sent the kids each a gift certificate to Itunes.

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Christmas

We started off Christmas celebrations on the 24th with the kids opening presents from us. Sienna’s gift was tickets to the theatre to see the Nutcracker and as she had finally reached the cellphone age, she also got an Iphone. Elliot received things from his favourites – Lego and Minecraft – and last but not least, he got the Foosball table he had talking about for  months. My parents and my good friend Candice came by in the night for dinner and lots of Christmas treats.

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Elliot 6 Years

November was dark and cold with very few Kodak moments. The only pictures I snapped were around the two days when Elliot celebrated his 6th birthday. Here he is on the morning of the 17th opening the presents from Canada (he got a new bike from us earlier in the year).  From cousin Tessa he got a colourful bird which sings and repeats what you say and from Kenzy and Logan he got a bow and arrow which he had whished for. From Kyle and Owen and Farmor he got Lego. He was very happy about everything and expressed a lot of gratitude, so thanks to the family in Canada.

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