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.
Elliot
Pictures of Elliot
Elliot’s first badminton tournament
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.
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.
Happy Birthday Elliot
Elliot opted out of having a big birthday party this year. He didn’t want any crowds (his words). Just cinnabons for breakfast, lots of uninterrupted Ipad time, and mormor and BC over for dinner and board games.
A birthday cake for daddy
Elliot prepared a delicious birthday cake for Shawn’s birthday this year, complete with 42 candles in it.
Hockey Update
Elliot is starting to look like a pro on the ice and these days he hardly complains when he has to go.
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.
Motor Mayhem
While we are waiting for me to catch up I just have to post this picture of a very excited little boy who, admittedly, doesn’t look so excited because he is sleeping. But two hours earlier he was at the stadium getting ready to watch the Motor Mayhem show only to learn that it would be postponed due to rain. He remained the happy camper of the day and his dad got him a cap (at a bargain price of only $60). Elliot decided that he had to sleep with the cap so that he wouldn’t forget to bring it to the show tomorrow.
I should also mention that although I am still terribly behind I have actually posted a bunch of stuff that was missing from last year. For instance, pictures from our trip to Ireland as well as some pictures from Christmas and Christmas morning.
Hockey
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
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.
Elliot’s Minecraft Birthday Party
As Elliot is still a very big fan of Minecraft this was the theme for his 6th birthday where we invited my family over for the festivities. All the treats were given names and labels from the Minecraft game. We had dirt grass, potions of invisibility, sticks, carrots, slime balls, diamonds, gold, cookies, TNT, chests with goodies, and a cake out of blocks with a ready to be eaten Steve which I molded out of sugar paste.
Hockey
We’ve had a hard time getting Elliot into an activity he really likes so we were very happy when he tried hockey and then said he wanted to do it again. Right now he’s mostly just learning the basics but he’s improving really fast and is having fun.
The Jumping Castle
We had the jumping castle for the whole weekend so we got very some good use out of it, both with the neighbourhood kids and with the kids’ cousins. Even the big kids got into the fun!
Elli Belli’s Mini Tivoli
A good deal on a jumping castle ended up determining the theme for Elliot’s 6th birthday party. To increase our chances of having nice weather we pushed his party forward to the middle of September, which also meant that Farmor got a chance to experience a Danish birthday party. A Tivoli is the Danish equivilant of a carnival so I made the invitations into carnival tickets which the party guests had to present at the door in order to enter “Elli Belli’s Mini Tivoli”. In addition to the jumping castle there were some different carnival games were the kids could win tickets which were subsequently exchanged into dollars. The dollars could be used to purchase cotton candy, hotdogs, candy, waffles, popcorn, chips, and slush ice. The day was a huge success and noone got injured in the jumping castle. When I said goodnight to Elliot that night, I asked him if he had had a good day? He responded, “it was the nicest, nicest, nicest, party ever. Thank you for setting it all up for me.”
School prestart
Just like Sienna, Elliot got pulled over from Kindergarten/preschool to school on May 1st. School doesn’t officially start until August, but the kids get a chance to acclimatize a bit and hang out with their new classmates in a more informal atmosphere (and the government gets to save a lot of money as it is much less costly to have kids in school compared to Kindergarten). It’s tradition to call all the new kids’ names one by one, and once the new class is complete they go to their classroom to meet their teacher. On the way each kid gets a rose and they are also greeted by the current 1st graders waving the Danish flag.
Ready to go
One of the last pictures from April features a very excited 5 year old the day before he goes to school all by himself. Together with his proud big sister he is double checking if his school bag fits properly even when sitting down. The other picture is of Sienna in the Indian outfit she wore at the end-of-term show at the skating club. Just two days before the show I was told that she needed to appear as an Indian in the show, and as the end of April is not exactly the ideal time to go shopping for Indian outfits, I had to throw something together with the materials at hand. The old thick curtains that were used to black out the kids’ room at the old apartment came in handy and even ensured that she could stay warm in the cold rink.
Checking out School
The school year in Denmark typically starts around the 2nd week of August, but if you are just starting school – like Elliot this year – you get to spend the months of May and June at the school to familiarize yourself a bit with everything beforehand. During one of the last days of April, Elliot was invited to the school to meet his new teacher and all of his new class mates for the first time. He was very happy and excited and wanted to hang around at the school’s play ground long after everyone had left.
First time at the hair dresser
Elliot has never been known to have an abundance of patience, in particular not when it comes to setting aside time for a haircut. For this reason I have not even bothered taking him to a hair dresser, as I was convinced it would be one very whiny and embarrassing affair. At age 5½ I decided that it was finally time to give it a try. Not one complaint from young Master Ramsey. My hair dresser was very impressed to say the least with this young and well-behaved gentleman who I had brought to the salon.
Elliot at Tivoli
Every year I take the kids to Tivoli on their birthday. Elliot usually doesn’t want to stay for very long but this year we had the park to ourselves and that seemed to make a big difference as we ended up staying for hours. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.
Elliot on the morning of his 5th birthday
After our visit to Miniature Wonderland in Germany, Elliot has been getting more into LEGO so that was one of his big requests for his birthday this year. Many of the LEGO City kits are recommended for kids aged 5-12 so Elliot was very excited because, even though he could build them when he was 4, knowing he was 5 years old gave him some added confidence to the task. He is also a very big helper in the yard whenever Shawn or I am out there so we got him a toy wheelbarrow, shovel, and lawnmower. We rounded off the morning with one of Elliots favourites, a pancake breakfast.
