S is for summer and swimming

For the first month after school gets out, the kids have swimming lessons every day, rain or shine. This costs only about $30, and they go together with their after-school program so I don't even need to make a special trip.

Lina made a lot of progress this year, and quickly achieved her goals. On the Saturday after the swimming lessons ended (July 9), all the kids and their families gathered for the closing ceremony. This year, the weather was absolutely perfect! One by one, their names were called and they splashed or swam across the poos according to their ability. Those who swam well enough to be in the deep side of the pool could jump or dive from the diving board or the high dives. Lina chose to jump from the 3 meter platform.



The kids who had reached a certain level of proficiency were then awarded a wreath of willow or oak leaves to wear as they completed their lap around the pool.

After that, the instructors threw candy into the pool for the kids to dive after. (Imagine a frenzy of hungry piranha.)

The best birthday party ever! (part 3)

Finally, here come some goofy pictures that Amy took with a really wide angle lens. What fun!

The best birthday party ever! (part 2)

Lina said it was the best birthday party ever, so needless to say, I'm quite pleased. Here are some candid pictures of the party (also taken by Amy).



On Lina's request, I made an "Oreo Cookie" cake. I was happy to do this because this is also one of my favorite cakes, extra chocolaty and dense.



The pinata was also a big hit.


When not being photographed, the girls enjoyed dancing and working on a craft project.

The best birthday party ever!

It's embarrassing how bad I've been about blogging. There have been so many other more pressing things to do. There still are, so I'll try to make this quick.

Lina's birthday was in May, while Erik and I were in Germany. After that there was all the end of the school year stuff and a 3 week visit from my mom and stepfather. Therefore we postponed the birthday party until July second.

The theme for the party was model of the day. I would have loved to be the photographer, but sometimes I don't have time to do that and be a mom too, so I asked my friend and fellow photographer Amy Archer to take the pictures. She brought her portable studio equipment and encouraged the girls to accessorize and pose.

Here are some of my favorite model shots.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Yup, I might as well get used to it and make the best of it, because it looks like it will be a long and snowy winter. Since my last post in November, it has continued to snow. We got as much as an 18 inch base, then it blew around, and for all of one day, it started to melt. As of a couple of days ago, we were down to about a 6 inch base on top of a good layer of ice. Yesterday it started snowing again, and it's still snowing. This time it's a wetter snow, so it's compacting, but I'd say we've got another 8 inches.

My days have been all about chopping and carrying firewood and keeping the fire going in the fireplace. Despite that, it's still been cold in the house. But enough complaining.

On Monday, kids all over Sweden dressed up in white dresses, santa suits, or as gingerbread people. According to tradition, they wake their parents up in the morning by singing and delivering saffron buns. That has never happened in my household, but at my daughter's school, the do the Saint Lucia thing at the church.

Is the sky falling?

Not wanting to complain about the weather, which has actually been relatively nice if a bit cold, I haven't had that much to say. Keeping busy as usual, I guess.

My husband's been in China for the last week together with a friend. They went to the world's largest tool show.

My daughter had a friend sleep over for the first time last weekend, and it went surprisingly well. I suppose it helps that I pointed out to her that if she misbehaved, it would be a long time before she'd get to have a friend spend the night again. I was particularly impressed that as soon as the Disney movie they were watching ended at 8:15, they promptly got ready and went to bed. At 8:45 I pointed out to them that if they wanted me to think they were sleeping, they should at least whisper instead of laughing at full volume. It got quieter, and I was totally shocked that at 9:00 it was actually quiet for real. They slept until 7 AM.

On Sunday, none of her friends were available to play, so we ended up baking first blueberry muffins for breakfast then cupcakes for dessert. In between, we made a quick visit to friends who showed us some meteorites that they had collected.

On Tuesday morning, my daughter showed me a "meteorite" that she'd found at school. At first I was very skeptical, expecting an ordinary rock with a dose of imagination. Then I realized that the rock was unusually heavy, and magnets stuck to it. What were the odds of a child finding a meteorite in the grass at school? About the same as getting struck by lightning, I figured. It was much more likely that a meteorite had found its way into her pocket when we were at our friend's house, and that thought made me sick to my stomach.

When I picked her up from school, I explained to her my views on the situation and gave her several opportunities to take back her story, but she stuck to it. We called our friends and they agreed to take a look at it the next day (and check if anything was missing.)

It turns out that the stone really did look like a meteorite, but not one of our friends' meteorites. They did some tests on it and determined that it was some iron slag, perhaps as much as 2000 years old but not from outer space. I guess we'll have to find an archeologist to show it to, but best of all, I'm so relieved to find out that my daughter was telling the truth after all. I feel pretty bad for not trusting her, and I hope that doesn't leave her scarred for life.

Amusement 3 X 6 = 0

On Saturday I took my six-year-old Daughter and two of her friends to the local amusement park. I'd never been there before and didn't really know what to expect. I'd been planning on going last year, but like most Swedish amusement parks, it's only open in the summer, and by the time I got around to it, they had closed. Unfortunately the wonderful weather we'd been having last week didn't last, so it was relatively cold (upper 60's/18-20 C) and windy. This was especially disappointing since the highlight of this place was the water slides. I love water slides, but I hate freezing, so I was quite torn. As it turns out, the decision was made for me.

The two friends D chose to invite couldn't have been more different in temperament. One of them (S) was even more wild and adventurous than my own kid (I hardly believed that to be possible) while the other (K) was extremely cautious. D and S took off for the water slides while K paddled tentatively around one of the pools. A few minutes later D and S returned, announced that they were freezing, and said we should go warm up in the sauna (S knew about this since she'd been there before). 30 seconds later, K emerged and said she didn't like the sauna--she couldn't breathe. I was still trying to figure out what to do with all our stuff (no lockers), so K and I ended up sitting together and watching the stuff while D and S had a blast.

When rain seemed eminent, we dried off and went over to the rides. There were about a dozen carnival style portable rides set up along with a couple of inflatable jumping areas. One of the rides was clearly only for adventurous teenagers, and a few more were for toddlers. I'd been looking forward to roller coasters (maybe not Magic Mountain caliber), but the one roller coaster they had was so tame that after careful observation, K was convinced to go on it. The higher speed rides all involved spinning which I cannot handle. K was not about to try either. So D and S rode a marathon of teacups from hell while K and I waited. I tried to talk the kids into alternating between rides that they all could go on and the ones that only D and S liked, but that didn't always work so well. I'd had high hopes for the bumper cars, but it turned out that only D could drive. S and K couldn't seem to figure out the steering and the pedals and found the experience frustrating.

There were also some farm animals to look at, an obstacle course, and several old fashioned playgrounds in different themes. It's a shame they can't keep this part of the park open the rest of the year. Obviously people wouldn't be interested in paying the normal admission price for a playground, but then, the staffing needs and overhead would be minimal also.

By the time I dropped the kids off at home, I'd spent over 7 hours with them. D and S had a great time, and K claimed to have fun too. I got to know K a lot better and discovered that she's really an interesting child. She has keen powers of observation, and she's so conscientious with her things. The other girls would kick off their shoes and throw their sweaters as they ran, but if K took off her sweater, she immediately folded it and put it in her bag. I would never have thought a 6-year-old would even be capable of that. She's also the only 6-year-old I know who would ask if she had ketchup on her face, wipe and repeat until it was all gone.

So while it wasn't a particularly amusing day for me, I do consider it a positive experience. Next time, we'll only go if it's warm enough for water play, and we'll bring our own food and no more than one friend.