Retro

I've been spending the last few days copying old photos from my back-up hard drives onto my computer (now that I have the storage space for them all on here), to make it easier to find and navigate amongst them.
My master plan is to create photo books eventually, one for each year. Only having the photos on the computer doesn't really showcase them much.

This means I have gone through ALL our photos from when we started dating back in early 2001... My gosh, so many memories!

Here's a few retro ones, from the summer of 2001:









We haven't changed that much in ten years... right?

The Bieber cut

Lucas is far from the only kid his age being impressed by Justin Bieber. There is truly such a thing as the "Bieber-cut", all young boys want to be able to "flick" their hair like Bieber.
Yesterday both Linnea, Lucas and I went to the hairdresser to get holiday ready, and Lucas is saving his hair out, but already well on the way for a "Bieber" I think!

Finally!

Lucas lost his loose tooth on Saturday night but Linnea has been wiggling and wiggling on hers with no luck. Finally this morning it came out, which made her very happy!



The other one is not far behind so I'm thinking she'll be very "gappy" in this years holiday pictures..! :)

Absolute Sommar

While driving to school this morning, we (once again...) discussed how many days are left until school is out for the summer, and how many days are left until we leave on our holidays.
Lucas realized that it's all happening really soon now and his face lit up in a huge smile and he said:
- "Mummy put some of that special music on!"

I didn't quite understand which music he meant at first, but he explained further:
- "That music we listen to when it's summer! Put that music on because we are traveling in the car! You know, like in the movies, when they are in a car - there is always music!"

Aaah, yes, every year when the end of the school year draws near and it's time for summer holidays I play this specific CD on repeat in the car - 'Absolute Sommar', a CD full of Swedish summer hits.

So of course I put it on, on full power, and we had a great road trip to school!
Can't wait until the holidays now!

Summer Ball 2011

The theme for this years Loan Service Summer Ball was 'Royal Weddings'.
I was a bit confused at start about what to wear, something I'd wear to a Royal Wedding (as if I would ever get invited to one!)? Something "Royal"? Something long or short? Something "dress-up"?
I heard people were going for all sorts of variations, and couldn't really decide what to do. I didn't feel like dressing up and was all out of ideas, so I decided to go normal - but with a little twist!
This is about how far I felt like going dress-up-wise this time:



Do you get the joke?!

I was on my own for the start of the evening as Nathan was flying. The party was held in the new and (beautifully!) refurbished Community Center, which was fantastically decorated, as usual with the Loan Service dos.
When we arrived, we had our picture taken by these two "Press"-photographers!



Kellie, with the provisions we got for our table!



Here's one part of the Party Hall:


(Photo taken by Kate Pendleton)

Lissie and Ronnie as The Danish Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary:



Queen. Say no more.



Claire, Harjit as Princess Fiona, Anna as Swedish Crown Princess Victoria (well, that's who we decided she looked like!) and Marlene the Red Carpet!



The famous "toilet seat"-hat x 2:



Clare, thinking outside the box:



At our table, the Martins and the Sparrows:





And me, with the empty chair where Nathan should be...






But then he turned up!♥



I wish I would have taken more pictures, but there you go. More might follow then I get the "official" ones!
It was a great night with great friends! Loan Service always knows how to put on a fab party!

(P.S The joke with the sign on my bottom - refers to the Facebook group "The Pippa Middleton Ass Appreciation Society" that was created the day after the British Royal Wedding, and now has over 200,000 members.)

Exotic Zumbathon

Not all Zumba enthusiasts get to enjoy Zumba in the same way as we did this morning, we had a Zumbathon (= a two hour class) - by the beach!
It was the Empire that put it on again, like last time, but this time we were down under a huge sail by their Grand Hall, just by the beach.
Zumbathon, this way:



Palm trees, ocean, sandy beach... what a setting!



We weren't as many as last time, I guess the 'outside' bit scared a few people off, and yes, it was hot, hot, HOT! Close to 35 degrees, and no wind at all under that sail... I don't know if you guys back in Scandinavia can quite grasp how hard it is to exercise in 35 degrees heat?! The group of us that was there gave it our all though, and we had such a good morning! LOVE Zumba!





Half way through, enjoying some bananas and 100 plus:





Here's a little style study of my Zumba moves!







And this is how the floor looked where I was standing!



Group photo! Zumbaaaaaaa!

Midsommarafton Memories

Today it's Midsommarafton in Sweden, and the homesick feeling is hitting hard, as usual. It's been four years since we've had a proper Swedish Midsommar. I'm not going to depress about it too much, nothing I can do - I'll just keep dreaming that maybe one day before the kids get too old, we'll be getting to celebrate a Midsommarafton in Sweden again.


(Beautiful Midsommar flower photo borrowed from http://enmammasdag.com)

You can read about the homesick feelings here, in last years Midsommar post. It's the same every year at these holidays.
You can read about my last attempt to have a "proper" Swedish Midsommarafton here, when Anna and I celebrated with some Swedes in Singapore.
You can read about how we normally celebrate Midsommarafton in Sweden and reminisce with me here, where I show you pictures of the two Midsommaraftons we actually have had - in Sweden!

But today, I'm celebrating very quietly and in a way kind of try to forget about what I'm missing. I just pay tribute to Midsommarafton, like this:

Boel the Biker

It wasn't only Nathan going out riding today, I did too! I thought I'd try out the new gear he got for me a couple of weeks ago..!






I got to ride "The Green Monster", Granddad's bike. After I trained a bit on getting my feet in and out of the cleats and got a quick explanation on how the gears worked, off we went - but only down to the neighbours! Hey, I needed someone to take a photo of us together for the blog on this big occasion! (Thanks Misuzu!)



We only went down to our old running track, where there is no traffic. I needed to get a feel for the bike, the gear changing, the shoes etc without too much interference.
It was good fun actually and I'll certainly try and get out there for more rides, all while taking it easy and being safe of course.

The Quantum 3.0

Nathan discovered a crack in his bike frame last month and had to organize to send it back to NZ to get it fixed.
To his surprise it turned out to be a warranty job, and not only did he get a new frame back, he got the newest model - a Quantum 3.0!

It finally came back last week and he has been spending the last few days building it all back together, today he tightened the last screw.
Looking good!





He only had his other frame, the Quantum 2.0 since December 2009. He got that one after his first Around the Lake Race. Still he has managed to clock over 8900 km on it in this short time!
Now he's looking forward to cruising on the new one!

Hot diggedy dogs

Via my new favourite waste-time Pinterest (you have to check that site out by the way! Life is so beautiful there!), I found this idea for a fun kids' dinner:



Tried it on Gilbert and Lucas yesterday and it was a success! :)

The return

Lucas had a very good friend throughout Kindy and Reception called Gilbert. Unfortunately his family decided to return to the UK about 2 1/2 years ago.
It was a real shame, we missed them lots and Lucas spoke about Gilbert for a very long time after they left.
This year, they've come back!

First Gilbert's dad came already at the start of this school year, and resumed his old job at school - and now the rest of the family has finally followed and Gilbert have slotted right back in Lucas' year group.
Lucas told me the other day, right out of the blue:
-"It's really nice to have Gilby back. He's gotten really funny!"

He was here today on a play date, and the two of them had so much fun together. Here's Lucas, and Gilbert - on his toes:





Here are a few photos from their International Day in Kindy (back in November 2007), when they first became friends:

Wiggle, wiggle!

There is a lot of wiggling of teeth going on in the house at the moment!
Linnea have got both her two front teeth being loose, one a little bit more than the other. Plus Lucas got knocked in the mouth at school the other day which loosened one of his incisors that is now on it's way out too.





So there is a tight competition of wiggling teeth, to see who will get a visit from the Tooth Fairy first!

How?? I mean... how?

I'm not quite sure how I managed this today?!



I must have left the house in a bit of a hurry, because not only were the jandals in two different colours - they were two left ones..! :D

Father's Day 2011

Again, it's not Father's Day in either of our home countries - but here it was this weekend, so Linnea has been busy in school making a little something for Nathan. Unfortunately it wasn't dry to take home on Friday, so he got it today instead:



A translation might be in it's place again?
"I love my Dad = I love my Dad.
He love my and he givs my hugs and kisis = He loves me and he gives me hugs and kisses.
He is nies to my = He is nice to me.
He was the best Dad in the wrld = He was (was??) the best dad in the world."