Hafertaler Double Choc

Mmmm - the German Shop had advertised a new shipment the other day, so I went down to stock up on marzipan, nougat and other Christmas goodies they usually get in this time of year.
You better get there early, to make sure you get some!
Imagine my joy when I also found these:

Swedish cookies! Chocolate "havreflarn"! Y-U-M!
I don't think this box will last until Christmas though, ha ha.

Full last day

We had a busy last day today. Our initial plan was to go for a last bike ride, and "say goodbye" to the playground for this time; but they had said it was going to rain, so we changed plans.

We went to Skövde, and first had lunch at Max (yum!), then we took the kids to the indoor playground 'Stellas Lekland' where we spent 3 1/2 hours..! Still, they weren't quite ready to go home...

Then it was time for "lördagsgodis" (=Saturday candy):

We picked up pizza on the way home. Swedish pizza, and above all the Swedish pizza salad, really is something else, mmm!

And in the evening, we had the traditional magic show:

Morfar was doing some mind reading:

Bags are packed, we are ready to go. As Lucas said, and I think we all feel the same:

- "I'm excited and happy and sad, all at the same time."

Happy Birthday

My granddad would've turned 90 today. Unfortunately he died only months before his 80th birthday that he had been looking forward to so much. 

Today we left some flowers, to remember him and his birthday. 

He didn't get to meet Lucas unfortunately, but at least I had just been in Sweden that summer, and I had just shared the baby news with him. 

He wasn't so much looking forward to becoming a "Gammelmorfar" (=Great-Granddad) as he was looking forward to my Mum becoming a Grandma! :D

Even though I miss them, I feel very blessed I got to keep all my grandparents until I was an adult.

Little Red Riding Hood

My cousin's girlfriend has her own hair studio in town. The other day she and Lucas discussed we should come in before we leave to get a cool back-to-school-haircut. 

She did a really good job, and Lucas was mostly impressed when she styled it with some wax, and he got to choose a colour to finish it off. 

As you can see - he chose red!

He thought he looked totally cool, but it will wash out, unfortunately. 

Across the generations

Lucas got really happy the other day when he was allowed to use Morfar's laptop to play Minecraft. (Apparently it's a lot more fun on a computer than on the iPad...)

Lucas got busy teaching Morfar all he knows about Minecraft. 

A journey back in time

This afternoon we took an excursion with Skara-Lundsbrunn Järnvägar. It's a museum railway line, and only in traffic twice a week during July and August.

The line which is used by these museum trains, was opened in 1887; but due to the increasing road traffic, all lines around Skara were slowly and steadily closed and the last regular passenger train left Skara in 1970. All the lines around Skara were narrow gauge, 3 Swedish feet = 89,1 cm.

The kids have actually been on this train twice before, we all went once a long time ago when Linnea was only a baby and they went once in 2008 only with Mormor and Morfar while I was in Stockholm. None of them remembered either trip though, so we decided to do another one today, on the last scheduled trip of this summer!

Unfortunately today they couldn't man the old steam engine due to sickness, so instead we had to go with the diesel engine. Didn't matter much.

It's all very authentic with old carriages, wagons and coaches and even the tickets were stamped with a date from years ago - 15th of August 1953!

The distance is just 12k from Skara to the end destination, but at only about 30k/h it still took us about 30 minutes to get to the little village Lundsbrunn. 

There it was time for an ice cream, and for the engine to swop direction. 

- "All aboard!!"

Time to go back, the conductor flicked a few switches, and then we were on our way!

On the way back we decided to sit in one of the open wagons. This rail trip is really such an enjoyable experience, not just the lovely views but also the soothing sound from the rail joints.

On the way we passed another railway - SNJP, Skogsmarks PutteNutte Järnväg. A private little railway  built by a true railway enthusiast. It only has a gauge of 60 cm. We were even so lucky that he was out driving around in one of the engines when we passed!

Skara views:

A nice afternoon excursion in the late summer sun.

The fort

Linnea is a bit of a collector. Last time we came she developed a fascination for empty toilet paper rolls, so ever since then Mormor and Morfar have saved all their empties..! The other day they surprised her with the big bag and Linnea got right into using them, deciding to construct a big fort.

She enrolled the help of Mormor with the tape and the glue, but the ideas were all hers! I must say I was mighty impressed, it's quite an extensive and complex construction!

It has several different rooms, a study, a laboratory, little people inside, cannons on the towers, crocodiles in the moat, a bridge that can be raised etc etc. We got the full tour and demonstration!

The Big Show

As a big finale to the Circus School, a big show was put on this afternoon in a park in town. It was open for everyone to enjoy, but I guess most of the audience was made up of very proud parents, siblings, grandparents and other family members..!

The audience was actually rather big! There has been three different groups in the Circus School each day, so the total amount of performers was about 25 children.

As they were so many, they had had to choose what skill or act they wanted to showcase, and we got to see a lot of different things - juggling, balancing and acrobacy.

Lucas and his friend were throwing around the 'Magic Sticks':

They were pretty good! On some photos you can't even see the sticks, that's how fast they were thrown!

Roman also participated in their act, and they did a tricky three-way-throw:

Linnea was the top of a pyramide:

She also did some balancing on the ball, with her friends, and a skipping rope:

This little kid was catching rings, two of them:

These older kids, were catching three rings simultaneously, one on each arm and one on their neck:

After the show all the children received certificates:

The kids and all their new friends, checking out their diplomas:

Finally we got treated to a quick performance by Roman himself:

I guess I'll have to frame these as some certain little people are very proud of them!