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!

A long lasting friendship

Another old friend of mine came to visit us today, Jenny. Well, she's not that old, but we've known each other since we were 12. That's when I moved out here to the countryside and she used to live in another house along the same road, not very far from here.

We went for a walk together this morning around our old "hoods", and it felt like we had entered some sort of weird time warp! So many memories, so many laughs!

No rain today! Just lovely, lovely sunshine!

I'm really lucky to have some friends like these, that are prepared to make an effort traveling, for us to meet. 

Erika made a big detour to come here, while going from Växjö to Nyköping (Skara is not quite "on the way") then home to Stockholm; and Jenny lives outside Uppsala. She had traveled many hours on the train just to come and see us! 

Thank you both!

Circus School

The last few days the kids have been going to 'Circus School' here in town. Actually at my old music school where I have spent many, many hours rehearsing with the orchestra... It was a weird feeling to return there, it was all so much smaller than I remembered!

Now it houses a school, and the Circus School was held in their newly refurbished and very flash gym:

           

The Circus School was 1 1/2 h a day for the last three days, and both Linnea and Lucas made a bunch of new friends. It's so nice they always make friends very fast! 

My plan for them to practice their Swedish backfired a little though when we realized there was another pair of siblings that were bilingual, and a boy that came from the US that only spoke English... :/

They got to try and train a bunch of different circus disciplines, like riding (modified) unicycles, the diabolo, balancing on moving balls, acrobacy, juggling etc etc.

   

Lucas on the unicycle while Linnea is trying to juggle:

Linnea doing acrobacy with one of her new friends on her shoulders:

Linnea balancing, while Lucas is planning a trick in the background:

Linnea on the ball, while Lucas is throwing rings for his friends to catch with their necks:

This Circus School was hosted by a Russian 3rd generation circus artist named Roman, who makes a living from travelling around Sweden hosting these Circus Schools. 

He was very good with the kids, and they've really had so much fun these past few days. Every night they went to bed telling me how excited they were for the next day! I wish there was a circus summer camp I could send them to!

The dearest friend

My friend Erika has been to visit us the last few days. We've had a really nice time hanging out together, even though the weather hasn't played along, which was a bit disappointing. We had planned to do a nice, long bike ride to discover an art project not far from here, 'Landart, Utsikt-Insikt'; but there was never really enough blue skies to chance such a long excursion. Ah well, next time!

Instead we've been cooking, chatting, drinking tea and playing Trivial Pursuit; and today we managed a nice long walk in the morning sunshine.

I love this little house I always pass on this walk. I don't think anybody lives there, such a shame.

Raising the pulse

I went for a run our first day in Aberdeen, a lovely 6k run along the countryside. Thoroughly enjoyed it too and had great plans on running or doing other kinds of excersice every other day the whole summer holiday. 

Until the next day when I could hardly walk...

I was in so much pain on the outside of my foot, and the Doctor said I had probably overstrained a ligament, running too far and not being used to the hard surface. So no more running for me for at least six weeks. Great. Not. 

I still tried to go for my forest walks while here in Sweden, but I could feel the pain coming back each time so finally I resigned to doing not much more than normal walking around. 

Until today!

My cousin Johan kindly offered to take me for a ride (on Nathan's bike) this afternoon. My Garmin wasn't charged enough unfortunately, so I have no exact idea how far we went; but we were out for 1h20 and 'MapMyRide' says nearly 30k. I sure can feel it it my legs... and bum!

Before:

And after:

Now I'm more confident riding here and will probably go out a few more times next week, on my own. The roads here are all nice and wide, and there's not a lot of traffic, it feels really safe. 

I feel motivated again!

48 hours in Karlstad

We've just been visiting some really good friends of ours in Karlstad, Häggkvist family. We're lucky that Karlstad is only 2 hours away, we've managed to see each other most summers lately.

Linda and I met in the Horsham playground three days before Linnea was born, and we've been close ever since!

The kids get along really well too. The boys did boys things, being wild and crazy:

And the girls played quietly with little dolls:

We only had two days there, but we managed to do a lot of things. They live just next to Mariebergsskogen, an amazing park with lots of things to do. We spent some time in the playground, Lucas loved jumping off the swings:

Then we decided to take the 'Bussbåten', since it was glorious sunny weather, and go for a bit of an excursion:

We went to Café August, for coffee and ice cream. Cosy place. 

There was movie time in the evening. Valentina took a shine to Lucas, very cute!

They had a big apple tree in their garden where the kids could get their own snack:

Savannah had just learnt to ride a bike:

The second day in Karlstad was our first proper rainy day since we've been in Europe this time. It rained all day, but it was kind of a bit cosy actually!

Indoor activities it was:

All the kids:

Group hug saying goodbye: