The logical thinking of a 3½ year-old.

Today when we were driving in the car, Lovisa and her cousin Hanna, who is a year older, were talking about thieves. Hanna said that, except for the police, they are the only ones who are allowed to run a red light. Then they started talking about the kinds of things thieves steal: "diamonds, jewellery and pretty clothes". Then Lovisa said, really worried: "I hope they don't come to our house!" Then she lit up, and said: "Oh, but they can't! They don't know the way!" She paused for a minute before she exclaimed: "Fantastic!"

I'm so glad the thieves don't know the way to our house. Because what would happen with all my diamonds, jewellery and pretty clothes if they did?!

Smells nice, doesn't it?

Yesterday I took the time to bake some bread. I love baking, although I don't do it as often as I should. It really is worth the effort.


Egon thinks so too.

Grandma and Folke

Yesterday, my mom and stepdad, Folke came for a visit. The children had been looking forward to it the whole week, and they were so excited! It's over a three hour drive from their house to our's so we didn't have that many hours to spend together before they had to head home. But we made the most of it, and had a great time. We ate lunch, played a boardgame, and the kids took them on the mandatory tour of their rooms.

Grandma and Folke treated us to a delicious marzipan cake.


This is a picture of Ivar and Folke. Lovisa said something really cute a couple of weeks ago. We were talking about our parents and grandparents and what their names are/were. After going through quite a few of them, Lovisa asked Jens: "What's your Folke's name?" She just assumed that everyone must have one.

Egon loved the cake...

Visiting Grandpa Åhs

Last Saturday we went to Arboga for the day, to spend some time with the Åhs side of the family: My dad, my stepmom Kristina, my younger brother and sister, Kalle and Sandra, and my older sister Merit and her family. We had a great day!

The kids spent a lot of time outside. To the left, Lovisa is showing off her harvest and to the right Ivar is at work sweeping Grandpa's driveway.

And finally, a picture of Egon. He had so much fun! He spent the entire day chasing after Flisa, the 16 year-old Yorkshire terrier!

Halloween the Rydgren way

Halloween isn't that big here in Sweden. There is not a whole lot of "trick-or-treating" going on. Only a vampire and a ghost knocked on our door this year. Even so, the kids really wanted to celebrate it, so we decided to have a Halloween dinner. Grandma Rydgren had come by earlier to give the kids some Halloween candy, and among other things there were some ugly looking spiders that served well as decorations. We even carved our very first pumpkin! Egon loved it and kept oohing at it. Of course the kids dressed up for the occasion.

Baking

The other day, when Alvin was at a friend's house, I put Ivar's reading skills to the test when I asked him to make chocolate-oatmeal balls all by himself. He read the recipe and got all the ingredients out. The only thing I had to help him with was the measurements. I was really proud of him. But of course not half as proud as he was of himself! Lovisa helped him roll the balls in coconut flakes and pearl sugar. She did a great job too!

First haircut

I had been putting it off for a long time. Egon's hair had become something of a trademark for him. But when people started asking me how old she is or what her name is, I finally accepted the fact that his long hair had to go. He is just as cute without it, of course. Now he looks like such a big boy!

This is before...


And this is after...

Out of the mouth of babes

Today at lunch, when we were blessing the food, Egon folded his little hands and uttered the first two words of prayer of his young life: "Ta-ta". That's how he says "tack tack" or "thank you". He has heard the rest of us thank Heavenly Father for the food a thousand times, and he doesn't know that many other words. But I still think it was so profound that this little person said "thank you" to his Heavenly Father. If you were only able to utter two words to Him, wouldn't they be the two? "Thank you!"

It's all about being flexible

Today was a beautiful day, sunny and not too cold. So I decided to take the kids to the lake after I picked them up from school and playschool. We stopped at our house to pick up the snack and were just about to go when Alfred, a friend from the boys' school called and asked if they wanted to play. I could tell that they really wanted to go, so I gave them their snack and off they went.


Lovisa me and Egon set off towards the lake, which is only about a 15 minute (kids)walk from our house.


When we got there, Lovisa wanted to throw some pine cones into the water. She picked a rock and sat down where the water is very shallow.


About two minutes later she had managed to slide right into the water! She got soaked from the waist down. Here she is, telling me that I really should have brought a change of clothes for her "just to be on the safe side". And here I was thinking I was on the safe side when I had her wear her rubber clothes and rubber boots...



Lovisa didn't want to miss out on the snack and I thought some warm blueberry soup would do her good. So we hurried and ate while she still didn't feel cold. As she was sitting there soaking wet eating her sandwich she said she wanted to go for a swim! "Isn't that what you just did?" I asked. "Yes, but that was with all my clothes on!!" she said. That's what she's looking so mad about in case you were wondering. After finishing our snack we hurried home.


The minute she walked in the door, she fell asleep standing up!
Maybe this wasn't my idea of a perfect picnic. But then again, what is perfect?

What a morning!

Thursday mornings are really hectic in our house. Jens works Thursdays, so he's usually gone by 5 or 5.30 am. We have to be at school before 8 am for Ivar's gym class, which is about half an hour earlier than other days. Also, Lovisa has her weekly picnic at Playschool, so I have to pack a snack for her to take with her.

Last Thursday the rain was pouring down as we left the house a little late. We ran to school and Ivar just made it to gym class. After kissing the boys good-bye, I dropped Lovisa off at Playschool. Then I thought that I would walk to the post-office to pick up a package. I figured: "How wet can it get?". Turns out I got totally soaked. At least Egon had a rain cover over the stroller.

Just as I passed by Lovisa's Playschool, on the way home, her teacher called me on the cell phone. Lovisa had gotten a bead up her nose! After several attempts they had given up trying to get it out. So I picked her up and walked home to call the doctor. Before I called I asked Lovisa to blow her nose really hard for me, and wouldn't you know it: A green bead came flying out of her nose like a projectile! Since it wasn't even 9.30, we decided to go back out into the rain and walked back to Playschool. What a way to start your day!