I thought I’d tell you – we now have an appointment at the throat specialists, and it’s scheduled for Wednesday next week. We have been asked to practice using a nasal spray for Frida before the appointment, because that is how she will be anaesthetized, before having a small camera run in through her nose. We got a nasal spray with saltwater at the pharmacy, and it came as quite a positive surprise to me that she actually thinks it’s fun to use it – really! Who would have thought?  :)

Ronja's birthday with the family

Her birthday is coming up soon, and this year she will be celebrating her birthday during a weekend, with her friends from the child care, but without the nursery nurses or the parents (besides us) there. She is looking SO much forward to it, and she handed out invitations today – I wanted to show you, because quite frankly, I had a lot of fun making them.

I googled birthday invitations to find inspiration, and I came across these lollipop birthday invitations. I thought they were really sweet, and so I was on it. This is the result:

Lollipop birthday invitations

Lollipop birthday invitations

Made with cardboard, paper, ribbon, rhinestone, glue stick, and glue gun. The text is made in Word and printed on our ordinary printer.

Now, let’s just hope that all the little girls can attend. :)


This little one was born 8 years ago today. She is 1 week old in the picture below.

And rather chubby almost a year later…

Almost 2 – and charming her way through life.

Ronja

Nearly 3, on her way to becoming a big sister.

Ronja and Fløde

And then Frida came – one month early. The sense of responsibility, love, and awe was shining from her eyes.

The girls

4 years old and fond of cupcakes.

Eating a cupcake

Almost 5, and getting to like the camera…

Behind the leaves

Almost 6, and sooooo ready for school!

First day of school

Later that same year – learning to sail with Anna.

A young captain

Last summer during our sail trip – so big.

Ronja

Ronja bathing

And now.

Rasmus (Seebach) is the best!

Happy

Ronja, you’re giving us such a ride. You love riding, and you’re starting dance class, which has been a wish of yours. You really like school, and you have many good friends. You have started reading books – really reading, which I think is so great. Something I recognize from when I was your age. You’re a wonderful person to be around – caring, fun, inspiring, creative, curious, eager to learn, and a good friend.

Happy Birthday, Ronja!

 

 


Warning: This will be a long post – but don’t worry, it will be pictures mostly. :)

When you look at my blog, it does indeed look like nothing much is happening. However, going through my recent calendar, and my recent pictures you would be getting an entirely different impression. I was just checking to see what should be included in a much needed update, and from that, I can totally see why I haven’t had time for blogging.

I miss my blog, my blog reading, and all of you guys out there (if anyone’s left), let me just say that first. However, these past few months work has been terribly busy and quite energy comsuming, which is good because I love what I’m doing – it just takes a few sacrifices. And as if business at work wasn’t enough, we also took on a project in our family – more about that further down.

I’ll give you a picture wrap up – so let’s see what we’ve been doing the last few months.

So – briefly:

Mallorca in July

Mallorca

Mallorca

Canoe trip to lake Immeln in Sweden in July

In the canoe

Ronja starting school in August

Feeling confident

Ready to learn

Ronja’s 6 years birthday in August

The class is visiting for Ronja's birthday

I made these adorable goodie bags from Minimega’s printable pdf for the occasion when the class was visiting – just had to show you!

Homemade goodie bags

And now in this look-back we’re approaching September, and of course, in our family we just always need 2-300 things keeping us busy, so we started looking for a sail boat (this is the project I mentioned at the beginning). Our new love will be a separate post (or several, of course), now that I hope I will keep up the posts just a little more than I have the past 3-4 months.

We spent all of our spare time for a month driving around the country (and southern Sweden as well), dragging the children onto all kinds of sail boats that were more or less fit for a family of 4 – in all kinds of weather. Which is a lie, actually, ’cause it was raining almost all the time. We finally found the boat model Shipman 28, which is a good Swedish design by Olle Enderlein from 1969. It seems to live up to the things we were looking for in a sail boat, that is meant to host future summer vacations, and numerous sails during the sailing season – within the price limit we were willing to spend. So check this out:

Still water

A young captain

First trip in the boat

A look back

We named the boat ANNA after my amazing grandmother who died 4 years ago. She was a woman who radiated warmth, wit, interest, and just a presence that anyone around her felt and was struck by – she always had a strong ability to gather the family. So those are the qualities we humbly want our new love to possess – or perhaps rather the name stands for a lot of positive things that we want to carry with us when we are sailing and spending time on the boat.

Sunset

We have spent quite a few weekends with her by now, and we all love it. The girls are getting used to saling step-by-step, and we cannot wait to spend a summer vacation with Anna.

On to the next thing:

Where to start

Frida’s 3 years birthday in September

Frida Butterfly

All these things have put quite a strain on the calendar, and remember, this is without the stuff that has been going on in our work lives, which at least in my case has been quite a bit. And did I mention we started renovating the bedroom?

This post reflects very much my need to do a wrap-up before I can move on to the next blogpost. It may seem like nothing, but this is just not really what you want to be doing when you have a blog – you want to write whatever enters your mind at the moment, right? Not much crafty stuff here, and the time-issue is in part an explanation for that, but I have been doing minor things. I’ll let you know more soon. :)


Guess you don’t hear much from me at the moment. But I mean – WOW… Life is so busy at the moment. This here below is one of the few breathing spaces Mads and I have taken lately.

Oslo-trip

The picture is from a minicriuse Mads and I took to Oslo in Norway, without kids. DFDS Seaways have a route from Copenhagen to Oslo, and we booked a cruise for our 10 years boyfriend-girlfriend anniversary. It was a wonderful trip. The girls had their grandmother looking after them, and Mads and I could enjoy a few days of total relaxation in each others company. The first evening, we had dinner in a restaurant aboard the boat with a panoramic view of the sea and the setting sun, and Mads totally topped it off by taking me to the deck later on and breaking out that question, you know…!

Oslo-trip

Oslo-trip

Oslo-trip

Even though we were limited to 7 hours in Oslo, we enjoyed every minute of them. Walking across Oslo to Bogstadveien, taking the bus up to Holmenkollen (the ski jumping hill) with the amazing view of the Oslo bay, admiring the sculptures of the Vigeland Park, and drinking latte in the sun every chance we got. We had sunshine and high temperatures, and we really had nothing to complain about – as dull as it may seem.

Oslo-trip

Oslo-trip

Today it is Mads’ birthday and he is not even here – he is working in Hull, England.

So Mads – lots of kisses from your girls – HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

By the way, Mads got his ‘yes’ without too much trouble. :)

Oslo-trip


Autumn in the garden

That’s the weather we have been having today. Mads and the girls woke me up with a birthday song – they had flowers for me, and they had prepared breakfast. Ronja gave me a beautiful drawing of me wearing a gorgeous, and very colourful dress.

34… wow.

Mads took the day off in order to work on the kitchen, and he had come a long way when I returned home from work. I love seeing the progress he’s making at the moment!

Flowers for my birthday

This evening we all walked to a nearby restaurant – the girls were a bit tired, but we still had a very nice time. Now I just finished a sewing project, and before long it’ll be bedtime.

What a wonderful day!


The cake

Monday was Frida’s birthday – she is 2 years old now. It’s incredible how quickly time passes.

This cheeky, headstrong, won’t-take-no-for-an-answer, yet completely charming little girl with the sun in her eyes has been with us now for 2 years. She is one of a kind.

Looking cute

Here she is with some of her presents – Mads and I gave her the sweet little kitchen from IKEA, for which she also received several other things. She loved it – and now at least she has a kitchen!

Cooking dinner

logoWe also made her a little book from Fidipus.dk with pictures of our family, house, garden, and the things that mean something to her – including a few pages about the cleft palate. It’s a huge hit, and I will say that I can warmly recommend the site to anyone wanting to make a personal, yet cool book for their child. Also I received great customer service during my work with the book, which is something I’m always impressed with.

We celebrated Frida’s birthday Sunday, and she was celebrated again at the nursery Monday. I think she enjoyed her birthday for sure – she talks so much now, and she has been talking a lot about presents, birthday and so on. :)

On a different note, we have been really busy around here, which is why the blog has been kind of quiet. Quite honestly, I just haven’t had the surplus energy to write. For several weekends, we have had plans, and I have had a work development, which is keeping me on my toes, and at the same time, we have all been having sore throats and runny noses. I’m still not rid of it, but I sure hope I will be soon!

The kitchen-situation is improving, but not having been home during the weekends, time spent there has been limited. What you see below is the wall towards the living room.

The room is almost ready for finishing surfaces

I hope I will be able to show you more shortly. This coming weekend the calendar is clear – and I’m really looking forward to spending some relaxed time with the girls, while Mads is doing his thing in the kitchen-to-be.