Pippi Långstrump

A few pictures of Pippi Longstocking and her grandparents. Not pictured: the mountain of presents for the grandkids (who btw have been in an excited frenzy since Monday night). After being completely outfitted as Pippi, Anja wondered "Where is the horse?" More pictures to come! Isak and Elina were at school when this was taken.

Mormor and morfar, Anja (Pippi) hugging the Pippi doll... and Julia.

The identity switch has been complete. She would have slept in the wig and costume if I had let her.

Three more days!

Anja at the park during one of the many heavenly rainy days we had recently.

My mom and dad arrive on Monday evening! Our whole family is psyched. Mark is working all day Saturday and Sunday so the cleaning will be minimal with me having all 4 kids by myself. And definitely no street-sweeping. Mark always jokes that this is part of any good Scandinavian cleaning job. That joke has roots in reality of course, though I myself have only swept the street a few times...

Some more pictures in the meantime.

Julia all dressed up for church. Before the bib was put on. This kid spits up more than all our previous babies combined. She should just wear one mega-bib.

Julia and Anja in the stroller.

Happy Anja with a ring-pop during the school Jog-A-Thon fundraiser.

After running laps at the Jog-A-Thon. Isak, Elina and Sam.

Cloudcover

Trying to sit up

It's been heaven, this weather. Perfect t-shirt temperatures and rain every single day for over a week, I think. I feel peace even though our car is in the shop and will cost us about half its blue book value and the washer broke down the very same day. I am buying a new used one this weekend. Laundry for a family of 6 at the laundry mat gets old quickly. But we've been through so much worse during our construction years that these types of things don't really have the power to stress me anymore. I have this Jedi mind trick when things feel tough. I am sure I'm not alone in doing this. If I feel inclined to whine about anything in particular I imagine how much worse it could be. For example, when I want to gripe about not being able to wear anything but backless, flat, boring shoes or being very limited in what type of physical activity I engage in (like no long walks) because of my chronic Achilles tendinitis, I imagine that I have been a paraplegic until TODAY when I could walk for the first time. When I feel like whining about excess pounds left to lose from pregnancy (daily), I imagine that I was 300 lbs formerly and I reached this wonderful (ahem) weight today! So with issues regarding [lack of] money, I imagine having been homeless with the kids and suddenly landing my current life. WOW! So much better now.

Anja 2 yrs, Julia 3 months

When we moved this spring Mark rewarded himself with a very cheap dirt bike since we now live right by the onset of the path that goes to the river. He and Isak ride it about once a week. I have found that it is quite relaxing to go up and down the street 3 or 4 times (bet the neighbors love us). Gets my mind on something completely different. Anja is okay when Mark rides, but throws a giant fit when I do.

Isak can shift the gears. And yes, cool cat daddy needs a helmet, too...

The picture of Elina and the pony, below, we took today. Elina has been BEGGING me to let her go and feed a horse a carrot. So today we did. Awwww, horses.....

A Date!

Completely shocking and out of the ordinary, but Mark suggested a date. Bless him! He took me out on Labor Day. We dropped the three oldest kids at my sweet mother-in-law's house along with a Monday Madness $4 large pizza from Little Caesar's. (Why complicate things?) We then dashed off with Julia to a restaurant to eat like adults.

The Middle Girls

In Norwegian bunads. Adapted with short sleeves for Oklahoma climate, as opposed to starched long sleeved blouses. And those aren't proper bunad shoes. Still, the girls are cute, I think. But almost IMPOSSIBLE to photograph. Sit still, smile, look at the camera - all at the same time, and both together. I need a valium, or I'll just be happy with this:

Spunnet socker åsså majs...

...heja GAIS!

First Day of School - drop off

Elina is doing half day Kindergarten (same as Isak did) which means I pick her up at 10.30, and she says she had a good day. It is not really a half day, but whatever. I'm no fan of the long school days at such a young age. She is the only one in her class (probably the entire Kindergarten) to do half day and the teacher was unfamiliar with the half day pick-up procedure, which tells me that she has not had a half day kid before. Isak is still at school as I write this.

The school is big, apx 850 students compared to last year's 580. I told Isak that when I was in elementary school we had only one class of each grade. He couldn't believe it. He is used to 5 of each grade. This year there are 7 second grade classes! Both kids seem to have good teachers. Everyone has raved about how great Elina's teacher is and Isak's teacher is reputed to be very organized and structured which will suit him well.

To see pictures from last year's first day of school click HERE.

Mark went in late to work to be there for the drop off. Mark and I had just made it back into the car with Julia and Anja when it started to rain.

Outside the front doors. (Isak is wearing shorts I made from last year's jeans that he outgrew lengthwise)

This school has lockers inside the classroom - something new to both kids. Elina's had a ladybug-sign with her name, which made her happy. That's her teacher to the right.

Isak was slightly late, poor thing, because the whole family went first to Elina's classroom to see her off.

Henry Jones Jr.

Isak is obsessed with Indiana Jones. Last year it was Star Wars, and before that it was cars (he could identify all makes by sight at age 3). He has not even seen all the Indiana Jones movies because Mark and I are very conservative when it comes to what we think is appropriate for kids. He has seen an edited version of the Last Crusade, and a few select scenes from the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. But he readily tells people that the Temple of Doom is his favorite movie, and second to it Raiders of the Lost Ark. What? How can two favorite movies be ones you have never seen (and won't see for many years to come, especially the Temple of Doom)?

He is going to be Dr. Jones for Halloween of course, and today Mark and I surprised him with the bag in the picture. He's been running around with a purple canvas one of mine for over a year, that I bought in Spain back in 1996. Well, people this is the REAL THING. It is an authentic MK VIII gas mask bag from the British army, made in 1942 (!!), and it is just like the one Indiana Jones has in Raiders of the Lost Ark (in the other ones the bag has a leather strap).

Do you think he likes it?

The original

Isn't she lovely?

Her mamma's dress.

Caught in the Rain

Woke up to near perfect summer temperature today with a pleasant cloud cover. So, after serving breakfast and doing dishes (squeezed in between two nursing sessions) we went for a walk. In the picture you can see all five of my walking buddies. It's never lonely around here. Julia (who spends most of her non-nursing, not-being-held time screaming) actually quieted down after a few blocks. It was shortly thereafter that we noticed how dark the clouds were getting, and only a moment or two after that again that the skies opened. It was a lovely summer rain with massive drops and thunder in the distance. But I was not prepared with a rain cover for the stroller (isn't it nice btw? My mom got it for us!). If I am going to walk the 1.3 miles to school on a regular basis, I better find it. A good reason to attack those mystery boxes in the garage...

Can you tell they are wet? Taken w/ the phone camera, hence the [lack of] quality