Aebelskivers

 

Because many of our ancestors came from the Scandinavian countries, Adam and I wanted to visit the Scandinavian Festival held annually in a nearby town. We loaded up the van with a stroller, baby carrier, and the kids to see the artwork, crafts, dances, and foods that may have been familiar to our ancestors.

  

Of the food, aebelskivers (hollow, pancake like balls) served with norse berry jam, and bif paj (Swedish meat pies) were the two obvious festival favorites. The lines for both were extremely long. I had time to change Robbie's diaper while waiting for Swedish meat pies, and Adam and Emily waited at least 45 minutes to claim our share of aebelskivers.  My friend had waited 1 1/2 hours earlier that day.

I didn't grow up learning a great deal about the traditions of my ancestors, but Adam and I would love to learn about and even adopt some into our family culture. We thought we'd start with family pictures. I have to say Robbie did the best impression.

The Birthday Girl's Day

Today was Emily's fourth birthday. It was such a special day, I wanted to share the details via this post. 

Emi was out of bed just before 7, just as I was finishing her birthday cake decorations. Emi got a sneak peak of her sparkly pink My Little Pony cake before she'd even had her birthday cereal.

We opened some presents before Adam had to leave. Emily opened her present from Mom and Dad A and was excited to see a My Little Pony dress, which was just what she needed for her new birthday outfit to wear to our Monday morning playgroup.

After playgroup, we went to McD's for happy meals. We rarely eat out, so for Emily, this trip was a real treat.

She and I colored My Little Pony pictures while the boys napped.

Once Adam came home, we were back to presents and cake. She sat at the table for 5 or 10 minutes just placing her unicorn stickers on her new helmet without having a clue that a bike was waiting outside for her to uncover.

Cake time!  I poked a sewing needle through a My Little Pony picture onto the cake's hard frosting (just like you would do when tracing an image onto a pumpkin for carving out), then removed the paper picture and connected the dots left on the cake with frosting to create this image.

For Emily the best part of the day was our evening walk/bike ride after we finished our cake and ice cream. The best part of the day for me? That would have to be when I went to read Emily her bedtime story, but instead discovered her already fast asleep, her book wide open, lying right on top of her face. What a day!

Adam's First Bike!

That is, this is the first bike that he assembled, and it's for our little girl who'll be turning 4 tomorrow. We bought her some unicorn stickers to decorate her new purple bicycle helmet, too. You know, Adam and I aren't really into unicorn stickers, purple helmets, or pink and shiny new bikes, but when you have a 4 year old girl at home who is into them, getting these things is really fun for us!

5 months (almost)

Robbie

We Don't Need Water!

The other night, Emi and Mike were in the tub and Mike started to drink the bath water. Adam and I told him to quit drinking it. We had recently had a Word of Wisdom FHE , so this must have been on Emi's mind when she exclaimed to her little brother, "We don't need water and we don't need alcohol!"

Insights shared by Emily

I sat reading the scriptures one morning when Emily sat down beside me and asked,
"How come you and Daddy like to study?"
I said, "We like to study because studying helps us become better people."
Quickly she replied, "Oh. Me and Michael like to play because it makes us better."
Isn't that the truth?

Splash!

Emily just finished her first round of "minnow" swim lessons. She loves the water and has confidence in the pool. The other day she showed me that she learned to spit out water. She intentionally put water in her mouth and spit it out. I thought, yuck!, but I can see why that's a good thing to know.

We signed her up for the class not knowing that while she swims, any of her family members can have access to the pool for free. During and after her class, Adam and the kids splash around while Robbie and I chill out in the kiddie pool. The enrollment fee (discounted 40% for us poor college students) has really paid off since it's not only paying for swim lessons, it's also paying for FAMILY SWIM TIME!