Check this out! (Part II)

Henry learned to ride without training wheels too!

Check this out!

No training wheels!

No teeth!



Happy Fourth of July!

Anna and James especially liked the parade - plus there was a ton of candy thrown at them!

We spent a very hot morning watching the Fourth of July parade in our town and as soon as the twins wake up from their nap we are off to the pool to cool off! Later we are bringing this cake to Eileen's house where we'll have dinner and watch fireworks.

Emma and Henry did the decorating!

Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Man of the Year

Dan recently spent ten weeks competing with 5 other people to be "Man of the Year" for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. In the end - he won! Obviously this organization is near and dear to our hearts and Dan worked very hard to do all he could for this fundraiser. Even so, we were truly amazed at the generosity of everyone around us. In all, over 220 people contributed to Dan's campaign - I didn't think we even knew that many people!

What has made all of this even more special is that Emma is the Girl of the Year for 2012 for LLS. This means she has been able to come with us to events and she has been very involved in this whole process. Dan and I have really enjoyed spending some extra time with just Emma - she is growing into a little lady and it's fun to have real conversations with her about all sorts of things.

There was a Grand Final Gala a few weeks ago where the winners were annonced (there was also a Woman of the Year) We invited a few friends and had a really fun night. Emma also got to bring a friend and to watch them dancing all by themselves on the dance floor to Justin Bieber (who they personally went up and requested from the DJ) was priceless! After dinner the girls were joined by more dancers and then they danced the night away :)

"Baby, baby, baby, oooh"

We won!

Acceptance speech

The girls

Mamma and daughter



Happy girl!

Ten Years

Father's Day

Happy belated Father's Day to Pappa, Steve, and especially to Dan. It's not an easy job but all three of these fathers are just amazing!

Our children are lucky to have Dan as their daddy and we all love you very much.

Father's Day was a very busy Sunday around here. We started the day with spending a few hours at the brand new country club pool. The kids loved it and we were all pretty worn out and had various degrees of sun burn when we left. As soon as we got home the twins went down for their naps and Dan took Emma and Henry to see Madagascar 3 (Henry saw it for the second time in 3 days...) When the movie was over it was time to go to Grandma and Grandpa's house for some playing and a barbeque. There was lots of fishing, a bit of croquet, bubbles and plenty of running around. Dinner was delicious, as always, and the perfect end to a very fun family day.

Fishing in party dresses? But of course!

James getting the hang of it all.

Anna touched it!

Henry would rather play croquet than fish.

Anna on her daddy's lap.

LEGO!

Henry loves LEGOs so when we found out there was a LEGO Expo at the Convention Center we were so excited to go. It was a fun morning for the whole family!

How cool is this life size Lighting McQueen entirely made out of LEGOs?

More fun characters

This was taken a few seconds before James managed to dump this entire bin of LEGOs all over the place...we were assured this was a common occurence and the nice girls who worked the booth sat down and picked it all up for us!

How many pieces do you think there are in this pile??

Comfy?

Check out what James found! They were (conveniently) selling Bissell mini-vacs at the show. It was really hard to drag James away from this activity!

Tuesday Morning at Our House

I am so happy that there are finally moments when Anna and James actually play nicely together with actual toys and a minimum of fighting. I'm not saying these moments aren't still few and far between but it is as if we can see what lies ahead - and I like it.

 

This morning while I was getting ready, James brought in his basket full of cars (his very favorite treasures) to the bathroom and started lining the bath tub with them. Anna liked the idea and started helping. James kept saying bil-caj, bil-caj. I think he is a little confused with the whole Swedish vs. English thing so he often says a word in both languages, just so he's covered.

 

James decided to line the tub with all his favorite cars. Anna was happy to help!

 When I was finished getting ready we went downstairs and of course all the cars had to come with us. This time they put them in little containers left over from Easter. James carried two and Anna carried two. It was like they knew they had to be fair about it.

Can you tell how content he looks?

Next Anna and James decided that they would stuff as many cars as they could in their pockets (they are both obsessed with pockets) Anna had really big pockets in her dress today so I think she fit about 4 cars in each one. She wouldn't let me touch them until it was time for her nap. Must have been heavy walking around with 8 cars in her dress - she sure clanked with every step!

They stuffed their pockets with as many cars as they could fit!

We had a lovely time this morning. It all probably lasted about 20 minutes - and I savored every one of those minutes.

Emma Turns 7!

This birthday post is long overdue but at least it is still her birthday month right?
This year Emma requested an ice skating party for her birthday and we gladly obliged. It turned out to be lots of fun for eveyone. Emma had 14 of her girlfriends there as well as the family. One of the best things about her party was a big surprise for all of us. Mormor and Morfar showed up! I had sent them an invitation just for the heck of it and didn't really give it a second thought. Imagine our surprise when they casually walked through the door, right on time for the party, after driving for two days to get here. It was great!

Our "theme" was rainbows. Kind of hard to make an ice skating rink all that cozy...

Emma with her Daddy (who was wearing a Swedish ice hockey jersey I might add!)

We had the whole rink to ourselves - it was great!

Three lovely ladies

Grandpa and Morfar

Mormor and Morfar ice skating - aren't they sweet?

Henry learned to like ice skating at the party and is now taking lessons!

What a great group of girls!

As you may remember, I interviewed Henry for his birthday so I thought I would ask Emma the same questions:

1. What is your favorite color?
Emma: Orange
2. What is your favorite toy?
Emma:Kompis
3. What is your favorite fruit?
Emma: Bananas
4. What is your favorite TV show?
Emma: Austin and Ally
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?
Emma: PB&J
6. What is your favorite outfit?
Emma: Pink Adidas tracksuit with a green tee
7. What is your favorite game?
Emma: Cat in the Hat board game
8. What is your favorite snack?
Emma: Edamame
9. What is your favorite animal?
Emma: Monkey
10. What is your favorite song?
Emma: Mean by Taylor Swift
11. What is your favorite book?
Emma: Barbapapa
12. Who is your best friend?
Emma: Anna
13. What is your favorite cereal?
Emma: Honey Nut Cheerios

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside?
Emma: Ride on my scooter
15. What is your favorite thing to drink?
Emma: Hot chocolate
16. What is your favorite holiday?
Emma: Christmas
17. What do you take to bed with you at night?
Emma: Kompis and 2 pillow pets
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?
Emma: Cereal
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday?
Emma: Mormor's pankakor
20. What do you want to be when you grow up?
Emma: Work at Costco

Two two year-olds!

Anna and James turned 2 last week! These little ones aren't babies anymore - although I imagine they will always be my babies, even when they're 40...

We had a small party with just the family. Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Eileen, Mike and Roger came to help us celebrate. The theme of the party was Elmo - only because Anna and James recognize him and know how to say his name (they don't even watch Sesame Street). They walked around saying "Elmo" all day long - mission accomplished!

My first attempt at cake decorating - I was pretty happy with it, if I do say so myself...

Emma, Ashley and I made snow globe party favors.

Our newest tradition - the birthday train!

Elmo!

Anna enjoying brunch

Yum!

James LOVED the Elmo balloon!

Anna was mostly interested in the gifts.

She finally got to open her presents.

As did James of course

James and Grandpa having fun with the new tent.

After Anna and James opened their gifts it was time for the pinata. Notice all the pieces of tape on the bottom? Our pinata must have been defective because all the strings came off... Dan then had to tape every single piece of ribbon back on! Surprisingly it worked out great!

Notice how James is trying to put his ride on toy on top of the very small coffee table. This is why he continues to get hurt all the time!

I wonder why Anna looks so suspicious??

Our main gift to our two year-olds was this tandem tricycle. I'm hoping we'll have lots of fun with this once the weather warms up.

We also bought a second trike without pedals. They were always fighting over Henry's old one so now they each have one. I'm sure they'll find something else to fight over... (Isn't that basket the cutest?!)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR BEAUTIFUL ANNA AND JAMES!