Sims 3

Natalie bought her first computer game this month: Sims 3

What I love about Sims ~ according to Natalie: I like to make characters, decorate houses, plan a small family, learn to work and earn money. I also enjoy developing different characters with special traits and professions. Cousin Ingunn came over to spend the night and after watching a couple of movies, the girls ended up playing Sims. Natalie loved it!

A Midsummer Night's Dream

I made floral wreaths for Natalie the first six years of her life every midsummer's eve. Somehow I didn't manage to follow through on the tradition ~ but this year I decided to get back in the game. All three girls headed out searching for different wild flowers. It is not only in Shakespeares Midsummer night's dream where magic appear. According to the Norwegian legend, a young maid will dream of her future husband if she sleeps with seven wild flowers under her pillow on midsummer's night.



Here they are, my beautiful girls with their seven flower floral wreath: kløver, fuglevikke, prestekrage, smørblomst, forglemmegei, hundekjeks og fioler. Melissa danced in the meadow (or our lawn that desperately needs to be mowed) and Natalie looks like a hippie girl, flower power. :)

Date Night

Now there's a headline you won't read too often on this blog.... Glenn and I suck big time at going out just the two of us. We have not managed to find babysitters and tend to always plan family activities or split up and do stuff on our own so that one of us stay behind and look after the kids. This week I was fortunate to receive two tickets for the show Sommerlatter at Aker brygge in Oslo. So for the third time in our soon 17 year long marriage, we went on a date. About time!


The show was stand up comedy and I thought it was fun. I especially enjoyed Jonas Kinge Bergland, who is a doctor and plays the guitar ~ as he said himself. Charming! :)

I don't think it will be too long before our next date....

Sayonara! Ciao! Tschüß! Adjö! Good bye!

7 years of Elementary school is history for Michael . Junior high school is just around the corner. June has been one exciting month as far as school activities, ranging from bike trips to the infamous rainy night hike of 15 miles, class trip to Tusenfryd and the graduation ceremony. And so much more.



The principal and the teachers all gave great speeches reminiscing over the past and giving advice for the future. They all emphasized how this group of students had a unique spirit of taking on challenges with a great attitude, not complaining and never giving up.


We had fancy sandwiches, something Michael is not very accustomed to. I had to whisper to him to use the fork and knife as he grabbed the whole thing, ready to shove it in. This incident made us smile.

For entertainment the girls showed a dance number, the band played "Knocking on Heaven's door" and the whole class sand "Another brick in the Wall". Then we enjoyed cakes and words from the students to the teachers. What a great bunch!

Life begins at 40

On May 28th, Glenn hit the 40 year mark! HaPpY BiRtHdAy!


Glenn is not feeling too well these days, and so we celebrated on a small scale. Had seven of his buddies over for a nice evening of tapas and a few quiz games. I had never made tapas before, so that was kind of exciting. Michael helped make Deviled eggs and Natalie made salmon wraps. Team effort, yeah! The Spanish meat balls are now a favorite in our household. :)


And cakes of course! Glenn asked for Oreo cake and a chocolate/spice-cake that I make, cinnamonbuns and I made cupcakes and cookies as well. My favorite part of the evening was when the guys sang the Swedish birthday song: Ja, må han leva ~ with a wish that he will live to see 100 years and shouted hooray! Melissa loved it too!


On Sunday we had Glenns family over for some left over tapas - and the youngsters had pizza. It is great to see the cousins enjoy each others company. They are growing up to be great teen agers. We had fun watching pictures from earlier years.




All the best to you, Glenn! Happy 40th birthday ~ and many more!