Retroactive Christmas Blogging :)

I am not sure if this is a great no-no in the blog world, but I am posting some Christmas photos below and pretending that I posted them earlier... I want the photos to be in somewhat chronological order. At least I am honest that I am a few months behind...:)

Christmas Eve. Julafton. Anna was very friendly with Santa, Frida not so much...
Lovely children in our lovely house just before opening their lovely gifts....
Yay mamma! I love this Christmas wrapping thing! It is your best idea ever!
Disaster area after lovely children has opened their lovely gifts and left the living room to parents...:)
A very nice Christmas Day with our good friends Lynne, Paul, Anja and Isabel. Apart from the great company, great food and drink it was also very nice to leave the disaster area behind!

Lussebullar och lucia

Skating in Chicago

The girls; Carolina, mormor, Anna, Frida and I, spent Saturday night and Sunday in Chicago before Carolina and mormor was to return back home. In spite of snow-mixed rain we had a nice stay. The highlight was probably the skating rink in Grant park. And the Chicago style Pizza!

Thanksgiving Turkey

Jisses-var tog de tva manaderna vagen? Vi borjar med det senaste: Thanksgiving! Vi hade Thanksgiving middag tillsammans med Lynne, Paul, Anja & Isabel och Mamma var ansvarig for lagandet av kalkonen och Paul skotte "carvingen".
For Thanksgiving Lynne, Paul, Anja & Isabel as well as Carolina and Barbro came over and we had a really nice evening. The girls played and the rest of us ate. :)

Anna turns 4! Annas fodelsedag!

The morning of the 22nd
Cake! (note the purple and pink!)
Frida likes cake too!
Birthday Party and MORE cake!
Some guests enjoying cake
Our family at the birthday party

En liten kusin!

Visst ar han fin!? Han ser inte ut som mig pa nagot vis, men jag kanner mig anda litet stolt. :)

Baby cousin!!!

I got a call this morning from Stockholm-my sister (and Anders) had a baby boy! Everyone is doing well, just a little tired. He is big, 4200g, which translates to roughly 9lbs 4oz. He doesn't have a name yet, but I can now titulate myself moster Kaisa! (aunt Kaisa, but moster specifies that it is the mother's sister, I am fortunate to already be an aunt to Wilhelm, Liv and Marta)

I am anxiously waiting for pictures!

Nannies

We have had some really wonderful people working with us in the past 3.5 years. Marichu, who was Anna's nanny from when she was about 10 months still stays in touch. She now has a new job, so we hired Kristen in the end of August. We all really like her, and she has done so many nice things with the girls this past month, for example lots of crafts. Unfortunately, this is the last week with Kristen, who has to move back to Maine to care for an older relative who is sick. We have a new nanny, Antonia, who will start shortly.
Anna, Frida & Kristen with painted pumpkins
Puppet-puppy made of paper bags
Anna & Kristen with their paper flowers
Marichu, Frida, Kristen & Anna

Swedish Playgroup

This past Sunday, we drove down to Indy to play with some other Swedish speaking girls. Petra and lill-Kaisa hosted this 4th playgroup. It is an opportunity for the little girls to play with other kids speaking Swedish and for us moms to chat over a fika and lunch. We have all been here for about 10 years, our families are 1/2 Swedish and we all have daughters, so we actually have quite a lot in common! On top of that, Petra's daughter and I share the same name!

Frida, Petra & lill-Kaisa, Maria & Bridget, Helena & Elin and Anna

Fotball game with Stuart

Last Saturday Stuart took Anna to a fotball game, it was an early birthday gift. We live just ~300m from the enormous Ross-Ade stadium, which seats around 60 000 people, so she has heard the games and seen all the people heading for the stadium on Saturdays, but this was her first game! She was so excited to go with Stuart, and they were appropriately dressed in game shirts (thanks Natalie!) and fed popcorn and soda. I was excited to go as well, I have not been for many years. And it was fun to go with someone that actually explained what was going on down there on the field. :)

Stuart, Anna and Natalie
Girls cheering!
Anna and I

Anna - a magician's assistant

Last week we had dinner at Pizza Hut, as they have a magician performing every Tuesday. Anna was fascinated and she really played along! She successfully converted one foam ball into two to our great surprise! She still will not divulge how she did it!

Suneeta's birthday!

Our very good friend Suneeta turned 16 (again!) a week or so ago and just a few days earlier, we had a small brithday party for her. (really, just a reason for us to have cake!)

Suneeta is waiting for her piece of cake
Frida enjoys her cake

Paul, Suneeta, Anna, Anja, Lynne + Isabel, Kaisa+Frida

Playing at Anja's

A week or so back, we were playing at Anja and Isabel's house. The big girls were biking on their matching Trek bicycles. Most things are pink nowadays. And purple.

Pink Anna with purple bike and purple Anja with pink bike.

Pretty Frida in Isabel's swing

... and a special post for mormor as well!

This picture is taken in Stockholm in August 2008. Mormor Barbro with her wannabe, dressed to match!

Special post for Nana Ruby

We just saw this photo of Anna and her nana and thought we would share this wonderful picture of them from April 2007 in Stawell, Australia.

Fall has arrived!

Anna has started a new preschool. She goes to the "Lab school" on the Purdue Campus. She seems to really like it, which is great. She goes only 4 mornings a week. The highlight is if she gets to ride there on the back of Kevin's bike; we just got a new bike seat for her (just like all swedes have).

Anna on the back of Kevin's bike

Anna has also started her dance classes again, and during the class, we got some time to play with Frida. Poor little sister does not get to start any classes yet.

Frida outside Anna's dance class

Kraftskiva in Indy Sept 6, 2008

This year, the annual crayfish party was hosted by Christel and Chip in Indianapolis. It was our first one with the "Indy swedes" and it was great! The animals were overnighted from Oregon and really tasted like they are supposed to and not cajun flavored!

Beautiful and Tasty food!
Party Animals! :)
Kevin is singing
Toastmaster Magdalena

Campfire in Tulip Court Sept 5

Anna plays a lot with our next door neighbor Stuart, who is just 6 months older. They have so much fun together and they do lots of wild, funny and slightly mischievous things when they are together. Conveniently, the rest of Stuart's family is fun to hang out with as well! A week or so back, we had a campfire with mommy Nathalie and Stuart's baby sister Skyler. After some help with the fire (I hate to admit that Kevin had to come and start it) we cooked hot dogs, s'mores and chocolate filled bananas.

Nathalie, Skyler, Stuart, Anna, Kaisa & Frida

Stuart
Anna's first "s'more"

Summer in West Lafayette 2008

The month between coming back from Sweden and fall starting was spent largely at home. We did do a few outings such as the farmer's market and a bike ride with Lynne, Paul, Anja and Isabel and Randy and Lorraine. It was probably the hottest day of the year, but still great!

The 24 miles Wabash Century Ride

(photo by Paul)
Frida on our patio
Anna on our patio
Anna&Stuart at the Farmer's market
Anna's swim class at Happy Hollow