Three Words

Our words for the week are....

1. Cookies

It was Ellie's turn to sell girl scout cookies at the local commissary. She's quite the salesperson, and had no trouble approaching potential customers and trying to get them to buy the cookies. At some points I wished that she DID have trouble approaching them, because let's just say she uses high-pressure sales tactics. But at least she didn't cuss them out, so that's a plus.

2. Oops

Poor Jack's guitar had a great fall, and all the king's horses and all the king's men, just won't be able to put it back together again. So off to the music store we go to purchase a new one. (FYI, although it'd be a good story to say that Jack destroyed the guitar in a Pete Townshend-like rock smash, the real story is far less sexy - fell on the ground during early-morning lineup at school. But maybe we'll go with the Pete Townshend rock smash story.)

3. Forlat

That's Swedish for "sorry." Because these cute and yummy Swedish chocolates, which say "hugs" and "kisses," were supposed to be sent to dear Jared in Afghanistan. But, well, it was a long day and they were on my desk, and they were mocking me and calling to me and luring me and, well, forlat.

Sweden, Baby!

The kids had off school this week - heck, these kids ALWAYS have school off for some European holiday or another. This one was apparently "pre-Lenten" holiday (or as most people call it, Ski Week). Instead of facing a week stuck in the house with the kids (which might lead to "Shining"-like results), we decided to take a trip. I had two goals: (1) a new country to mark off and (2) somewhere with a high likelihood of English speakers. Because let's face it, I can get myself lost in my own backyard, so there's a VERY high likelihood that wherever we go I'll get lost and need to ask directions. So English speakers is a big plus.

So, given those criteria, we chose Sweden - Stockholm, to be exact. I knew exactly three things about Sweden before our trip: (1) they have Ikea, (2) they have meatballs, and (3) they apparently have lots of tall, blonde people. After traveling this week, I can confirm the first two - perhaps because it was wintertime with lots of hats being worn and everyone being wrapped up, can't confirm the tall, blonde theory. But either way, we had a great time. Very friendly people (very friendly), and yes, they pretty much all spoke English. And we had a lovely time. Oh, and we learned like two Swedish phrases - which I've already forgotten. Oh well. But I do remember that "tack" is "thank you," so "Tack, Sweden, for a great time!"


Outside the Nobel Museum.

Stockholm's tiniest sculpture - yup, might need your magnifying glass one. I can't remember what it's called, but it's of a little boy looking up at the moon.

Walking through Stockholm's old town, Gamla Stan.

At the Vasa Museum. The Vasa is a boat that sunk on its maiden voyage in the early 1600s. Four hundred years later they raised it, 98% intact.

Sorry, Rudolph, but your little reindeer friends are, well, kinda tasty. With the amount of reindeer that's served in restaurants in Stockholm, Jack said that Santa Claus must be pretty nervous bringing his sleigh around at Christmas.

At Skansen, an outdoor museum - they have old Swedish homes and buildings, and animals local to Sweden

Oh, and a giant snake slide. Not sure how that works into Swedish history.

Enjoying the hop-on/hop-off bus

Our family tradition - search out a McDonald's in every European city we visit. Thankfully, there are plenty of McDonald's in Stockholm, so the search didn't take too long.

On our Swedish food tour. We started off at a big fancy food market. After trying some cheeses and jams, we got a big ol' plate o' meat - moose and reindeer, to be exact. We even tried, ahem, reindeer heart. Not sure I'll need to try that again.

And then, ta-da, don't forget the Swedish meatballs! Yup, just like at Ikea. The guide didn't seem very pleased when I mentioned that it tasted like the stuff at Ikea, though. But, well, it did. Sorry, Swedes.

This is called snella - it's a pastry that they only serve right before Lent. It's a pastry filled with marscapone cheese, then topped with whipped cream. And this week they sold it EVERYWHERE.

But before turning to the sweets, we had one more savory - Swedish fish. But not the yummy gummy Swedish fish, this kind. Smoked salmon, pickled herring, and then some kind of shrimp mayonnaise thing. I'm not much of a fish person to begin with, so this wasn't my favorite stop. But luckily, our next stop was ....

Chocolate. Mmmm, chocolate. A yummy chocolate shop (I think it was called The Chocolate Factory, whatever that is in Swedish) where we had creamy hot chocolate and some raspberry and licorice-filled chocolates. Apparently black licorice is VERY popular there. It was very mild in this chocolate, though.

Before heading back into Gamla Stan to finish out our food tour, we stopped to enjoy a little leftover snow we found along the way.

On the bridge heading back into Gamla Stan

And heading to our final food destination, which was...

Pastries, my friend. Cinnamon buns (but I was smart enough NOT to say "just like at Ikea!" this time) and snella. Hot chocolate, too, but for some reason they sprinkled it with cardamon, which kinda ruined it for me.

There was roughly 8 pounds of whipped cream on the snella, which suited Ellie just fine.

A fun time in Sweden, but we're all glad to be back. Oliver is, too.

Happy 9th, Ellie!

It's that time of year again - Ellie's birthday. And in case you're apt to forget, no worries, she'll remind you. Oh, she'll remind you, as she reminded me approximately 37,000 times in the weeks leading up to her birthday. Then the morning of, there was the dancing and singing and the reminders that it was HER DAY. You know, just in case you had forgotten.

Then it was on to the main event - her birthday party. She had decided she wanted her party at the local Arts and Crafts Centre, and we decided that for their craft, they'd make jewelry. So she and 14 of her BFFs got together to celebrate HER DAY (in case you had forgotten).

First, the girls made bracelets. Miss Paola, one of the teachers from the Arts and Crafts Centre, helped them make some really pretty ones.

And yes, I spelled Centre with an "re" instead of the (proper) American spelling of "er," because that's how they spell it here. Misguided as they may be, I'll go with it.

And then it was on to the face painting, this time with Miss Elena.

You can't really tell in this picture, but the face painting was really pretty.

And finally the food. Which I really shouldn't have bothered all that much about, since the girls really preferred to just sit and do girl-chat.

Everyone seemed to have a good time - well, except for this guy, who asked me approximately every 4 minutes if it was almost over.

Happy Birthday, Ellie!

Gross

Jack just won a writing contest in his class for the grossest menu description. And I must give credit to the young lad, it was indeed pretty gross. His assigned menu item was grilled spider, and he eloquently described its charred, crunchy legs, the gooey, raw insides, and even how the eyeballs would pop when you bit into them. Very gross.

And it's not surprising that my kid has a talent for the gross given what he hears from his sister every day. If you displease her, she just might threaten to cut your eyeballs out or - her latest one - to (1)rip out your spine and then (2) wrap aforementioned spine around your joints.

Now, I must say that this gives me pause for a few reasons:
(1) I'm not really sure that's anatomically possible. Could you really wrap the spine around your joints? I'm questioning the feasibility of that.
(2) Um, gross.
(3) Note to self - sleep with one eye open.

So yes, we are so gross that we WIN AWARDS FOR BEING GROSS.

I burst with pride.