Kajsa's Fifth Birthday Party

Kajsa turned five on Friday and we had a great party at the house. About 10 of her friends came over and played "draw the tail on the pig" (which is the Swedish equivilent of "pin the tail on the donkey"), had a scavenger hunt, went fishing for goody bags, and of course ate, had cake and sang happy birthday to Miss Kajsa Ruth.

We had started the day by waking Kajsa up at 6:30 and singing happy birthday with cake and presents. It's something that Sofia has done in her family and it's a really sweet way to celebrate the day right from the start.

Garden in progress

The gardeners came. They worked very hard and so did Sofia (though there is no official record of this). Prickly things were taken out, along with even more ivy.
Frogs were found. One rather large one that hangs out with the fish in the pond, and a small one that trying to escape...
2 full vans of sticks, leaves and weeds. And every single leaf.
Next week the Garden Designer will come back and we'll see how we'll proceed from here.
Some before and after pictures, though maybe it would be more accurate to call them before and during pictures. There are a ton of bulbs coming and the lilac and rhododendrons will be spectacular! The children were very excited about the frog. And the leaf blower.

Party in Oxford

Sunday afternoon we went to Oxford for Elise's third birthday party. There were about 10 children - food and cake, lot's of running around...and balloons, too!

Here Sofia talks with David while Henry and Axel do their best to move in completely opposite directions.

Chanukkah...a little late

We had a very nice Chanukkah dinner on the first night (three weeks ago)! We may chicken soup and latkas and had our menorah and the advent candle lit together. It was fun. 

The Ivy Monster

No worm at the bottom of the garden - well, there is, but none I'll blog about - but a very large Ivy...structure. About the size of a shetland pony and very...healthy looking! Didn't really think it was a necessary adornment som yesterday I decided to see what it was. After a good deal of pulling, grunting, cutting, swearing and a whole lot of wood lice, I found... A tree stump. Which fell apart! Instead of using a match box for reference, Axel does the honors! Please note, that it is _one_ piece!

I also found the fish! Not a chance to take a picture of it, since the water is beyond murky. Don't know who got more scared - me or the fish! - when I was poking around with a stick to get all the dead leaves out. It was bigger than I thought - maybe 10-12cm. Bought some fish food for it and we will have the girls name it. Knowing their penchant for keeping things basic, the name will likely be "Fish".

New Dolls

Christmas never ends... The girls got dolls from their cousins in the States - Thank you very much! They go everywhere... and we haven't even told them that they are talking dolls yet! They are known as "Baby" and "Axel"

New sofa

After too many weeks, a lot of grumbeling and a decent discount, our new sofa finally arrived. It was tricky getting it in, but after a bit of fiddeling, and quite a lot of swearing... At first it looked huge! And it's still big, but it seems to be settling in well. Once the wall between kitchen and living room is taken down, it'll be great! Not to mention when the book cases migrate to the bedroom...