On his treasure hunt around the house the goal was to gather letters.

Sometimes he had to climb to get high enough.

Other times he spent precious time searching for things (like a book) in the wrong place, only to suddenly remember where he had seen it and run like crazy to find it. Giving his mama plenty of trouble documenting all the seven stops. Lots of blurry photos. Lots of happiness and laughter.

After he had found all seven of the letters. He got to find his first gift. He was so eager to rip it apart and see what it was inside. I think he never would have guessed this one, although he had a pretty good guess on the big gift.

I can draw on this one? Is it a Wii game? …but I don’t have a Wii…..

About time he got to work on the letters, and rather quickly (with a little bit of help from me saying it was one word and that one word was two words put together) – he found that the big gift was hidden in the: BATHTUB!

And a few minutes later he was the very proud owner of his very own BLUE Wii.

The sad news was that it came from England and we needed an adapter before we could hook it up. He was not so happy with this. But the joy of the blue box (and knowing it would be fixed soon) and the anticipation of his guests arriving in only a few short hours kept him pretty pumped up still.

And a little cake batter helped sweeten things up a little as well.

After his uncle, aunt, cousins and grandparents came we gathered around the table in the kitchen and ate dinner. The plan was to BBQ outside (nothing fancy, just some hot dogs), but the rainy weather made for a change of plans.

But the rainy weather did not stop MT for wanting to get some help getting a few things down that was stuck on the roof top. His uncle was kind enough to head out in the not so nice condition and rescued not only one ball but four. MT was even more happy than before. THANK YOU UNCLE O!

In the afternoon it was finally time for cake and for some birthday candles. MT got to blow them out (and yes he did blow them all out in one intake of breath) and we all sang Happy Birthday To You so he almost got embarrassed. Almost.

MT wanted jello for his birthday party, and I think he was the single one person that ate the most of it at the party. He was also the one that finished the leftovers today (Monday). The yellow citrus one being his favorite.

And then, in the evening, after all the guests left and MT got ready for bed, we did what we do most nights. We gathered in the sofa, MT found himself something to draw on and I started reading from our book. Right now we’re a bit longer than half way in Harry Potter #4. It was the perfect ending to a very nice day. And what we needed to find our quiet together. This is one of my most favorite things we do together. Reading books. I hope it’s still a few more years before he gets to old to be read for by his mama. I hope he never stops drawing either, I love this creative side of him – and he is really really good at it too.

This was our Day #1 of Week In The Life of 2012. I love having his birthday be the first day of this year’s project. Gave me lots of reason to capture gems from a special day. You can find a few more words about the day here.

How was your day? I wish it had something sweet, something quiet and something fun in it – I think all Sundays should have at least that!

Thanks for reading. Have a GREAT week! And I try to update about day #2 tomorrow.

A day filled with celebrations is over. My kid is tucked to bed hours ago. He was tired – and happy. It  has been a good day. Spent together the two of us and spend with our closest family; my brother and his wife and kids and my parents. 

MT have gone treasure hunting for his gift, he have gotten sweet gifts from his visitors and then we spent hours together. An easy dinner, some coffee and tea, a few cakes and MT’s wish of jello as dessert.

In the evening a friend called to congratulate him, throughout the day (and earlier this weekend) a few SMS’s ticked in too. Nice to know we have friends that care and make an effort to reach out. I only wish some of them lived closer so we could invite them over more often.

I’ve taken a bunch of photos. More, I think, than all of February…. I’m going to share a few with you, but not today – tonight all I have is a few instagrams, since those already were online.

This is just a few words summing up our day, before I head to bed as well.

I can hardly believe my sweet little boy is 9 years old. How did he grow so fast? I see a lot of changes in him these days, he’s so much more grown up, he takes care of things, he can be left alone for a while without him getting himself into too much trouble and we have conversations about the earth around us, the animals, the dinosaurs, the solar system, how different people can feel and act, our faith and more -or less – everything (even girls and feeling, but don’t tell anyone I said that!).

And as much as I love that sweet little boy, I’m starting to be very found of this growing and changing boy as well. Most of all because he still is sweet and funny and serious and kind and curious and creative (and more!). I can not wait to see what the days and years ahead will give of good and happy memories. And then I pray for wisdom and patience in the difficult times that I’m sure is bound to come as well.

MT has been my treasure ever since I met him. He’s named after my Grandfather on my mothers side, and his name is so true = Gods gift.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY BIG BOY! May there be many more years to celebrate life with you!

Tomorrow (or in just a few hours actually) we are going to celebrate MT’s birthday. He have been waiting for tomorrow to come all day long. Anticipating both the gifts and the visitors.

To make the morning hours, before our guests arrives, a little bit more fun – and also because he loves a good treasure hunt – I’ve hidden his gift somewhere in our house.

To get there he have to follow photo clues to different spaces in our home. In each of these spaces there are also hidden a letter, that he has to find before he’ll get the next photo clue.

When he have been to all the spaces, and found all the letters, he have to make a word with them. This word will then tell where the treasure is hidden. It’s going to be fun following him around. I hope to shot a few photos of him and the excitement and rush to find the treasure. Wishing for better lighting conditions than tonight when I hid the letters and took the photo clues. It was pit dark around here before I got to start, since I had to wait for him to fall asleep. No fun in him discovering where and how until tomorrow is here

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I’m also planning on starting Ali’s week in the life one day early. I don’t think I’m going to take as many photos as last time – but I do hope to document the details of our week non the less. I’m planning to share here on the blog each evening (about the day before), but I’ll see what will happen – the week is pretty busy.

Are you planning to join in too?!
Taking photos of our life, both the special days and the every day ones feels like treasure hunting to me. Sometimes I need that to actually see how much I have to be thankful and grateful for. Participating in Week In The Life is for me a great way to slow down a little, see what our life looks like and tell the small stories of what makes us us. I can’t capture everything that a week holds, but something is so much more than nothing.

Wishing you a Blessed Weekend!

Another kit from The Digi Files are revealed at The Daily Digi today, and I made a birthday scrapbook page with it.I love all the happy colors and thought it captured the feeling of my birthday celebration really well (rain and all!).

Here are the words:

I love celebrating my birthday. I think I have loved it since I was a little girl. Back then it was all about getting one year older, getting bigger and more independent. Now it’s all about feeling the gratitude about my life, celebrating another year of sweet memories with family and friends.

Every 5 years I invite to birthday party @ The Farm, on my 40th birthday this July I did it again. And, wow, our (extended) family have grown so much, at least on my mother’s side, so the list of people to invite got longer than before – the weather forecast told me rain was to be expected and it was a challenge finding room for all of them – but what a sweet challenge it was since everyone wanted to come!

It was such a lovely day. I wished all of my friends could have been there too, but so grateful for the ones able to attend. I love truly this tradition – and I look forward to another big celebration in five years. Wonder how my family have grown and changed by then….

I’m so proud to be a part of the team at The Daily Digi. Now they have their Team page updated (still in progress for a few more faces), and here is a link to the page about me.

If you aren’t already a subscriber to the files, check out the options here:

Thanks for looking

It was the people that came that made the day so good. All but one of my extended family could be there. My brother and his family as well. And some of my good good friends too. Some I hadn’t seen for a year or more. So nice to catch up and see how much the children have grown.

As usual I wanted to have a barbecue. Setting out the meat and vegetables and letting my guests take whatever they wanted and grill it themselves. I was a bit worried about the weather, but we did all right. Most of the children played outside for a long time, and we had room in the farm house for all when needed.

Off course I wished we could have been outside all day in the sunshine and soaked up the warm weather; that would have been great! Sitting under our apple treas, going to and from the BBQ as we wished and needed.

Maybe next time. I like to do this kind of birthday celebration every 5 years. I have already placed the weather wish for 2016 Then I want some sun!

Thanks for reading this. I promise there will be some photos from this day eventually…. and maybe some words as well about being 40.

…….

Look for my 10 on the 10th blog post later today. I need some sleep

MT have celebrated today, for many hours, with his class mates from school. The photo is from a little present excitement from early this morning, before he went to school. I had a few hours by my self to prepare the party, sadly too few to be as creative as I would have liked. But this week has been soooo busy and tiering already, I just didn’t have it in me (and cleaning the house + baking cake took most of the energy I had left anyhow).

Still, the kids had some fun.

I walked them home from school. It was the first time any of them had visited us, so MT had much to show. In their counting of rooms on the first floor (we live in a big house; it’s not ours…) they discovered a dead bird, so before the birthday could take off – there was a little funeral in the garden.

Then it was time for the presents (MT LOVES to open presents – off course!), we had a simple dinner, before more indoor play and fun. Lots of music, lots of high happy voices and interacting. It was special fun for me to see them together as a group and get to know MT’s friends a little better.

The kids played outside as well, I’m so glad we had a sun filled beautiful spring day. Later in the day we went back in to eat some cake. I had made both chocolate cake and cupcakes – and they ate plenty Since MT doesn’t (normally) like icing on his cupcakes I made two bowls with blue + yellow icing and then a some cake decorating items in a few small bowls. I told them to decorate the cakes themselves using whatever they liked. They had so much fun – and the cupcakes looked wonderfully sweet (pun intended) by the time they got around to eat them. Even MT loved the icing this time…. LOL.

At the end of the party I hid some candy for them outside, took a close up photo of each place a treasure was hidden, showed them the photo hints and let them go treasure hunting. They had so much fun! Some found their treasure fast others had to get help searching before they found it. I love that something so simple work so good!

Now MT is in bed and I’m sitting here by the computer, almost falling asleep, but I wanted to put the day in words before I forgot it. Photos will hopefully follow another day. Tomorrow is another busy day – and the start of our confirmant camp weekend. Yahoo!

Can’t tell you how glad I am for having next Monday off – and for MT to be home as well – we’re going to be walking around in our PJ’s all day long!

Sleep tight!

I love you and I am seriously proud of you!! Keep smiling and loving to learn about the world!

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Can you believe it?! My kid is 6 years old today! Come fall he’s starting school for real. He’s a big boy now. Don’t think for a minute he lets me forget that

He was so happy this morning, jumping around, opening a few gifts with much joy and thankfulness. When we got to preschool/kindergarten the whole building smelled of waffles. They made it for him Later today he’s going to get a crown to wear and they are going to sing for him. I smile by the thought of how big his smile must be by then! He’ll also get fun tasks at the table and else during the day.

In the afternoon we are going to have a party at home with his friends. 5 boys and 3 or 4 girls. It’s going to be wild and chaotic, but also fun and memorable. I think I need to charge my camera My mom is coming over to help me a little (but mostly to keep me sane company).

Now I’m going to make me a cup of coffee and get started on the many tasks around the house. And I have to start making the gello or else it’ll be too liquid to eat (and we can’t have that!).

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And HAPPY EARTH DAY to everyone!!

I’ll get back to that part of the day later…..

Happy birthday!

I’m just in time to congratulate you on your day. Hope it was nice! Above is my current favorite photo of you

Enjoy life, be your self and be proud! Love you lill brother

We celebrated my Grandmothers birthday with friends and family. It was great to be there with her and nice to be with our extended family on my mom’s side; we don’t meet them too often! I had so many photos to choose from, but decided at last on this one where she cuts her cake. Those hands have done so much work and care for us all

I made this for this week CT-assignmetn at Pretty Scrappy answering to a challenge at Scrapmatters. The first scrap I’ve finished since Christmas (I started a few, but those got lost in the crash…). It’s good to be scrapping again.

I was inspired to find a word that could follow me throughout the year. I found a word that evokes a lot of feelings. Both good and bad. I think it’s the right word for this year. Time will show if I think that a year from now Because of the  computer crash I’m starting the new year rebuilding and downloading. Feeling a bit vulnerable since I lost a lot of stuff that was dear to me, but also fine since new beginnings are exciting and can give new directions and answers that the old me couldn’t see….. Maybe

journal: It might seem like a strange word. But for me it’s a word that suits me both in my personal life and when I think about how everything are connected and how my choices affects others far away; the environment etc. Now I’m curious; how will this word give meaning throughout the year?!

credits:
template by Scrapmuss design
staple by Jess Gordon
all else from Dan by Just passin’ thru

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So, got to run, my Grandma is celebrating her birthday today It’ll be fun to see her and all the other members of my extended family!! She’s a old goodie, turning 98 this time around. I love her! But now I’m late – as usual……. ehe.