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!

As usual I’m up way past my bedtime, so I’ll make this short and sweet. I just wanted to share a few news about a designer I CT for: Sweet Tomato Designs. Cara has decided to move her designs to one store only (where that is will be told on January 1st; follow her blog for updates). Because she is leaving her current three stores she’s having a huge sale right now. Click image below to jump to her store at Pretty Scrappy. (But hurry, her store(s) closes tomorrow.)

I made this LO with her last kit I Believe (I also used a template of hers):

Click image for credits.

Hope to be back soon!! I have so many things to share and show. I see that I have to fix the heading image as well – it’s winter around here and it’s snow, snow, snow and freezing cold. Right now 18 degrees Centigrade below zero. Brrr.. I’m bringing a wool blanket to bed tonight! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Photos from yesterday. It was a mighty nice and beautiful day of rest and quiet. I even took my bike out of the garage and brought MT home from school on it.

He was so happy (he love riding on the bike with me – and it’s almost all downhill from his school so it’s easy for me as well) – and I got some fresh air and a bit exercise as well.

When we got back home I brought my camera and went down to the mailbox on foot to capture some fall shoots. MT joined me riding his bike. Nice

We’ve had so few sunny day this summer (we’ve had some, but according to me: not enough!) – so this sunny September is highly appreciated!!

There is something fresh and crisp with fall sunny days. And it’s easy to catch a cold too, because the weather really isn’t that warm(!) In the morning it’s been only 4-5 degrees above zero (Centigrade). And that is cold enough to wear a thick jacket if you ask me (and not MT). Hoping it’s stays above zero for a few more week… although I long too shoot macros of  the deep orange and red leafs too (and usually we need some nights with frost to get those colors in the leafs).

I’ll miss summer – I really love that season and the ease of life; but now I’m ready to embrace fall season – hoping for more sun than rain, though

MT has stated practicing his writing skills.

We’ve been busy running around meeting people today. Some familiar faces (thanks for dinner SIL! + for candy mom!) and some new faces (nice to meet you new colleagues!).

We visited my new office (where I start in October), I’ve been interviewed for a local newspaper right outside one of the churches (the only one of three that I haven’t been inside off) – and only a few 100 meters down from the new house. [Being interviewed is always both a bit scary and a bit fun, I only hope I found the right words and that I didn't say anything stupid(!) - I probably did.] Then we walked to the store and bought a little lunch snack before we headed back to town and stopped by my brother’s house. I so look forward to doing this on a regular basis when we move closer! At around 4:30 pm MT finally got his wish for the day a stop by a indoor swimming pool(s) – he had so much fun and I promised we’ll return once we’ve moved there. He’s getting really good at practicing his swimming, not long before he actually can do it (and not only say that he can swim). [But in the end he got to confident and got into a little trouble. He broke the not-in-deep-water rule, one of the few really important ones when I'm not in the water with him. So he won't be taking another swim in the pool this month.....not that I planned it anyhow.] At the end of the the day we met mom and dad outside the store, just for a quick little chat. Nice to see them too. Not many photos from today, though…

Tomorrow he’s going to a farm with his class. Better figure out where the farm is(!) Night!!

I should really do a recap of the last months (or years?), but I’ll hold that for a day when it’s not this late…. I’ve been a really bad blogger the last years, but I can’t even imagine giving up this blog even though not many comes here to read any more. I write for me. Mostly. And then off course I really would like to share a few thoughts and photos with you too. Today I renewed my oldest domain, I don’t know what to do with it right now. Still, can’t part with it either. I plan to make a plan for it one of these days….

I’ve spent a lot of time behind the camera this year and I LOVE it. I love edit the photos and presenting them in a way that do the story behind them justice. I wish I could do a lot more with them, but I’m so glad for whatever I get around to make for a scrapbook page or for an album or something. I’ve been using PSE (photoshop elements) for a year and it makes my photos sparkle. LOL. I can’t imagine doing scrapbooks without, but for a while now I’ve been wanting to try out Lightroom as well. And tonight I downloaded it and started to mess around with it a little. I love the presets, but I also see that I need to figure out a whole lot more about how the program works before I can use it for what it’s made for I have it only as a trial for the next 30 days. I guess I won’t buy it after that, but I wanted to figure out why so many photographers use it for their photo editing. So I guess you won’t see me blogging much more in the next month… ehe.

Anyhow, we had a wonderful walk in the woods. The photo above is from today, only with an added aged effect in Lightroom. Okay. See you around!!

He’s working his way to be like Emil (from the great story by Astrid Lindgren) and make some out of the wood stick – only not being locked up in the shack He has a long way to go, though, but I like how passionate he is about it!

8:15 am

I have an early morning tomorrow so will just leave you with the photos right now. I’m glad MT did find school fun and engaging, can’t wait to hear what  he have to tell when he’s back home from school tomorrow – his second day of school  (they have Tuesday off since they are at school full day even in 1. grade, since we live in rural area this is better than to organize buses to drive to and from school more than once a day….). Click the images for a little bit more about them.

8 am

10:18 am

10:19 am

2 pm

..and then we went to the store to buy him a knife that he’s alowed to bring on Thursdays when they have school outside in the woods. I love that he gets to learn such skills – and have band age ready…. I guess there will be more about this later. Night!

Have a beautiful Monday!

He was so happy with a big grin on his face when he got home from kindergarten.

“Mamma. Mamma. See, my tooth is lose!” he shouted. “It came lose when I ate a bit of apple.”

He’s been waiting and wondering about this for weeks and months. He have friends losing their teeth – when will he?!

Today, my kid. Today it’s your day to lose a tooth.

He and Grandpa sat in the sofa talking about how the tooth could come out. They had some fun the guys talking about using a string and what not.

In the end, during dinner, the tooth more or less just fell out with MT saying: “The tooth came out. Where is a glass of water?!” (Right in front you, my dear, we usually drink water at the dinner table.)

By now he’s happily sleeping; eager to see what the tooth fairy left him the minute he wakes up tomorrow. (And, no, it’s not me telling him about the fairy…..but I might as well help her. Grandma chipped in as well, since they were here when the tooth came out…).

On another note.
My vacation is over. Tomorrow is work and time in the office. Lots to prepare and get ready for; the next 3 weeks I’m the only pastor there… the next 4 Sundays I’m in charge of the service and the next 2 Saturday I have weddings. Hopefully there won’t be more than 5 funerals(!)

Better get me some sleep then! Night