Busy week and busy weekend

The week has been quite busy for all of us. Adam has worked long days pretty much ever night, which means that he comes home between 8-10 every night. The season has started at the golf club and it is getting really busy. Really great for him and the club, and knowing that it is only going to be like this for a few months every year, I think it is only a good thing.
Jakob's child care centre was closed Thursday and Friday so Jakob spent Thursday with mormor and morfar and Friday with Adam who had the day off. He spent most of the day with Maria, Andreas, Alice and Melvin at their place.
Saturday night we had Carina and Andreas over for dinner and we all made a bet. No lollies, choclates, cakes, biscuits, ice cream (only Anna), soft drinks and cordial (only Adam) for nearly 3 weeks!! it is going to be a challenge for all of us! We are trying to be a bit more healthy and I have been going for long walks at least a few times every week, so this challenge is coming at the right time. Or the wrong time, thinking about all birthday partys etc coming up in the next week or so...

Sunday afternoon bbq

This afternoon mormor and morfar, Helena, Moa and Lucas came over to play. As always nowdays Moa and Jakob go crazy when they play together, but at least they have a lot of fun.

Having a quick break with mormor.

Jakob's morfar with cousin Lucas.

The neighbours grandkids came over to play soccer and Jakob and Moa were goalies together. Ican't say that their focus was on the ball...

Relaxing on the veranda....

Mother's Day!

Today is Mother's Day in Sweden. We celebrated during the day by going to Hägnan for a picnic. It is a great place to bring kids with big open spaces to play at and lots of animal to look at.

Kulturens Hus

Saturday afternoon I took Jakob for a walk in the pram in to the city. I met up with mormor and morfar, Maggi and Karin at the cafe at Kulturens Hus, a quite new building in Luleå that holds a library, a restaurant, concert hall etc . It is situated right in the city with nice views over the water.

There were some people performing next to the cafe which kept Jakob occupied for a couple of minutes.

Adam was supposed to come in to the city too but he went to a car show with his friend Paul from New Zealand instead. The weather in the afternoon was so nice!!

Another busy weekend!

Another busy but fun weekend has come to an end. We didn't feed any kangaroos but we did lots of other things. Today I had to be at the riding club from about 7 in the morning. Every horse owner at the RC is responsible for the place about every 3 months. That involves feeding about 50 horses, walking them out to their paddocks, cleaning their stables, feeding the again etc etc. I haven't done this for a long time but I think it is really fun! Because I was away a big part of the day Adam decided to take Jakob to Leo's and he met up with 2 of the guys from yesterday with their kids. As always Jakob went crazy and came home happy with bruises everywhere. Tonight we went to mormor and morfar for dinner and a bath. Jakob was running around naked for a while and did a poo on the floor. Or he started doing a poo on the floor, and finished it off on the potty! he is normally not very interested in the potty and we don't really try to encourage him to use it yet, but maybe he is starting to understand what it is for.
Apart from that Jakob is very well. He is growing as he should (we think), he eats really well, he still loves ice cream and grapes, and he is learing so many new words every day. He has a strong mind and likes telling people what do do, where to sit, what to wear, what to eat etc. And he wants to do everything himself. He also copies other kids a lot, which is both a good and a bad thing. He learns a lot that way, but he also picks up some not so good habits. I guess it is a part of growing up and hopfully over time we can teach him and guide him to become a person who makes good decisions for himself.

The big move!

Our friends Sampan and Camilla moved to a new apartment on Saturday and Adam helped them to move furniture in the morning and Jakob and I joined the team in the afternoon to start unpacking boxes and tidy up. I think it is quite fun to help people move. Much more fun than doing it for yourself. A few of the girls where pregnant and there were 3 kids running around but it still went really relly well.

Jakob and his new friend Finn trying to work out how to play ice hockey.

All of a sudden it was 5 pm and we were invited to stay for a bbq. While most of us were inside preparing food or unpacking, a couple of guys were outside cooking and playing with the kids. Adam was exhausted trying to look after 3 boys age 2-3 running in opposite directions. Can you find the 3 of them in the picture?

At the end of the day everyone was pretty tired and we all went home around 8ish.

Alice and Jakob

Saturday morning Adam went in to the city to help some friends move from their apartment to to a new really really nice apartment at Udden in Luleå. I decided to stay away from it all, didn't think having a 2 year old running around people moving boxes and furniture would be a good idea... Maria, Alice and Melvin came over for a play and for lunch and as always it was nice to see them all. Our neighbours are looking after their grandkids (5 year old girl and 1 year old boy) for a few days and the girl came over and wanted to play with Jakob and Alice all the time. She even took them down to the playground and did a great job looking after them. We can see the playground from the back of our house and because it is such a safe area and no roads to cross we didn't have to be worried.

Public Holiday

Today is a public holiday so both Adam and I had the day off work. Nice. In the afternoon we were invited over to Maria, Mattias and Felix for a bbq. We had a really nice day even though Jakobs mood was a bit up and down. He has a small cold which I think was one of the reasons. He really enjoyed playing with Felix toys and when they weren't fighting about toys they were playing pretty well.

The two dads nearly killing each other playing outdoor floor ball. Jakob is watching and taking it all in.

Finally the kids got to try for a few minutes...

After lots of playing we had a really nice bbq with some ice cream for dessert.

Adam playing with the kids

Felix really like Adam and kept saying come come to him. Jakob got a bit jealous at times but got happier when he realised he could also come and play.

One of the games Felix wanted Adam to play was the Rock band game. Need no further explanation I think...

Spring in the air!

This morning we had a really nice time together at home. I also squeezed in a 45 min power walk in the sunshine, it was SO nice.
Look at the green grass and the trees with all the leaves, the colours are changing every day, summer is not far away now.

Jakob and I relaxing in the sun. We bought some new outdoor furniture on special in the middle of winter and finally we get to use them. Jakob is trying to copy my pose...

We also spent nearly an hour on Skype with grandman and poppa. They are coming over to visit us in about 8 weeks!

Jakob and mormor

Earlier in the week mormor came over for dinner one night when Adam was working late and morfar was in hospital. Jakob and mormor did some gardening when I was cooking...

Sunday afternoon in Ale

This afternoon we went to Ale to celebrate Mikael's 30th birthday. Adam and Jakob went to the indoor playground Leo's in the morning and went straight to Ale so I met them there. Last time we went to Åsa and Mikaels house was for Christmas, it looks very different in summer...

There were lots of space for the small kids and the big kids to play in the backyard. Jakob and Moa found a very interesting ditch where they could play. Luckily there was no water in it...

Why use stairs to walk down when you can jump?

Kicking balls

As long as someone is kicking the ball with Jakob he is quite happy. But if someone picks up his ball and walks of he gets really really mad and starts screaming. Jakob likes his balls... Lucky that we have so many soccer freaks in the family. Here he is playing with my cousin Andreas...

And with Andreas girlfriend Karin...

And with Moa...

Resting

Later in the afternoon Lucas was actually awake for half an hour or so. Because of the sun they kept him inside most of the time. The Swedish sun is SO hot ;-)

When I said the word pears in Swedish Jakob and Moa went crazy but quitened down when I told them they had to sit on the couch to eat their pears.

Saturday bbq

The weather on the weekend has been amazing. Sunny, no wind and almost 20 degrees. It doesn't have to get any warmer than this. On Saturday afternoon we invited mormor and morfar and Anders with family over for a bbq. We sat outside for a long time and the kids played together in the sun. Apart form Lucas who slept pretty much the whole afternoon.

Adam enjoying a beer and Jakob enjoying some chips.

Playing outside

Jakob got a couple of new balls yesterday to use outside. They ended up at the neighbours backyards a few times but they seem quite nice so so far so good.

Jakob manages to turn every toy in to some sort of jumping device. Why use a slide for sliding when you can jump from it?

This is what Adam and I look like at the moment.

Helping mormor

Mormor founds some dead branches in our back yard and together with the great helpers Jakob and Moa she got rid of most of it. Now it is up to me and Adam to remove it from the ground... could take months...

Dinner inside

It was almost warm enough to sit outside and eat dinner but we decided to have it inside instead. Morfar wasn't feeling very well so he had a rest upstairs while we were eating, but the kids woke him up when it was time for dessert!

After finishing their own dinners Moa and Jakob went crazy on my plate. They shared my chair and shared the left overs on my plate. That's what happens when I get up to take photos...

After a long fun day of playing in the sun Jakob and Moa were exhausted. They had a very very short rest in Jakobs bed before it was time for Moa and the rest of the family to head home.