Sometimes it is the small stuff....

Getting the "good" parking spot, encountering little traffic on the way in to work, having sunshine and above 0 degree C weather, drinking a good cup of coffee with awesome cookies, a lovely piece of kid art, seeing a 7 day weather forecast that does not mention the word snow.... Sometimes it is the small stuff that starts the week on a good foot...

Wishing you all a good day and great start to the week!

 

Even if you can't really tell..... this is a picture of snow MELTING :)

 

Darn cookies! ;)

 

Nicka's spring time tree :)

 

Cosy day

We took advantage of the snow to have a cosy day at home. After getting homework done, the boys had a chance to play. Even though they are in love with their tablets, they managed to pry themselves off the technology in order to play with some real toys ;)

Now it is bath/bed! Good night to all!

 

The dinosaur stash

 

Spider Man..... coming to a table near you ;)

 

 

Spoke too soon :(

Just had to post this.... it is our front window when I woke up this morning. Unbelievable!

 

I'll be back later! Wishing you all a good day!

 

Enough already!!!!!!

 

Finally melting....

The big snow storm morning ended up as rain by mid afternoon. Today we are well above zero degrees C (insert BIG smiley face here!) so the snow is melting away.... YES!

Alexander had a playoff game for basketball this morning. It was super exciting because the teams were tied and had to go into overtime... a boy on Alexander's team made the final basket and they won! They play again next weekend....

I had a soccer game this morning too. I love playing for this league- the women are so nice. Always a nice Saturday morning! The only thing missing is a team espresso maker ;)

Now we are just taking it easy until our guest arrives. An old friend of mine (and a present colleague of Andreas) is coming for dinner. His wife is out of town so we keeping him from having a quiet evening by himself ;) Oh well... to make up for it there is wine....

Happy evening to all!

 

 

 

 

TGIF...

The photos today should speak for themselves ;) Have a lovely (and cosy) Friday night!

 

Early morning drive to work

 

Biggest snowflakes ever!

 

NDG (Notre Dame de Grace) park

Hello from work

 

 

Good Canadian beer is a great way to start the weekend

 

A bit of sushi makes it even better ;)

 

Grey day and cheery art

Today was very grey and a little bit snowy. I am not complaining, though. Just east of us there was a terrible blizzard with 40+cm of snow, closed roads and cancelled flights so I consider us lucky. Nicklas also brought home a great origami picture of a cat with goldfish that he made at school- a nice end to the day!

 

 

By Nicklas

Guilty pleasures

Today was a work-from-home day. I love days like this because it saves so much time in traffic.  I can still finish everything that I needed to get done today PLUS I get a little bit of time left over ;) What a treat! On my way to pick up the boys, I had the chance to stop at a local thrift shop. This is my absolute guilty pleasure! Finding something exciting and unexpected at a super deal is so much fun! It is all about the hunt ;) On this trip I found a great 1950's style skirt in white with black flowers... yes, please, hurry up summer! It will look great with a black t-shirt and sandals! I also treated myself to a Starbuck's coffee and even had time to stop in at a great grocery store. This store is the mecca for anyone who likes exotic cooking (and exotic deserts). Couldn't resist picking up a treat for the boys for after dinner!

Hope you all had a great day! I did :)

 

My thrift store find :)

 

Ahhh... coffee :)

 

No clue what it is... but it has chocolate in it. Good enough for me!

 

Baklava forever! ;)

 

Montreal plays...

One major reason why I love Montreal is the never-ending street party, especially in the summer time: Francofolies, Montreal Jazz Festival, Just for Laughs Comedy, Nuits d'Afrique, International Fireworks Competition.... you can find the list here. This year, I am hoping to spend more time downtown, enjoying it! The boys are getting bigger now and I think that they will start to appreciate it more. I passed a nice reminder on my way to work this morning.... a reminder that Montreal plays.... :)

 

 

 

Dinner at our house

For dinner tonight we had butter chicken with rice.... oh, and play doh food.... but not for desert because there is not enough sugar in play doh ;)

 

Good night to you all!

 

 

 

 

 

Outside in the sun

Today was a nice, easy day. Swimming is over for the winter season and, obviously, it is not nice enough to start the summer session yet ;) I spent a bit of time outside with the dog, enjoying the sun. Even though it is still cold, the sun is starting to feel pretty strong. Ahhhhh..... :)

 

 

 

Outside our house.... you were warned ;)

 

 

 

Snowfall Saturday

Today has been a pretty busy day with Nicka's basketball game, my soccer game, Alexander's basketball game and a load of snow clearing for Andreas. Now it is coffee time....

 

Can you tell from the title that we got more snow today? ;) I am starting to browse sandals online, just to keep myself sane.

 

Here is a bit of what things looked like this morning.... believe it or not, it was spring on Thursday. Can't really tell here ;) Hope you are all having a good Saturday!

 

Our car... and a bit of happiness... ;)

 

Wishing for spring weather!

 

My treasures, pt. 3

I have to admit that I was the one that really wanted a third child. I knew that things would get really crazy with another one but, somehow, I felt that our family (at least to me) wasn't finished yet so..... here comes Oliver :)

 

I found out I was pregnant with Oliver just as Alexander was starting kindergarten and just before defending my PhD thesis ;) By the time we went for our ultrasound, we had decided that we actually wanted to find out (or try to find out) the sex. So many of our friends/family had just finished having their last child so we had a bunch of people with both boys and girls clothes, hanging on to their stuff and waiting to see what we were having before giving it all away. At the 12 week nuchal translucency scan, the tech was pretty sure that it was a boy. We didn't really believe it until 20 weeks where it was very obvious... boy #3.

 

Again, Oliver was born at exactly 40 weeks. My water broke as I was putting Nicka to bed (sounds familiar?) and was born at 7:35 in the morning. It took a while to get to 10cm dilated but when I was, the birth was so fast that Andreas almost missed it and the doctor actually did. We had a fabulous nurse and she gets all the credit. Oliver was a name that I always liked and it was a bit of an homage to the name Olivia, which we never got to use ;) He was born in the middle of May 2010, a month before my 40th birthday. What a present! He was 3.270 kg and 53cm.

  

 

Oliver's first picture

 

Cosy boy!

 

Lots of hair!

 

Pappa and boy #3

 

Our new little family of 5

 

Oliver going home

My treasures, pt. 2

My second son, Nicklas, was born in January 2007. We had just returned to Canada for Andreas' post doc work. Funny- he landed a job in my hometown... my mother was very happy about that :)

 

I found out I was pregnant with Nicklas in April 2006. We were leaving Denmark at the end of August so I had the early midwife visits over there. We ended up really appreciating the surprise gender when Alexander was born so we decided not to find out whether baby #2 was a girl or boy. Despite our best intentions to keep it a surprise, he decided that he wanted us to know during the big 20 week ultrasound. Our midwife tried to initially deny it but it was way too obvious that we were having a second boy!

 

My pregnancy with Nicklas was very busy: we moved from Denmark to Montreal; I started to write my doctoral thesis; we bought a house; we moved into a house; we had to start Alexander in a new daycare; I had to start a new job; Andreas had to start a new job; we had to start a new life in a new country and we also had a very active little boy on hand! I also, for some reason, thought that baby #2 would come sooner than 38.5 weeks (when Alexander was born) so when Nicklas was born at 40 weeks exactly, it felt like the longest pregnancy ever ;) During the evening on the day before his due date, my water broke while I was reading to Alexander. We made our way to the local hospital (thankfully, farmor was visiting) and, late the next afternoon, Nicklas was born. Contrary to having the name Olivia already prepared for baby #1, we decided that we would name him only after seeing him. Nicklas (Nicka) was a perfect fit and we both agreed immediately...

Contrary to his older brother, we actually ended up calling that hospital to see if it was normal if a baby slept that much!! Nicka was such a happy baby who idolized his big brother. He still does but would never admit to it ;) xox to my "sandwich" son... loving him right in the middle!

 

First picture of Nicklas

 

Big boy: 49cm and 4.02 kg

 

Pappa with Nicklas

 

Going home

 

Partners in crime.... still the same now!

 

My treasures, pt. 1

Rather than blogging about the weather (*!!##*!), I thought that I would write a little bit about some of the best things that have ever happened to me: my 3 boys (my husband also falls into the "best thing" category as well but I'll save that story for another time).

 

My first son was born in November 2004. I was 34 years old and working on my PhD. at the University of Copenhagen at the time. For the majority of my pregnancy, we were under the assumption that "he" was a "she". At my 20 week ultrasound, the technician looked at the "goods" and thought that the baby was a girl. We decided to call our baby Olivia and progressed through the rest of the pregnancy thinking that we would be having a daughter. Imagine our surprise when, after 26 hours of labour, we became instant parents of a BOY! Needless to say, it took a few days to come up with a boy's name that fit our baby but finally Olivia turned into Alexander.

 

Alexander was a total non sleeping baby. He was very awake, almost from day 2 (we got a break on the first day)! Very social, he has always liked people and action. Although it has now become hard to wake him up, he is still very social and a really good kid. OK... my blog so I am allowed to brag ;)

 

On our way to the hospital (Rigshospitalet). I was not having fun at this point ;)

 

The new father to be

 

Alexander's first picture

 

All cleaned up. 3500 grams and 51cm, born at 38.5 weeks.

 

One day old

 

I spy with my little eye.....

..... something that is GREEN!

 

 This is one tough tree and I love it! It has been a long winter but, even though there is still more snow in the weather forecast, it will still be spring on Thursday! Wishing you all a nice rest of the day/evening.... :)

 

 

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Wishing you all a very Happy St. Patrick's Day!

 

Artwork courtesy of Nicka :)

 

Making pizzas and other kitchen chaos...

The weekends always fly by. Today we went swimming with the kids and then had lunch with my sister and her family. She has 2 boys who are the same ages as my 3 so getting together is always fun for them. They even go/will go to the same school! Grandma even stopped by....

 

Now it is homework time! Good evening to all :)

 

Play doh pizza for you?

 

Let me step into the kitchen to make it.... Yes, tools and a bubble machine are necessary ;)

 

Ta da! Dinner is served!