... and to all a good night!

Santa had a glass wine and put all the presents under the tree. It took forever to get the boys to bed so Santa is pretty darn tired ;) By the way, we open our presents on Christmas Eve so it wasn't that Santa had too much wine and got the date wrong ;) There is no way the boys would ever let that one happen... even if 2/3 of the gang are a little doubtful about the man with the white beard ;)

Wishing you all a good pre-Christmas-Eve-eve xox

New shoes... for me!

*** Andreas, you do not have to read any further ;) ***

Last week, I ordered a new pair of shoes from Zara. Actually, I first fell in love with them on Ebay but the seller was being super greedy. After I realized that I had a Zara store credit because of a dumb purchase that I did in the early autumn (I usually wear medium... did not try it on... and looked 9 months pregnant wearing it), I went on the website to see if my beloved shoes were there... and... voila! They were ;) I will also add that the Ebay seller was asking 2 x the store price- super, super greedy! So, after using the credit, I only had to spend about $27 (= not feeling TOO guilty) and click... the shoes were on their way... to me... ;)

Today, they arrived and I love them. Perfect timing because the weather is very cold and these shoes remind me of spring... which I need reminding of :)

By the way, this is not advertising... just my own shopping weakness... and that I love shoes.... especially these ones ;)

Happy day to you all xox

Ooo... sorry about the dirty mirror... just realized what I have to do next ;)

Moving

Yesterday, I moved offices.... and, yes, it is a BIG thing for me. I got a promotion from the grey windowless office that I had before to a yellow walled one with... wait... a WINDOW!!! I am so excited- I can have plants, know what time of the day it, what kind of weather there is outside and I don't fall asleep by 2:00pm!

Happy 2017 to me ;)

xox

Yes- the window is dirty and it is not always sunny outside but I LOVE it anyway :)

My last day of holidays

Tomorrow, I am back to work. The boys have a few more days off. I am jealous ;) Actually, I am feeling a mixture of sadness and excitement: sad that the holidays are over because I have really enjoyed my time at home with the boys. I also feel excited to start a new year, a new semester, new courses and new adventures. A bit of a mix....

Wishing you all a great evening... I will be appreciating mine xox

Our exciting hermit crabs;)

Actually, I am being a bit sarcastic here.... imagine that ;) Remember when we bought hermit crabs (here) because Oliver was heartbroken that we couldn't bring our PEI friends home with us? Well... I must say that they are not the most entertaining pets that you could ever hope for ;) On a regular basis, I have to dig them out from their hiding places and make sure that they are still alive. Once dug out, I place them in their food bowl (I NEVER see them eat) and the big entertainment is watching them run... seriously, they run... back into their coconut shell and dig themselves under the coconut shavings that line their home. After I put them in the food bowl, I have to call out the boys to hurry up and see their little pets move... otherwise, they disappear until the next "dig out".
OK.. I agree with Andreas... the crabs are a big boring but, after our animal zoo- 2 dogs, 2 cats, 3 fish and all our animals of the human kind ;) - I kind of like the low maintenance aspect of the hermit crabs. The weekly "excitement" is fine with me ;)

xox

Can you spot the 2 crabs in the food bowl? The third (Oliver's) is already making his get away ;)

Life ambition for the next generation

Yesterday, Alexander's soccer team lost the last game of the season. I knew that he was disappointed... he really wanted to win the game and the championship. So, after saying goodbye to the boys on the team, I was a bit surprised to see Alexander, excited and jumping around. Nicklas ran up to me and begged me for my phone. After assuring me that he wanted it for a picture and not to play more Pokemon-Go, I gave it to him. He ran off with Alexander (which is a bit suspicious in my books... the boys running off together... and not from each other).

About 10 minutes later, they both ran back. Nicklas exclaimed "Mamma, I just lived my dream". Curious, I asked what the heck just happened. Alexander excitedly responded "We just met Bajan Canadian (click on his name to find out who he is. I had to look it up too)! This is the coolest thing... EVER". They ran back to their soccer friends and basically swarmed this guy that they met at the soccer field.... some guy who was just there to watch his brother play... before it became the Bajan Candian festival ;)

OK... excited about meeting a celebrity is nothing new. The funny thing about this encounter is that Bajan Canadian is a Youtuber... and all these boys knew EXACTLY who he was.... and all the parents had NO idea. I kept thinking that they were just taking picture of some random guy who either was too kind to say no to the pictures or just going along with the gag of having a soccer team of boys (and siblings) who wanted to take photos with him.

Anyway, when I got home, I researched (yes, I do this for a living and it creeps into my non-work life as well) this guy and, lo and behold, it could well be him! Funny, how these kids could notice some Youtuber on a random soccer field, in a random city, in Canada (not exactly known for its Youtube culture). Geez, I could have Ryan Gosling walking in front of me and I would not notice (disclosure: yes, I would notice the man because- heck- he IS good looking but not because he is Ryan Gosling. PS: He IS Canadian too... just sayin'. PPS: He is, though, not as good looking as my husband who, by the way. reads my blog on occasion ;) ). Funny how the definition of fame has changed with these kids. Now, the boys are all trying to figure out how to get 5 million subscribers on Youtube... and I just feel like the totally non-cool mother ;)

Happy weekend to you all! xox

The boys and the Bajan Canadian ;)

Since my last post...

I think that I started a new blog post about 20 times over the past few days. A lot has happened but the time to sit down to write about it never materialized ;)

So, since my last post, what has been happening?

- We got our first floor back. The floors look fantastic (at least to us) and it was totally worth camping in the back yard ;)

- We celebrated the last day of school for the boys..... with ice cream ;)

- I turned 46 years old on Saturday. The concept of aging (or reverse aging) will be another blog post altogether. The older I get, the better I feel :)

- We went to a St. Jean celebration. This is a Quebec verion of Sankt Hans/Midsommer/Victoria Day... Andreas kept insisting that it was he planned it... for my birthday. Haha! Good try ;)

- For my birthday, the boys gave me a gift card to a local spa and a great t-shirt (I heart Swedish boys... see pic). Awesome gifts! :)

- We are trying to organize our first floor. That meant spending my birthday carrying boxes up stairs... Exciting? No. Full of exercise? Definitely ;)

- We had about a million soccer games over the weekend (please don't take that too literally). They were both real games and those on TV ;)

- Andreas and I went to Ikea and spent too much money on things that we didn't realize that we needed until we saw it. Enough said ;)

- Our hot water heater decided to die. Thankfully, it is in our garage so the big water leak basically drained itself. Bonus was that our plumber also installs water heaters... fast .... at a good price :)

- We had to get ready for the last phase of our renovations = the stairs! At least we don't have to camp for that one.

- The boys still have a better weekend social life than we do ;)

- I am sure that I have missed about 100 more things but I am trying to block them out of my memory ;)

Wishing you all a great start to the week xox

The floor in progress

Celebrating the last day of school :)

Yum!

Happy boys

More floor!

We get our bedroom back :)

St. Jean party

Can you tell that I posed them? ;)

Oliver in action

The old farts ;) Yes, I am older ;)

Yes, I have 4 boys ;)

Heading home.... to carry more boxes back upstairs ;)

My birthday cake.... decorated by Andreas ;)

My new t-shirt <3

The before picture of our stairs...

The leak! :0

Our driveway at 8am.... craziness!

Yes, of course, it has to rain for the stairs guy ;)

The supervisors ;)

First stage of renovations

For people who see me on a daily basis, this is why I seem stressed and a bit crabby ;) Stage one of our renovations (today) include replacing the back living room window and- FINALLY- our patio door. Needless to say, there is a crap load of dust in our house. Tomorrow, the workers start on stage two: replacing the floors on the first floor (main floor!) of our house. Next stage will be replacing our main stairs and railings.

Please send me some virtual sanity. I need it ;) Just thinking of the end product..... xox

My new best friends ;)

Only child ;)

All week, Alexander and Nicka have been SO excited to go to their Friday night sleepover party. Seriously, every day started with disappointment that it was not Friday yet. Finally, Friday came and I brought the boys to their friends' house. We are lucky. The family that they were visiting have 4 children: 1 poor girl and 3 boys.... 2 of which are Alexander and Nicka's best friends. This is the same family that we will be going on holiday with so they have fun planning (scheming?) things that they will do this summer. Sleepovers are a little like a warm up to the big event ;)
Anyway, having the big boys away for the night means that Oliver gets to be an only child ;) At first, he always forgets that his brothers are gone so he calls for them. When he finally realizes that he is the only boy around, then he starts to be the little king. He can talk about his video games and no one corrects him. He can play on my tablet and no one grabs it out of his hands. His father took him to McDonald's so he can play in the park and no one said that the park sucked. He can have a cookie after dinner and no one steals it from him. He gets to play with his glow-in-the-dark sword and no one takes it from him. I guess that there are some benefits from being too young to go to sleepover parties ;)

May the glow be with you ;)

Daylight savings

Sure... we miss out on an hour of sleep but, honestly, to have a few more hours of light on the evening end of things is worth it! Yesterday, Andreas and I sat on the front porch (yes, it was warm enough) to have a beer/tapas before dinner, while the boys were playing some funny soccer game thing that they had made up earlier in the day on the balcony in the back. We could hear them shouting in the back but we pretended that we didn't know who the noisy kids were. At least, they were happy sounds ;)
Today, we woke up to a beautiful sunrise. Yups.... it is worth it :)

Happy week to all xox

Just hanging out (post funny soccer game thing)

Nicka being Nicka <3

Let the springtime begin :)

Hello!

This morning

Happiness is.... 4th of Advent and holidays!!!

Yesterday evening, I had my last exam and am now off until the first week of January!!! I still have corrections to do and courses to prepare for but I can do that when and how I want to! If I feel like wearing pajamas while I do my work, I can :) If I want to have a glass of red wine while I do my work, I can :) If I want to eat way too many chocolates while I do my work, I can :) If I want to do my work at midnight because I wanted to slack off all day, I can do that too :)

Happy belated 4th of Advent and holidays to you all!! xox

This is how I started my holidays :)

Not to mention that we will not be having a white Christmas this year ;)

Even the dogs are taking it easy :)

Liseberg

Yesterday, we took the boys to Liseberg. For the non-Scandinavians ;), Liseberg is an amusement park, located in Gothenburg (second largest city in Sweden, on the west coast). I seriously had to turn off my mental Swedish kroner to Canadian dollar currency converter ;) Mind you, nothing beats Copenhagen's Tivoli for most expensive day ever ;) Anyway, it was worth it: great weather, fun rides, lots of treats, sausages that actually tasted like something... the list goes on...
We had expected to stay until mid afternoon but ended up staying past 6pm. Of course, the boys fell asleep on the way home... happy and coming down from their amusement park high... Liseberg is definitely worth a visit, if you are in the neighbourhood :)

Now be prepared for photo spam!

On our way to Liseberg

We're finally here!

Like father, like son ;)

Another joker in the family

Kaninland

Ready to go

Oliver at the wheel in Farfar's bil

Waiting in line

Nothing like bumper cars to bring out sibling rivalry ;)

Getting even.... ;)

On the boat ride... thankfully, only once ;)

Skaal!

They must be tired... they are actually not fighting ;)

In the teacup....

Eating a Piggelin... a Swedish tradition since 1942 ;)

More Piggelin :)

This is the biggest thing on a Monday night... this is enough for another post ;)