American Table-top Football

The other day at the kitchen table, I taught the kids how to play table-top football - remember the one with the paper triangle that you played in elementary school? Anyway, the kids loved it, and David has now taken over as coach - he commented that he had forgotten how good he was at the game...

Benjamin has now decorated his (American) football with soccer ball stickers... a bit of sports confusion. Maybe we can find some (real) football to watch this summer.

Gröna Lund in the Rain

We planned a special day for the kids - a day at Gröna Lund (the local amusement park) with a friend each. Yes, we're about old enough to make that feasible, without undue stress on the parents. So Annika invited Astrid, Benjamin invited Rickard, and Christopher invited Hugo - and the day was planned.

But... seems Mother Nature was not consulted, and the forecast rain became a reality as we got in the car to drive there. And yes, it was a very, very rainy day, and very chilly, but we were good Swedes and were prepared with all-weather clothing, myself and David included.

In general, we had a great time, and I can highly recommend Gröna Lund on a rainy, cold and gray day. The kids did ride after ride, with almost no waiting. We didn't have to queue for ice cream, and even "Insane" - the new vertical roller coaster - only had a 10 minute wait. The kids often finished one ride, ran out the exit and straight on in again, without a single line.

A couple of points to remember for the future...

• Benjamin is 140 cm exactly, the minimum requirement for the most challenging rides. Rickard, unfortunately, was 139 cm, so there were quite a few that they couldn't do together. So I had to step in and do Insane with Benj, and JetLine... once. But the other four times, he had to go alone.
• Astrid and Hugo were less adventurous than Annika and Christopher, so there was a little extra waiting at times... but it all worked out in the end.
• We have no pictures of Annika and Astrid because they disappeared at the beginning and we only saw them when they needed money for food.
• We finally broke down and gave the kids 30 kr for carnival games (at some point, with entrance fees for 8, ride "bands" for 6 and food, the expenses just keep mounting...) with mixed success. Benjamin really, really wanted to spin the wheel for a giant chocolate bar, and put his whole 30 kr on one spin, 5 numbers (out of 100 - so the odds were clearly not in his favor). And no, luck did not smile on him, and his smile disappeared for a few minutes, but he eventually recovered.

And my new camera was pretty impressive - the old one didn't survive it's second fall...

Three Desserts per Week...

Dessert seems to be an issue at our house, as in why we don't have it every night. So we decided that a max of three would be allowed for the week (which translates in kid-speak to at least three, and possibly more if the logic can be argued - like does it count if we are at someone else's house for dinner, do "lördags godis" (Saturday candy) count, etc). And to try to get some cooperation from the masses, we allowed them to plan the final dessert of the first week (the third dessert, if you don't count the two we had at other peoples' houses and the candy on Saturday).

So with Benjamin leading the charge, we had a banana split day - one big plate, three spoons.

Which brings back memories of our high school dating days, and Swensons ice cream parlor. David and I used to go there and order an "earthquake" to share - 14 different scoops of ice cream, 14 different toppings, one giant bowl, two spoons. And we survived, so I'm sure our kids will too!

Rid the on Luk God

The boys were playing go-cart (Benjamin, Christopher, and Luke, who also speaks English). They drew out a track with chalk, and we were mystified by the message they wrote at the start.

RID

THE

ON

LUK

GOD

Of course, when we read it from the other way... it became God Luk on the Rid, or Good Luck on the Ride. Much better.

And then today, Luke and Christopher were drawing a castle.

"How do you write CASTLE?" Christopher asks, and then sounds it out. K-A-S-L.

"Well, not quite," I reply.

"I know," says Luke. "K-A-S-O-L" so Christopher adds a tiny O between the S and L.

"Sorry guys - it's C-A-S-T-L-E", I say.

And Christopher puzzles over that one for a good long time, sounding it out in various ways, trying to make castle be... well... castle.

Then he adds "NU" and "GEAM" (new and game)... Then that was just too much and they ran outside to play.

Oh the joys of English!