Third Weekend

Snegler are so good, that it would be easy to eat them daily. However, probably they are not entirely healthy...so we generally save them for a weekend treat. This, our third weekend here, started with the tall snegler (as opposed to the short and wide ones) on Friday afternoon as a treat after school.

These are a bit more difficult to cut in half and share, but, they also seem to have more of the gooey center part in them than the other variety. So. Good deal all around!

Friday evening we again partook of Disney Sjov (pronounced Disney Show, but means Disney Fun). The boys were a bit disappointed that it was again the 101 Dalmations cartoon, but were excited when Donald Duck came up second. Each kid has his or her own way of settling in to watch:

Saturday morning was brunch again at the Højskole. Corn flakes with strawberries again! And sausages! And pancakes! It is all so delicious. Anders has a hard time with the concept of "brunch" though. He says he is going to eat breakfast, and then he will eat a late lunch before dinner. I've discovered that the pancakes (which are so much like the Swedish pancakes my grandma Ruth used to make for me!) are absolutely amazing with brie and strawberries. And cafe-au-lait. I don't know what you call it here when you mix your kaffe half and half with milk, but, I've taken to drinking it that way. In part, because it's very good. But also, because then I can have two cups! And also I'm drinking milk, so, that's a good thing too. Svea absolutely loves the sausages! They are like lil smokies, but cooked differently somehow. I'm not sure what they do to them, but they are amazing. I always have to be careful because the little hands tend to take all of mine. I cannot believe how much the kids are eating here! They go back for seconds and thirds often; and not just little bits. I think they will all grow a foot before we get home.

We had our first ride in the car with all of us! It took about 15 minutes to get in the car...The back seat is tight with three car seats (the boys are in boosters, but here the boosters are full-back seats) and the seatbelts were a challenge! But we got in, and Jeff did an excellent job driving the manual transmission car. He has been practicing by himself and with friends a few times, but this was the first time all of the family was there.

After brunch, we went to the alarm 1-1-2 fair in Skodborg, about 8km away. There were fire trucks and ambulances and such things.

This one the kids were able to go up in, but the boys opted not to. It went quite high!

The boys got to sit in the front seat of a fire engine, and Anders even got to sit at the wheel.

Svea was a bit frightened by the sirens, so she wasn't quite as big a fan of this fair.

There were lots of opportunities for the kids to get involved and see what kinds of things they could learn about the various emergency vehicles, and they got to try to spray a fire hose as well! Their teacher -whose husband is one of the firemen- was there to help them, as the pressure was quite strong.

And this truck, we're not sure what it was for, but I think I would be nervous to see it coming at me! There were big screens in the front, and lots of equipment on top. It sort of looked like a storm-chaser.

Inside the fire station, the coats, pants, boots, and hats were all lined up very neatly along the wall so that they could be grabbed quickly in an emergency.

Upstairs was storage...and it was interesting to see that there were things you might not associate with emergency help on the shelves...

For example, that is a snare drum. Because of course it is.

This weekend, the students didn't have any particular plans so they could go home if they wanted to. About half of them left, so the meals were quite quiet with those of us who remained. Many of the teachers did not come to the meals this weekend as well. There is always one teacher who is "on duty" for the weekend, and that teacher makes sure that meals get made, dishes get washed, students are OK, and so on. Otherwise, most of the teachers weren't around.

For dinner we had hamburgers and french fries! Jeff has been wanting hamburgers for a couple of weeks now, so it was exciting that that was on the menu this weekend. Svea was eating mayo on her fries, just like I like to do.

Sunday was brunch again! Yes! Torben has really taken to the job of filling the water pitchers and getting glasses for the tables. It's fun to see his servant heart when it comes to meal times. One of his favourite games is "restaurant" and he loves getting the drinks for people at real meal times as well. A couple more of the teachers were back for this, and one of them has twin girls who are 7. The four twins had a fun time playing tag in the ping-pong room after lunch.

On Sunday afternoon, a group of retirees arrived at the Højskole for a week-long program they will be attending to learn about the different types of Danes. Dinner was a much bigger process with 80 additional people! The ping-pong room was turned into buffet tables, and we had roast pork, potatoes, broccoli salad with currants (Svea loved the red currants! she ate half the garnish) and salad. The potatoes here are very good, and our kids had a good time eating them...

It was a fun weekend. The kids got lots of time to be outside and play, and we had some relaxing time at home as well. Jeff and Anders discovered a "short cut" to the grocery store that includes a walking path. It seems faster than walking along the main road. It may or may not be shorter, but it's a pretty walk along the path.

I finished my third reading this weekend as well. Another interesting book about making the most of the situations you encounter in your everyday life. It's kind of fun having so much time to read.