Twenty eighth weekend

Our twenty-eighth weekend (wow!) ended up being a long weekend, because week 7 of the year (roughly the third week of February) is sort of a holiday here. The schools are closed, and many people take a ski holiday. Since the boys school is actually more like a daycare, they were able to go if we signed them up beforehand. It's good for them to see their friends and speak Danish, so we signed them up. There were about 9 kids most of the days, but when I went to pick them up on Wednesday, the teacher told me that they were going to be the only two there on Friday. So! They stayed home with Svea and me that day. That was kind of fun. We pulled out the buckets of Brio wooden trains and blocks that we're borrowing from someone at the folkschool, and the three of them built very elaborate train lines all over the living room and dining room. Svea so much wants to play with them! And they are very good at letting her, most of the time.

When she naps, the boys and I hit the perler beads. Anders, especially, LOVES playing with the perler beads. We might need a whole suitcase just to take his creations home! They have been making them at school too, so each day he comes home with more. Torben enjoys playing with them also, but gets bored faster. So his are small and simple, and Anders makes complicated big ones that take him a couple of days to finish. It's fun to see how their personalities are different even in their approaches to the same activity they enjoy. We've been saving a lot of the recyclables recently for Torben; one of his favourite activities is building out of the boxes and jar lids and paper towel tubes. Why not have some fun with them before we throw them in the big green bin outside. Reminds me of all the things my brothers and I used to make with our "Make and Do" book -Childcraft Encyclopedia, volume 11, blue. I found a used one at a thrift store and bought it so the kids can have fun with it too.

In the folk school dining room, there is often a big bowl of fruit or carrots sitting on one of the tables. Svea runs to it immediately to grab and apple, pear, or orange. Recently, she picked up an apple that was approximately the size of her face. In this picture, it looks like I could have taken it from a funny angle to make it look big, but in reality, that's what size it was.

 Torben ate one too. I love how he's holding it here, the apple glowing (that was the camera flash) and his eyes closed, a look of pure contentment. I think this one might have to go on the wall at home.

 Anders thought it would be fun to be a three-toothed walrus. There's always containers of toothpicks on the tables here -often they are empty, I can't imagine why.

 Svea is loving being a big girl and walking to the school for meals. It takes us a little bit longer, but she's so excited about it. She knows she still has to ride in the stroller when we pick up the boys from school. That would be a bit too far -and she'd probably want to be carried, so it would definitely be too far for me.

Jeff was on duty this weekend, so we needed to stay in town. The students decided to have their party on Friday night instead of Saturday night, so dinner involved a lot of people dressed up in "track" gear, looking a lot like an 80s party. The music was fun. Svea loved dancing to it in her chair while she was supposed to be eating.

Why does a full moon make kids crazy? Torben has been doing an amazing job of going to bed well since his birthday, but as we made our way into this week from the weekend, he started acting totally crazy again. And, looking at the calendar (plus the flashlight-beam streaming through the windows-I can't believe how much closer the moon and sun are here!) it's a full moon. It's funny how that works. Hopefully it will be easier now for another several weeks. It's quite amazing how fast the days are getting longer now. With 4-5 minutes of daylight added each day, you can definitely tell. Now, the sky is getting light when we wake up in the morning, rather than after the kids are at school. And it's light when we go down the street to dinner instead of two hours before. Spring is definitely coming! There are little white and yellow flowers everywhere. I think they must be in the crocus family, though they are much smaller than crocus back home. Right time of year, though. And there are more sunny days, not quite so many clouds. The clouds that do come roll in, make it dark, bring snow or rain, and then depart again in a few minutes.