Twenty sixth weekend

I am having difficulty deciding what we will want to remember about this weekend. Despite it being Fastelavn and Superbowl weekend, we were not particularly adventurous. The kids had a Fastelavn party at school on Friday. Anders had a great time; Torben didn't like his costume and therefore didn't wear one for the party. He seemed fine with it. They participated in the breaking of the barrel to let the candy out, and from the pictures on the school's Facebook page, they seemed to have a good time.

We were thinking of going to one of the other Fastelavn parties on Sunday (the actual day of Fastelavn), but ended up not going. Instead, Jeff went to the bakery and bought us Fastelavn boller to enjoy at home. Essentially, they were croissants stuffed with whipped cream, and topped with chocolate. Delicious! The Danes sure do know how to do pastry.

On Saturday, we went to brunch at the folk school, and they were having a special event for many of the refugees living in town, so there were a lot of people there. I saw some of the people I'd had dinner with on Thursday night when we went to the ballet show, so that was fun too. They had activities going on all day long, and we returned around 3pm to have cake. There were so many cakes! Several of the refugees had made some, and several of the students had made others; there were tables and tables of cakes and cookies to sample. Then there was some Syrian line dancing! A few of the men started playing music, and then a line started. Svea and I joined in for a while -somehow we ended up at the front of the line! That was quite funny, as I hadn't figured out what the steps were yet. It was quite a workout, doing that while carrying a 27-pound toddler. It was a fun time though.

It's been a little bit warmer the last week or so, so the boys were able to play outside this weekend even though it was a bit wet. At school they play outside regardless of the weather, but at home they choose to be inside if it's cold. I guess I can't blame them.

Since it was superbowl Sunday, Jeff was in the mood to have chili. So we made some. The kids all liked it -I think it was the first time they've all eaten chili! We put in some smoked chipotle chili flakes rather than chili powder. It had a definite smokey taste, and was a bit spicy, but incredibly delicious. Good thing, too, because we've got quite a bit of leftovers! It's hard to make a small batch of chili. Even if you just use one can of each type of beans or tomatoes or whatever that you want in it, all the sudden the pot is full of bubbling deliciousness. There were some things we usually put in our chili that weren't available here, but we had three kinds of beans, three types of tomato, onion, ground beef, garlic, and chilis.

On the weekends, we get to sleep in a bit, so we often see the sunrise from our window (instead of from the living room window an hour and a half after we get up!). It was particularly gorgeous on Sunday morning, and Torben made a point to make sure we all saw it. The sky was all striped with brightness.

I've found lots of reading time lately, too. Mostly because I've found some books that don't require a lot of concentration to enjoy! I finished three more this weekend, two from the Shopaholic series and the third by the same author but not in the series. Same type of character, but a different series of unfortunate debacles that somehow turn out alright. I hope Kinsella has some more books coming out soon; I'm about all the way through hers now!

Then when the kids were sleeping and Jeff was at work, I also watched the movie. Ah. It's nice to have a life of leisure sometimes! I also watched "Eat, Pray, Love" which I read quite a while ago, and really enjoyed as well. Jeff and I also watched "The Reader", which was an interesting film. And we watched "The way, way back" last night. It was fun too. We don't see many movies at home, so we are taking advantage of the opportunity to do so here. Since I'm nearing the end of this book series, I'm going to have to find another author and scoop up some more books through interlibrary loan. I don't know why I don't use this more at home; it's fantastic!