Summer 2013

Did everyone have a fantastic summer?  

This year we took a lot of small trips around the area and did a lot of swimming as well as biking, hiking and visiting bestemor (grandma) at their cabin.  It isn't so often we actually get summer days here so we took advantage of those days and did something besides hanging around at home to vegetate. We kept it simple but still had tons of fun! 

We barbecued pretzels on a stick. 

Ingredients:  flour, baking soda, vegetable oil and water.  

We caught some tadpoles and brought them home to see them transform into frogs.  Had 11 to begin with and ended up losing two and one is lost and hopping somewhere in our home, OR our cat, Boo, decided to have a snack.  We fed them dried seaweed, that I had leftover from making S. Korea's -Kimbap.  

 We went to The Vigeland Park in Oslo.

"The Angry Baby" seems to be the most famous of the many statues there.

I love these yellow flowered trees in Oslo.  

Anyone happen to know the name of it?  

We watched dandelion stems curl themselves up in water.  It doesn't sound so fun at first, but once you get started, you get hooked and want to make better or bigger curlz and keep going and going and going....  and before you know it, two hours pass and OOPS... you forgot all about the housework! 

"Old Glory" flying high on the 4th of July!
Sloppy Joes, corn on the cob and homemade potato salad for our dinner.
Root Beer floats for our dessert! 

On rainy days we engaged ourselves with paper crafts like origami. 

More art of folding paper fun!

 Swimming at the nearby lake called "Næra".  

Sisterly love radiates in this picture!  ♥

"Hello"

Having fun making words with rocks in the sand.

Look at all the cute little minnows. 

We tried to catch a few with no luck.  Those little stinkers were too quick. 

 I guess it would have helped if we had a net?  ;-)

The whole family got "swimmer's itch" (svømmekløe).  

How can tiny spots cause so much itching?!   

And the ointment didn't help very much.

 Swimming in Hamar at "Koigen".

Ole Robert was first to hop in.

Lena enjoying herself.

 Camilla enjoys feeding the ducks.

But watch out for the greedy one!

"QUACK!"

A few days earlier, Camilla polished my toe nails with pretty colors of the rainbow.
She did a great job!

The Little Mermaid.  ♥

Den Lille Havfruen.  ♥

The bell tower in Hamar that plays lovely music like:  

Seasons in the Sun, Nine Million Bicycles, and Alle fugler små de er.

 Took a voyage on "Skibladner", the world's oldest paddle steamer.

Celebrated 157 years on August 2, 2013.

Hamar to Gjøvik to Moelv to Lillehammer and we ended at Moelv. 
Took about 6 hours.

Smiley happy people!

Ole Robert was sailor #12061 for the season.

Camilla took this picture.

Anyone in the Åsmarka area missing this sweet little kitten?  

Turned up on our back porch the 6th of August 2013.  

Denne kattungen dukket opp i Åsmarka område for noen dager siden og for tiden er hos oss men vi la hun kom og går som hun vil.  Circa 4 mnd og er en hunnkatt.  Ta gjerne kontakt hvis du savner den eller har noe informasjon om eieren.  
UPDATE: Kitten is back safe and sound to her owner.  Name is Rexina.  

Next on the list...

A visit to the amusement park, 
Tusenfryd

and 
Back to school shopping!  

Make your own kite!

Let's Go Fly A Kite!

Today was Labor Day in Norway and we had the day off.  Ole Robert had a friend stay overnight.  Lena was watching lambs being born.  And Camilla and I made kites.  We made kites last year and enjoyed it quite a bit.

All you need is plastic grocery bags, barbecue wooden skewers, clear packing tape, thread and a sewing needle.  Things found right in your home! 

This was the kite we made last from a "Kiwi" grocery bag.  

Flies really well!

You can add more tail if it doesn't want to stay up.

Neighborhood children joining in on the fun! 

 More kites all of them flyable.  

By the way, how many of you are singing "Let's Go Fly A Kite" from Disney's Mary Poppins film right now?  ;-)

Homemade Wheat Flour Tortillas

I have been making these wheat flour tortillas since 1998.  It was the missionaries in Hamar who made it for us first (at Knut and Åse's home) and after that I fell head over heals and so I asked them for the recipe.  They not only gave me the recipe, but the recipe book the recipe was in.  It came from the "DEN NORSKE MISJONS KOKEBOK" which translates to "THE NORWEGIAN MISSION'S COOKBOOK".    I cannot remember the names of those Elders... was it Webster and North or was it Webster and Andersen or maybe it was North and Andersen?   Anywho... I always think of them and that evening everytime I make these.

Below is the recipe and it is so easy that a 5 year old can make these!

ELDER LUNDGREN'S FLOUR TORTILLAS

4 cups all purpose flour (or 2 cups all purpose flour + 2 cups wheat flour)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 1/3 cups boiling water
1 teaspoon salt (optional)

Mix the ingredients, roll into 2 inch balls, roll out into thin round patties.  Cook in greased skillet turning to cook both sides.  Makes around 24 tortillas.

Camilla's Easter Birthday Party!

This year Camilla's 8th birthday landed around Easter so I decided to use that as the theme for her party.  I had lots of activities planned out including an Easter egg hunt that the children really enjoyed.  

Each child received one of these cute bunny invitations.

We said good bye to Mister Snowman on our door that has been up since December.   And now we have Little Bunny Foo Foo there to make our door beautiful.   We used a white vinyl table cloth and cut out the eyes and the feet and laminated them before we glued each piece on.  Children had fun decorating the door with paper eggs. 

Hung some of these plastic Easter eggs in our window for some decoration.

And on the ceiling.

Made some of these tissue paper flowers for table decorations.

 Easter Deviled Eggs!  
Use food coloring in water to color the whites.

I made some rainbow cupcakes....  

And turned them into baskets.  Had trouble finding a candy to make the handle with and they kept falling.  Tried doing a 3 way braid with those sour ropes but they still slouched.  

Here is the main birthday cake.  Again, I had trouble finding a good candy to use as the handle.  I thought that the marshmallow would eventually harden but it never did so we had to hold it up.  Some of the children even took turns holding the handle up.  Made me smile!  :-)
PS - Thank you Linda E. for finding the marshmallow ropes in Sweden for us!  :-)

When it was time to open presents I had each name inside the egg and everyone got a chance to choose whose present was next to open. 

 I hid the Norwegian kind of Easter eggs (not the US small plastic kind) in our basement and filled the game room with a ton of balloons.  They had to sort through all the balloons to find their egg.  Each child had one egg to find.  

I was surprised that they didn't find this egg until the last. 

Then it was clean up time and that is always the best part... right?  

When taking down the plastic eggs from our ceiling we accidentally discovered we could build things with the eggs by using that green tacky stuff we hung them with.  Fun never ends in our household!  ;-)

Just before bedtime I discovered these jello beans in our fridge... oops, I forgot to serve them!  Just as well... since I think they had more than enough to satisfy them!  

Last but not least... 

Thank you everyone for joining us and for making Camilla's 8th birthday a special one!  

♥

Wishing everyone a HA PPY  EASTER!! 

Vi ønsker alle sammen en GOD PÅSKE!!  

행복한 부활절이 되시길!

♥