Long red socks and a set of pigtails

Today Nicholas's daycare is celebrating the amazing world of Astrid Lindgren. Astrid is probably most well known for her stories about Pippi Longstocking, a little girl with incredible strength and massive amounts of courage who lives on her own in a rickety little house, eating pancakes and playing with her monkey and her friends, Tommy and Annika.

Astrid also wrote hundreds of other stories that we have shared with our kids over the years. Stories about Emil from Lonneberg and Ronja, and a bunch of others I don't even know.

In celebration of the day, Nicholas dressed up as a pirate (Pippi believes her father, who is at sea, is a pirate)....

The cutest little pirate in the world. Ahoy matey!!!

One cool mom

Steen and I recently spent a weekend in Åre, a ski resort in northern Sweden. In addition to learning a great deal about my husband's amazing company, I got to try my hand at snowmobiling across the moonlike-landscape of northern Sweden.

Needless to say, I'm hooked!

And this has to make me one cool mom!

OK, I'll admit that Steen looks good too....

Nicholas's latest developments are:

1. Singing songs at the top of his lungs. Although they're beautiful, they're still in a language we don't understand.... but he cues us in as to when we should clap by clapping himself, so we are definitely good at fulfilling our audience duties.

2. Pointing at everything and saying "vroom, vroom"... never knew the trees made that sound!

3. Picking up one of his two play mobile phones, after which he yells "hi!" into it, starts to walk across the room, shaking his head and wiggling his but while he jabbers on with his imaginary friends.

4. Putting on his own hat while inside and racing around on his bike. Don't ask me how this got started because I have no idea!

Happy birthday!!!!!

Happy birthday, dad!!!

I hope you have a terrific day. You don't know how much I wish I could be with you to celebrate today. You're in my thoughts, as you always are. Here's to Rotary, early morning fishing on a smooth-as-glass lake, post-concert ice cream sundaes, Yogi Bear camping and firefly-filled jars on warm summer nights... not to mention millions of other special memories you and I have shared over the years.

And a thousand congratulations are being sent from here to my soon-to-be brother-in-law, Jesper, who has been selected as one of the top 100 young talents in Danish business for 2009.

A happy story for today

In light of the current trend in international news, which I find dismal and incredibly bleak, I bring you this little ray of sunshine. I have translated it from an article posted in the Danish online news JyllandsPosten, where it was posted on March 17.

"Argentinian systems engineer Andrés Ariasse has undoubtedly taken up a special place in the life of a Barcelona family.

He was walking along Gran de Sant Andreu street in the Catalanian capital when he was nearly hit by a little shoe that fell from above. He looked up and saw a baby that was just about to fall as well.

A few seconds later the baby – who turned two today – fell exactly where Andrés stood.

'No one was around, so I had to handle the situation myself. I took a little hop and put out my arms, after which I half-grabbed and half-broke the fall', Ariasse told the local media, which is now calling him a hero.

The baby hit the asphalt immediately after it was caught, but the force of the fall was reduced enough so that the baby could survive without serious injury, according to the Spanish news agency Efe."

On his own

My little boy isn't so little anymore.

Recently, Matthew had to meet his class for a field trip at a location that was outside the school. That morning, as we all jumped in the car, Matthew took a deep breath, looked at me from the passenger seat and said:

"Mom, can I go there on my own? It would be so embarassing if you insist on going there to drop me off..." He smiled sheepishly, blushing all the way to his ears, clearly embarassed by his own request.

I smiled, knowing this day had been coming for a long time. My little boy is becoming a young man. I wasn't upset by the request, but rather proud of the person he is turning into.

"Of course, hon. Here are the bus tickets", I said... and then, because I still need to know he's safe, I said "Call me when you get there!"

"Aw, mom", he said... but he did.

Sparkling like a snowflake

Back from a week's skiing in La Rosiere, France. The conditions were perfect. When we arrived, there was at least three feet of snow in the town and more on the runs. It snowed the first three days and then we had sunshine the rest of the week (you don't think Steen is enjoying it, do you?).




The runs were perfect for most of us, although Steen thought they weren't quite challenging enough. The food was incredible -- after all, it was France! Whether it was a picnic in the snow, chocolate croissants or a gourmet dinner after a great day on the slopes, we enjoyed every culinary experience.
And to top it all off, we could ski into Italy (not very successfully for my sake, but that's another story altogether!)

Although they are already better skiiers than I am, the boys had two hours of ski lessons a day. You can see them waiting in line here with their "class".


We stayed at a beautiful chalet. The first picture below is view from our window on one of the first days -- gives you an idea of how much snow there was.

Matthew and Lucas fulfilled one of their lifelong dreams -- snowboarding. After a single 60 minute lesson, they are now snowboarding experts (at least in their own minds). I was impressed that they could make it up the lift and down the hill again!

I can't stress how breathtakingly beautiful this region of France/Italy is. The massive expanse of white blankets the mountains as far as the eye can see. Made me realize again how tiny we are in comparison to mother nature. If some higher power can create such beauty, then who are we to tinker with it?

Nicholas spent the week being spoiled by his Bedstemor and Bedstefar. I don't think he missed us for a minute! When we picked him up, he didn't want to come near us, but I couldn't blame him. Who would want to be with us after a week of exciting trips to the aquarium, a Festelavn's party, and petting the dog, not to mention a visit to the library and other exciting events?

Since we came home, Nicholas has been working on his creative side. He is now the family comedian, working hard to make everyone laugh.