Jesper 11

We celebrated Jesper on his bithday with strawberry cake  and presents in the morning, quickly before they neeheaded off ded to go to school.

Then, last weekend my dad came down and Sara, Anders, Tina and Emma came up.

Usually when we meet to celebrate Jesper, the weather is nice, but not this year. Now it was rainy and cold. No summer weather yet to speak of. We chatted in the house and did a shopping tour to the new mall in Västerås. We have not had time and energy yet to have  a party with his friends.

Last year Jesper got a unicycle for his birthday. He has practice some, not too much, but he is learning, getting fairly stable.

Field trip to Kopparbo with Malin’s class

This past Thursday and Friday I took off of work and went with Malin and her class on their field trip to Kopparbo, a scout camp site just about an hour north of Västerås. We started the activities with a walk in the woods on the Pioneer-track with rope bridges and other challenges; the last one being a swing down a steep slope all whiles the rain was pouring down. All wet into our bare skin we turned on the sauna and tried to get warm.

The next activity we chose to be inside a barn; it was games of various sorts. The kids got divided into three groups and each group received a piece of newspaper, some tape, a coffee cup, a balloon and an un-boiled egg. They were supposed to construct a parachute so that when dropped from a couple of meters up the egg would not break. The groups came up with different solutions and one group succeeded in not breaking the egg. The sun was now shining outside but it was still cold…

We decided to have a camp fire at 8:30 PM. At 8:30 PM it started to rain again. We didn’t let a little rain stop us….we grilled marshmallows and made SMORE’s but at 9:10 PM we gave up and went inside again. At 9:15 PM the rain stopped.

The kids had a good time anyway. They got to buy some candy and chips and they all went to their rooms to snack and talk. They did not sleep much, but I guess that is part of the experience.

The next morning it was not raining but it was still cold, June 1^st and about 5°C and windy. We put on all of our clothes and went out. This time climbing was on the agenda. They did really well, most of the kids made it all the way up the 11 meter high wall.

Our last activity was an obstacle course where the kids in each team had to help each other to make it over/under/through each obstacle.

I think the kids will remember this trip, like I remember my field trip in 3^rd grade to Åre. Hopefully they will remember the activities and not the weather….

80 years young

This past weekend we celebrated my dad’s 80^th birthday. We had announced that we were going to have an open-house so people could come spontaneously, but we were not sure how many would come.

 We celebrated my dad in the morning with strawberry cake like we usually do, then we started to get ready for the open-house. The weather was perfect, warm and sunny with a little breeze. It is so much easier to hold a party when you have a big yard to spread out in. We had bought smörgåstårtor (sandwhich cakes or smorgascakes if you use the word from smorgasbord) and we had baked a few cakes which my sister and Malin decorated nicely.

 It was great, relatives and friends showed up, young and old. My cousin Emma (and Jocke) just had a baby, Sixten, so it is 80 years between him and my dad. We counted to 60 guests.

We had a great day.

Spring is finally here

We have been waiting for spring since our sports break.

Now we get to use our new shoes.

Last weekend we took a bike ride to an oasis in Västerås that we have not been to that often, Djäkneberget. Every spring they close the road off so the frogs can go from their winter place down to the ponds without getting smushed by cars.

We were a few days too late so there were no frogs on the road but we did see some in the ponds. We also saw a few other signs of spring in Sweden, presented in the order they show-up, Coltsfoot (Tussilago), Wood Anemone's (Vitsippor) and Birchpollen.

 We enjoyed the sun with an ice-cream and a nice view over Västerås.

Since the weather was nice we also got a few projects done in our yard.

Potpourri of March

I really intended to write at least once in March, but it has been hectic. So here is our potpourri of activities in March.

We started March with Spring break, or Sports break as it is more appropriately called in Sweden, up in the mountains. It was unseasonably warm and we had a really nice week of skiing. The first day, we were almost alone in the slopes and it was just below freezing, it was perfect. We got to ski as much as we wanted to so by the third day we did not mind that the lines got longer. We ususally ski in Vemdalsskalet but one day we went to another skiresort close by, called Björnrike. That day was kind of windy. Once back in Västerås I just turned around and headed to the US for a week on business. On my way back I got the chance to do some sightseeing in Chicago. I have traveled through O'Hare numerous times but never been in to downtown Chicago before. I visited the Navy Pier and the Hancock building but I had most fun at “the bean”, there I manage to take a photo to prove that I have been in Chicago. Can you spot me?

End of March the hockey activities ended with a one day camp and Malin participated in her first slalom competition. There was hardly any snow left, so we shoveled snow for the lift track and they made the slalom path where there was snow left.
By this time Mark had headed to China, to Shanghai. He was there on business but he took the opportunity to visit a close Serbian friend and her family that had just moved to Shanghai.
Now we are all back at home again. We had plans to go skiing again for Easter break, but none of us felt like or had the energy to get all the skiing clothes and gear out again so we decided to stay in Västerås.

Wonderful Winter Weekend

We just had a wonderful winter weekend. Saturday we went to a ski resort about 1.5h north of Västerås, Romme Alpin. After skiing in the slopes at home it was nice to ski on some longer slopes again, slopes that did not just take a few seconds. We usually ski in Romme one day per season. When we came home we all crashed on the couch for movie night.

Sunday was yet another gorgeous winter day, sunny and just below freezing so we decided to take a walk on Lake Mälaren. They have prepared paths from town to Björnön and around Östra Holmen, the island that we take a boat to to swim in the summer. People were walking, skiing or skating on the lake. We were out on the lake for two hours. Jesper chose to skate instead of walking, but otherwise it was a hockey-free weekend.

New adventures in Västerås

After 14 years in Västerås we tried something new this past weekend.
We have no snow on the ground but they have open Vedbobacken, a slalomslope close to our neighbourhood. We skied for a coulple of hours. Jesper met quite a few of his friends there and have been skiing in the evenings this week if he had not had hockey practice.
It was a great feeling being able to ski so close to home. I used to do that growing up in Sundsvall. From the top of the hill you can see all around Västerås, Lake Mälaren and our house.