A Speedy Birthday Celebration

We had to improvise and try to fit in a little surprise celebration for my husband before he left for work on Saturday. He had worked the night before too, and slept during the day, and I knew that he normally would wake up around 3pm and leave shortly after, so we didn't have much time to give him presents and cards. The morning I made potato gratin that he likes to bring to work with some meat that he really likes, and the kids were working hard on their cards. I'm so happy that they are patient to work on their letters, and it's so much fun to see how proud they are to see that they wrote something. The cards turned out really  nice, and I know that Chris really appreciated them, and I hinted to the kids that I'd appreciate something like this too when my birthday is coming up..!

Very important to add the "Hulk smash" sticker in the end of the card...:)

Isabella made such a pretty card where she added a drawing of 

her and daddy, flowers and the sun.

Cassie's card turned out so beautiful!

I left in the afternoon to go and pick up his favorite cake, "Black forest cake", but when I came home he was already up, so the surprise kind of got spoiled, but he waited to read the cards until everyone was there. He loved the cards but he didn't have any time to sit down and really eat any cake with us, as he soon had to get ready for work. He had forgotten to tell me to pick up a cake for work, so I quickly went back to the grocery store for another cake, while he got his lunch box ready. So, the "celebration" was over in 15 minutes, and he was out of the house within 30 minutes after getting ready. Normal day, but still a bit different, and the kids were glad that we could do something. We will celebrate both our birthdays together on another weekend coming up this month, where we hopefully will make a trip to the beach with the kids before we go to Sweden. Some quality time together as a family, instead of a visit to a fancy restaurant or expensive gifts.

No time to eat the cake with us, but when he was gone, we had some for him! The kids like myself don't like cherries, but we were lucky, the cake wasn't filled, but only a huge piece in the middle was with cherries, and everything around was "normal" chocolate cake! Win-win situation! 

My handsome Marine that was getting into the car when I was coming back from the store with the cake. I suggested to put the cake in the front seat next to him so it would be steady, but his option was better. Lets put it this way, surrounded with his MP "tool belt" (without the gun of course that one they check out at work everyday) and the lead protection vest pushed next to it, there was no safer way to travel to work for this cake..

My Love

...I wish you a wonderful birthday with lots of joy and happiness! There are many birthdays now that we have celebrated together, and many that we have celebrated apart. I hope that this year ahead will bring you an easier load of work, that  you will receive more appreciation and reach the goals that you strive towards. I hope that this new year will be good, in many ways. As you are working, as always, I hope that we find the time to spend some quality time and celebrate a bit more together than what we managed today.

Happy birthday Alskling, Happy birthday my love! 

I have a few pictures left after a huge disaster/flooding in a basement with boxes of photos that were destroyed. Such a sadness, so many memories, so many pictures all gone, as I wasn't able to save many of them. This was all back in the day, long before digital cameras and saving pictures online, and when the pictures and the pockets with negatives were gone, the pictures were gone..

Still, I'm happy that I have a few treasures left. The first one, all red from the runny colors, but that still are one of my most treasured pictures, the very first one of us as a couple. I can still feel it like yesterday, hiking up that mountain with friends, so in love, so in awe of the beautiful nature.

 

 Alp Love

The first "official" photo of us on a snowy alp in Adelboden, Switzerland.

September, 1992

 River love

Lovely rafting on Aare, heading toward Bern, Switzerland.

Summer 1993

Glacier Love

Weekend trip to the somewhere in the Alps, Switzerland.

Spring 1994

Lake Love

Spending a day at the Vierwaldstaettersee, Luzern, Switzerland.

Fall 1995

Finally Easter Sunday

I know, Easter is over, but I haven't been able to sort out my pictures until last night, so here is the last (?) post of Easter this year. The kids woke up so "eggcited" that it was finally "Bunny Day" as Isabella said. Weren't they just adorable as little bunnies?! After breakfast, while I was getting ready to go to the store for a few more things, the kids decided that it might be a good idea to make cards for the Easter bunny to wish him Happy Easter and also to make a picture of what they really wanted him to drop into their baskets, just to make it clear..Isabella had wished for the Barbie movie: Barbie and the Pearl Princess, Benjamin had wished for a new set of bow and arrows as his old bow broke. He even put the old one next to the basket for the Easter bunny to see how much he really needed one!

Cassie had wished for a few items for her crazy loom, metal hooks, some new flavors of Eon's and other little things, and wrote a nice card as well. While Cassie was writing, the little ones wanted to write too, and asked me to write Happy Easter out for them to copy! I was very impressed how neat and well they did print their letters down! Their first card and I had to document them ofcourse:

Proud boy of his neat card!

Well done sweetie!!

After running to the store, there was a lot of decorations to be done. Cupcakes and cookies were transformed into little master pieces. All for the Easter Bunny to try, but as we realized later, he didn't really have the time to stop for a snack!

Cupcakes for dessert

Ben transforming his bunny into a "Hulk bunny"

Sprinkles..for the finishing touch!

Welcome sign hung and patio w who to find his way...

Well, I thought it would be a great idea to clean up the kitchen with all the cookie mess, and Chris said that he and the kids could walk to the mailbox to see if the Easter Bunny had left something in the mail or if they even could see him hopping around in the neighborhood. Well said and done, they went and I was back in the house getting something while I heard the patio door, I thought that it was the wind that made the sign make noises again, and didn't think much of it, but when I came out in the living room, I could see that we had had a fast hopping visitor in the house!

Baskets were filled to the brim..

...and a eggs were dropped in the house.

Soon Chris and the kids were back home to a great surprise, and they were so excited to see the eggs, that it took a moment to see that he had filled the baskets too!

"Bella, look at our baskets!!"

Wow, LOOK daddy, I got a new bow, I got the Princess Pearl movie!!

A Frozen book with a magic wand for special effects

Happy boy with a Super Heroes Storybook Collection

 Isabella's Easterbasket

Benjamin's Easterbasket

 

Cassie's Easterbasket

Ben was singing:

"I'm so happy, I'm so happy, I'm so happy I got a new bow"...

Jellybean heart!

Rusty- Easter Bunny's little helper!?

The movie had a great song in it, and the kids started dancing. Ben really got some moves, and is leaning more toward breakdancing than normal dance, I think one can say..

While the kids were watching the movie and playing, Chris and I got busy with the Easter dinner. We made lamb chops for Chris which is more of a Easter dinner, but as I don't eat lamb at all, we made pork filet in bacon on the grill for the rest of the family. Added some sweet shrimps and rosemary/lemon potatoes, corn on the cob and asparagus off the grill and the meal was delicious! Too much and we all enjoyed big portions, and there weren't even any place left for dessert!

Yummy!!

After dinner, the kids wanted to watch some of Ben's new movie, and Cassie wanted to play a board game, and we decided to play Clue. I had played something similar to this game when we were kids, but we haven't played anything like this for a very long time, and it was really fun and we all had a great time! Cassie was so happy that we actually came around to do it, as it's hard to find the time in the evenings, when dinner, cleaning up, bath time and bed time is due, before it gets too late, but this evening, we let the kitchen be, and let the kids skip bath, that way we had more time for our oldest.

Just after 9pm it was time for her to go get ready for bed too, Chris had to sleep, as he normally gets up later at night to stay awake to sleep longer during Monday, as he had to go to work on Monday night. So, after 10pm it was only me that was awake in the house, as it didn't take very long for the little ones to fall asleep after such a long and eventful day!

Easter is over - and it was a good one! Hope all of you had a great Easter too!

The murderer was Mrs. Peacock, she used a revolver and the crime scene was in the ballroom!