Visit in Örserum

Hubby's buddy invited us to visit his family in Örserum, Gränna during the weekend. They had moved to a big mansion with a piece of land sometime last year. We drove down on Friday afternoon and arrived just after lunch time.

We were given a tour of the mansion and boy, this house is BIG!

This is the view from the front door, facing the driveway and the lake. It's a really nice view!


This is the view of the back of the house. I forgot to take the front view... it is easy to be distracted when you have a toddler and a baby who need your attention all the time!


The kitchen and my cool hubby with little Chris.

Dining table by the kitchen window, looking out at a blooming apple tree.

The staircase at the main hall entrance leading to the second floor.

Cozy fireplace...


There are about 5 rooms on the second floor, a big bathroom and a reasonable-sized sitting area. I didn't take any pictures upstairs because there are mainly bedrooms, which I think is a very personal space for many.

Their property includes the big forest behind the courtyard.


Around the house are several smaller storage buildings and a big stable for horses. Their second daughter, Elsa is a horse lover like Angel. She has been taking riding lessons and is very happy to show the kids her favorite pony.


Elsa was showing Jovan how to walk the pony.

Angel was really happy to be able to ride the pony!

Ivan found a helmet, put it on and was ready to ride the pony! He is just tooooo cute!

Finally he got up the pony and was trying to look cool!


While the older kids are playing upstairs, the adults, 2 toddlers and a baby were having coffee and muffins on the veranda.

Ivan really likes insects! He was trying to catch ants and gave them to Patrik after he caught them. Not so many survived the ordeal though...

And Chris was having a good time being in the sun and chewing on his sleeves!


It was very relaxing just sitting enjoying the sun with good company and the children were playing somewhere else. After dinner, we all sat in front of the tv to watch the Eurovision Song Contest together. Sweden is out of the competition this year (which is a first!) and Germany won. We all thought that the winning song was weird but as always, you can never know which song will win, most of the time the result is just surprisingly off. I think this competition has lost its focus and Sweden should just pull out and not take part anymore.

Anyway, the competition did provide us with some entertainment performed by the cute toddlers and a equally cute but slightly over-grown toddler...


We all went to bed quite late and were just dead-beaten. The next morning we woke up to a birds-singing-sun-shining beautiful morning. The kids went out to run around and play immediately after breakfast.

Ivan and his new best friend balancing on the log...


Apple trees blooming...

and flowers growing pretty...

What a good morning to wake up to!

Thank you Patrik and Jenny for your invitation! We had a good time and are looking forward to our next visit there, hopefully soon!

A Good Day!

We decided to enjoy the good weather today by going for a small picnic in the big garden downtown. We picked up some yummy pastries, cookies and chips on our way and arrived to a beautiful park buzzing with people out sunbathing and enjoying the weather.


There were 2 pretty pink trees at the entrance to the garden. Wonder what tree these are? I want one too when we have a house!

Close-up of the flowers on the tree. They looked like small roses exploding all over the tree! (sorry about the strange focus... it was tricky to take picture while holding a wriggling 5 month old baby!)

Ivan was his usual free-spirit self, running around offering girls (who were sunbathing in their bikinis) flowers he picked from the ground and dancing to the music (there were a couple of guys fixing up the sound system for some event). He even went up to several girls, smiled at them (one time he actually tapped on one of the girl's knee because she was lying down with her eyes closed, so she didn't see him coming!) and turned and pointed at daddy and said,"Pappa!" I asked hubby if Ivan was trying to hook him up with some young girls and hubby came up with an idea that we can rent him out to guys out looking for a girl to date!

It started drizzling a little after we had been there for some time, so we left and head for Plantagen. It's a big store selling plants and related accessories and tools. We had decided that it's time to fix our sorry-looking balcony, which had became sort of a damping area for newspaper, boxes and kiddos' toys. The plants we had from last summer were bone-dry and almost grayish looking! Hubby kept telling me that they would grow back. "They're suppose to do that." Well, apparently they're not . So we had to buy new ones to replace them... I also thought that it'll be fun to each buy a pack of seed and try to grow them and see which one of us will be able to grow a healthy plant!


We were all busy planting the seeds in the small pots...


Hubby too...


Here they are! All labeled with names and we're very anxious to see the outcome!

I also bought 2 mini orchid plants for our altar.



The white one looks elegant.


Look how mini it is compared to the normal size one! (The normal size one was from my friend Shannon when we met last summer, how time flies!)

We didn't do much about the balcony. We just bought new table cloth...


and flowers hoping to make it looks more cheerful and "summery". I think it looks so much better already!


I've also received 2 packages which had arrived from Singapore. So exciting!

Thank you Mimi for sending me my first Chinese magazine in months! I'm going to read it later after I'm done blogging, with a cup of coffee and some chocolate! Feel so bad that she had to pay SGD37.95 to send a SGD5 magazine... thank you for indulging me!


The other package is from one of my buddies - Annie! She knows I love Ji Mi's book, my favorite illustrator of all time, and she sends me his latest book whenever he releases one. This time she sent 2 sets of pajamas for Chris, a book by Carolyn Lim. A strong woman who was struck by lightning while windsurfing. The back of the book says,"Making Pink Lemonade is a buoyant tale about the triumph of human spirit." I can't wait to get through the pages! I feel so spoiled by all my dear friends!

Thank you to all my dear and sweet friends for sending me packages despite the ridiculous postage costs, to bright up my days and cheer me up. I really want you all to know that I truly appreciate is thoroughly warmed by all your thoughts.

What a good day!

Alternative Communication Method

Hubby had been working very hard for the past few months. He left for work in the morning after the kids went to school and came home past midnight when all the kids were sound asleep.

We have a nightly "ritual" with Jovan and Angel before they go to bed. We'll do the "Trying-to-lock-your-thumb" game (don't ask me why, kiddos just like to do that! ), hug/kiss and say goodnight to each other and they go to bed. However, since daddy wasn't home when they were going to bed, they missed saying goodnight to daddy.

So occasionally, there will messages of love left on the white board, which we have in the kitchen for us to explain concepts to the kids, or for me to teach them some chinese.

Angel left this for daddy some nights ago...

Her message which is "bubbled-up" on the left said,"To pappa, good night, I love you very very much, write back, kiss and hug Angel" .

Daddy's reply said,"I love you too Angel, sleep good"

So sweet!

Special Arrival from Singapore!

About a week ago, I received a call from a freight forwarding company telling me that they have a package for me and wondered if they can deliver the next day. I told them it was ok and was wondering who would send me a package? Maybe my dear brother has gotten fedup with all my boxes of books still occupying his storeroom space and decided to send them all over to me and charge me with the shipping costs??!!!

So I there I was the next day, waiting for the package to be delivered with curiosity and a tiny weeny bit of anxiety... And this is what I received:

My heart was bursting with happiness when I saw the handwriting - Diane!!!!

And when I opened it with care (part of me just want to leave it as it is and not open it, but the other curious part of me won obviously!), I found out that it was from both Diane and Miss Marvelous! (My friend wants to be anonymous so I'll just address her as Miss Marvelous.


Looking at the contents of the box, I know they had spent a lot of thoughts in deciding what to buy...

Pre-mixed Singapore curry and Hainanese chicken rice, my favorite Precious Moments coasters, Hawaiian-inspired necklace that reminds me of sunny Singapore, a pair of sweet earrings put in a cute bottle, I agree Di, what a cute way to give a a gift! A mobile phone accessory which Di bought for me when she was in Hongkong, it has my birthdate on it! Some cute charms which I can use in my crafting projects and last but not least, my favorite snack other than pocky, sweet palm seeds or as we Singaporean call it - atap chi!!!!

Diane and I used to enjoy going to buffets especially Seoul Garden BBQ Restaurant, where they have "make-your-own dessert" section. We would always "ransack" the atap chi, coming back to our tables with 2 bowls of mountain high atap chi! Friends who saw our "true colors" for the first time would drop their jaws when they saw our bowls , but after the initial shock, they would know the next time that "the bandits are going for the atap chi now!" Please don't judge us because of this! This is the only "feels-almost-criminal-but-not-really-there-yet" thing we have ever done, basically we are still very good girls!

Thank you so very much Diane and Miss Marvelous! I appreciate your thoughtfulness a lot. It makes me very happy to know that you gals are thinking about me! However, the postage to Sweden is very expensive, honestly I'd be equally happy and touch to receive a card from you all. Please don't spend too much money on me, I know you gals care and love me - and that's enough to make me happy!

"Ivan eat up..."

Ivan went for his 2-and-a-half-year-old checkup last week. His development is not so ideal. He weighs only 12kg and at 88.5cm tall, he is short and a little underweight for his age. The nurse "calculated" (which Lars and I are very skeptical about the way she did it
) by plotting a mid-point between Lars's height and my height and "announced" that Ivan should be around 176cm tall when he reaches adulthood.
She also tested him to see his speech development. And since she is new (the original one who used to see Ivan since he was a baby has left), Ivan had no interest at all to talk to her. She was trying to get him to repeat stuff after her and asking him questions like, "What is this?" while showing him car, cup, cow, dog, etc. He just ignored her and all his attention was on the cars which she brought out... Later she went through the "checklist", which they use to assess the development of a kid and told us that since Ivan doesn't know what is "på" (put something on top of something) and "i" (put something inside something), she recommended that we bring him to a speech therapist! Hubby was angry. He told her flatly no. We know our son can talk, though he is still not speaking sentences which has more than 3 words, but he is speaking. There is definitely no problem with him in talking or the ability to communicate, he's just not familiar with her. So she changed her tone a little and said that when he started pre-school after the summer, he may start to speak more. So she set another appointment with us to assess him again in November. Hubby and I were just furious. How dare she after spending 5 mins with our son and based on some sort of checklist, determined that he has problem with speech!

When we reached home I was feeling defeated and feeling like a failure. I told hubby that we should probably send Ivan to my mom so she can "fatten" him up. Hubby was just angry and told me to ignore whatever the nurse said. I told him I really try my best to get Ivan to eat properly. 1 year ago when we went for his 1 year old checkup, the old nurse (well, she is old and very kind) told us to put in more fatty food in his diet, which I have been doing since then.

I have even try to make his food more appealing and more interesting...

Breakfast - his favorite way to eat is white bread, butter, cheese and cucumber (good thing he likes vegetables!)



Lunch - pancakes, omelettes, stir-fry macaroni, rice or noodles



Dinner - He always eat the same kind of food as we do when it comes to dinner and the only person to make him eat up is hubby...



With all my effort, still nothing seems to work. Ivan is not eating so much, he usually cannot finish the meals I prepared for him. And when Jovan comes home from school and saw the left-over, he'll finish them. So now, Ivan is a little underweight and Jovan is a little overweight!

However, strangely, after his checkup last week, he started to speak more words and is clearer in his speech and he's also eating more. He probably felt insulted by the nurse too! Whatever the reasons are that attributed to the change, I'm happy that he's eating good, at least for now.