Glad Midsommar! (Happy Midsummer!)

We celebrated midsummer this year with our dear friends, Olof and Ulrika and their 2 lovely kids.  They have a summer house out by the coast, with 3 very cozy small cottages on their land. The weather was great on Friday when we celebrated (people usually celebrate on midsummer's eve), which was not typical midsummer weather.

If you have been living in Sweden for a few years, you'd realize that summer weather is mostly 2 or 3 weeks (if you're lucky) of bright sunny days and then the rest are mostly cloudy (which means slightly cold in the air, so light sweater is needed) or even rainy days (that means staying home, complaining about the weather).

We were supposed to arrive at around 10am.  However, just 4 minutes before we arrived at their place, we were stopped by the police! Our car was supposed to go for a control check some time in March but we haven't done that then, and we're booked to do the control check on next Wednesday.  So being stopped by the police now will be very very bad news.  We could be asked to get out of the car and would have to figure a way to get back home.  On top of that, one of the headlights wasn't working properly and since we were already late, we were also "slightly" above the speed limit.  However, after a few minutes of discussion with the police, he slapped us with a fine and let us off, telling us that "we're on our way to celebrate midsummer, then we're going home before heading to do the control check for the car." so he had very kindly given us our "reason", just in case we were stopped by another police road block on the way home! :D  I guess he probably smelled Chris's vomit when he approached the car, and Chris started crying when he started talking! On top of that, we had 4 kids and 1 puppy in the car, to add on to the stress factor! These are probably the reasons why he decided to let us off with a caution and a fine!

Ok, now let the pictures tell the story!

 Polly was happy to be out of the apartment! But I think we have ourselves a "Princess" dog.... She cries if we walked too far away from her (like 2 meters away!) and she's afraid to walk on wooden planks.... =.="

Weather was great! Bright and sunny, we were all so tanned!

We have decided to use the human "midsummer pole" this year, easy to mount, minimum amount of decoration needed and most of all, easy to remove after the celebration is done. ^.^

Hubby and Olof

Lunch is sausages and potatoes for the kids and.... 

classic midsummer's dishes - Sill (picked raw fish in small pieces) and potatoes for adults (and Jovan pointed out that he also had some, which makes him a "small" adult!)

And of course we had to sing short silly songs and drink snaps (shots of strong alchol), till everybody started to talk funny...

The songs were so simple even kiddos know how to sing, but of course they had soft drink..... but apparently, too much soft drinks makes MY kids talk funny after awhile.... *scratch head*

The trampoline was VERY popular among the kids, we have to get one.  But first we need to get a house....

Angel "decorating" her daddy for midsummer....

Thanks to Ulrika who showed us how to make midsummer flower crowns!

  

 

Here's a pretty Swedish summery gal!

Julian was very shy (maybe taking picture is not a cool thing to do) in front of the camera, so he hid in mummy's arm whenever the camera was out.

  

But after some time, I finally got a picture!! Yeah!!

On the other hand, Ivan was very happy to have his picture taken!

  

Blowing soap bubbles was another favorite for kids and puppy.  Polly was very confused by those vanishing "balls"....

Another round and moving is Chris's favorite! Balls, bubbles, wheels, balloons...

Need I say more?

We had barbecue for dinner, yum!

And pretty wild flowers are blooming everywhere!

What a relaxing weekend! 

Glad midsommar allihopa! 

Happy midsummer everyone!

Introducing....Polly!!!!

Hubby and I have been discussing about getting a dog for 3 or 4 years now.  About 1 month ago, we decided that the time is right now because Jovan and Angel have shown that they can take on responsibilities.  So we had a family meeting to make sure that the bigger kids are also keen in doing this together, we also discussed about the responsibilities and additional chores they have to do if we get a dog, and most importantly, they have to commit themselves to this little animal for many years to come.  We gave them a few days to think it through carefully.

A few days later, I saw an advertisement on Blocket on a litter of crossbreed (Mom is Shih Tzu, Lhasa Apso, Tibetian Spaniel mix and dad is Shih Tzu, Papillon and Toy poodle mix) puppies.  I showed hubby the advertisement but he wasn't so keen.  We had to think twice about the breed to get because Angel has tested to be allergic to dogs.  Although, she had spent a lot of times with my mother-in-law's dog (which passed away 2 or 3 years ago) and even neighbours' dogs, and we have not seen any allergy reaction from her.  But to be save we have kinda limit our choice of dog breed to a few and poodle has been "unofficially" on the top of our list for awhile.  So I think he had been quite into getting a poodle.  He was concern about a big guy like him walking a "princess-y-looking" dog, like a Shih Tzu.  I was puzzled, is there a difference between walking a fluffy dog or a poodle?? He thought about this for a couple of days and then gave us a surprise by telling us to pack for a picnic but drove us to meet the puppies instead!

This was the sight that greet us on both times when we were there, first time was with the whole family to meet the puppies and pick one, and the next time was to bring our puppy home.

Polly is the second one from the right! Hi Polly!

Hubby said it was like feeding guppies - they crowded around and fell over each other whenever someone walked near the puppy pen, so cute!! We had such a tough time trying to decide which one to bring home, they're all so cute and happy!  And when I saw hubby's face when he was holding Polly, I knew she would be the one coming home with us, she melts our hearts!

We picked her up on 30th May when she turned 8 weeks old and had visited the vet for check up and had a micro-chip injected underneath her skin in the back of her neck.

Polly likes to be cuddled and she likes to kiss, very affectionate little girl!

It was hard for the owners of the parents to part with the puppies.... He teared up when we were leaving....

Saying goodbye to Polly and making us promise to stay in contact! : )

Polly is finally home!

Chris was very uncertain about how to approach Polly and he was very scared of her in the beginning.

But he's slowly learning how to approach her...

It was hard to tell them to just leave her alone.... she needs her beauty sleep!

Jovan and Angel has worked out a walking schedule, so there won't be an argument as to whose turn it is to bring her out.

Polly and Ivan enjoy each other's company very much.

Watching a puppy runs will always bring on a smile.  They never run, they're doing a run, hop, bouncy thingy which is soooo cute! 

Taking a breather.

Best buddies!

Can you really resist these puppy eyes??

There is a lot of discipline, training and pampering involved in having a dog.  Luckily for us, we have 4 kids and it's something that we do on a daily basis.  Polly is like all puppies, playful and curious about everything.  She can now do "Sit" and "Släpp" (which means release or let go, yeah, she speaks Swedish!) and eats and sleeps well.  She doesn't need to be the smartest dog who can perform all the tricks, we just want her to be a well-behaved and respectful little girl.  We have to be consistent with discipline and training and master all our will to resist her puppy eyes!!!

School Performances

Jovan and Angel are taking part in after-school activities almost everyday.  The school invites teachers from various youth groups to come to their school once a week, giving free lessons to children who are interested.  And towards the end of the every term, they will have a day where the kids will perform or display whatever they have learnt.

This time Jovan and Angel played the guitar and Angel also performed some cheerleading moves.  But please bear with me while I side-track a little to show you guys some dangerously cute pictures! ^.^

The last time Chris cut his hair was some months ago and his hair was quite long.  I thought he looked super cute! Like a little Japanese model! But daddy thought that he looked like a girl and when Chris put on Angel's hair band for fun... daddy took one look and announced,"Now we cut his hair!" =.=".

So we did....

Are you seriously gonna cut my hair?

Will I still look like a model after this?

Believe it or not, I just can't help looking so good!

Ok, now on to the topic for this post!  So while we were waiting for the performances to start, the small ones were "chalking" up the sidewalks...

And Ivan played with his friend from pre-school...

Then Angel's cheerleading group started with their performance.

Followed by guitar group, performing with their teachers who are just kids themselves...

Jovan chatting with his friend, Linus, before starting.

Sharing a joke.

Love his smile!

They played ACDC's "Back in Black".  The next day when I went to pick up Ivan from school, 2 moms came up to me to tell me that my kids were good in playing the guitar.  Hahahahaha! For a minute there, I felt like a celebrity mom!  I wanted to upload a video clip of their performance but for some reason it just refused to upload.... :-(

So, there's Jovan and Angel's 20 minutes of fame! :D