Surprise visit from Trollhättan

I came to know quite a few nice and sweet friends from Facebook, though most of us have never met but we shared our joy, frustration, encouragement and sympathy and have developed a kind of special friendship through Facebook.

So when Shannon said that she'll like to meet up, I was really happy! After some talk, Shannon decided to visit us in Linköping with her family. I suggested to ask Mavis, whom I knew also from Facebook, to join us so we can all meet up. Shannon and her family drove up from Trollhätten to Linköping yesterday morning. The drive was almost 4 hours and one of her girls got car sick, poor thing! They finally arrived at around 5pm something and we decided to all meet downtown for dinner.

We had our dinner at Restaurant China, which is our favorite (Lars and I) because this is about the closest you can get for Asian food which tastes authentic. However, Shannon's husband owns and Asian restaurant in Trollhätten, so they must be eating Asian food very often. Thankfully, they were both really easy-going people and didn't mind at all. Dinner was good and conversation was flowing spontaneously, it felt like we have all known each other for some time, I truly enjoyed their company! Time flies by when you're enjoying yourself. Before we knew it, it was 9pm! Shannon suggested for Mavis and I to join them to visit Gamla Linköping the next day. However, hubby will be working so I told her that I'll have to talk to hubby about it. (this is one of those occasions when I wish I can drive!) So we left without taking pictures, even though Mavis and I brought our cameras.... I guess we had so much fun, nobody thought of that! ^_^

I called Shannon this morning at around 10am to tell her that I'll give Gamla Linköping a miss this time. Although hubby volunteered to bring 3 kiddos to the office with him, I don't think he'll be able to work anyway, also having 3 children running around can be annoying for others working in the same building. Shannon suggested to drop by and visit us in the apartment since her girls enjoy playing with Jovan, Angel and Ivan. We had a nice chat and kiddos were all having fun playing and this time, I remembered the camera!

Shannon and me with my 6-months old tummy!

Kiddos drawing in the room, looks like a child care center!

All 5 of them played well with each other.

Shannon brought this for me when they visited - my favorite flower!

Orchids are so pretty with the clean lines and interesting structures! I hope these will not die on me like the others did!

Please come and visit soon Shannon and I hope that I'll meet more often with Mavis since we're living in the same city! ^_^

Bedtime Talk

Overheard this earlier in kiddos' bedroom...

Jovan:"Angel?" "Angel?"

Angel: "......"

Jovan: "Angel?" "Angel, wake up."

Angel: "..... Huh?"

Jovan: "Turn off your lamp." (kiddos read before they sleep.)

Angel: "...but you can still close your eyes and sleep...."

Jovan: "Just lift up your hand to turn off your lamp."

Angel: "....ahjsdjfkwefjlwkfwawe...." (she was complaining inaudibily.)

Jovan: "What is so difficult about turning it off? Just turn it off."

Angel turned off her lamp.

Jovan: "See that's not so difficult right? You just need to turn it off."

Angel: "....hmm..."

Jovan: "Just lift up your hand over your head and turn it off. Why can't you just do it when I asked you to? You have to make me say it so many times. You're always like this."

Angel: "......"

Jovan: "Angel?"

Angel: "Huh?"

Jovan: "Good night."

Angel: "Good night."

Jovan picked up my bad habit.... he nags.

Dipping in the lake

Today my father-in-law and his partner came to visit (I don't think they're married but they've been together for many many many years and have 2 adult daughters together). The weather was great today and they suggested to go for a dip in the lake. So after packing, off we went to the new place which we found the other day.

There were many cars when we arrived, however, we managed to find a good spot near a tree. Jovan and Angel couldn't wait to jump into the lake, so they changed at super speed, put on sunblock and went running towards the lake. Once they have 1 foot into the water, they both squealed,"So cold!" The water temperature was 19 degrees, it was a little cold. ^_^





After some persuasion from grandpa, Jovan pluck up the courage to submerge his head into the water!


Angel did the same after awhile, but she was very hesitant about jumping into the water without the float.


While Jovan enjoyed thoroughly at being in the water.


The water was a little too cold for Ivan, so he got out of it after 10 minutes and spent his time chasing butterflies, plucking grass and flowers and we found raspberries growing in the bush and had some wild raspberries, they tasted quite alright, Ivan seemed to like them.


After about 2 hours of swimming and chasing after Ivan, we were all tired and decided that it was time to pack up and go home. Kiddos fell asleep in the car on the way home, so hubby and I enjoyed some much appreciated quiet moments in the car.

Movie Day!

The weather is lousy today - windy and raining. After checking the weather forecast last night, hubby and I decided to take Jovan and Angel to the movies today. Jovan and I used the movie ticket vouchers he got from school for being the Student Representative for 2nd Grade. Hubby and Angel used the vouchers we got from my mother-in-law, she can request for movie tickets vouchers from her company which gives them out as benefit. Why are we divided into 2 groups? Well, Jovan and I wanted to watch Harry Potter, we have been waiting forever! We thought that Angel is a little too young to enjoy Harry Potter and she wanted to watch "Ice Age 3". So she got to watch it with daddy. This arrangement is great because then one of us can be home with Ivan, who has been running fever for the past 3 days. :(

So our movie day started with Jovan and I leaving to take a bus around noon time. It started raining when we were on the bus.


When we arrived at the cinema, we realized that all the the ticketing booths are closed! Everybody had to queue up at the titbits counters instead to buy/pick up their tickets and buy titbits at the same time! I guess they were lacking in manpower since most people are on vacation and which bad planning on the management side or the competition is almost non-existence, that's why they don't care. So after spending some time in the queue (which I absolutely hate!), we finally managed to get our tickets, snack and drinks.


Jovan was really excited! He has been waiting to watch "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" for a long long time. ^_^

The movie was about 2 and a half hours long and we both thoroughly enjoyed it! We met up with hubby, Angel and Ivan at 5.30pm. And we were originally planning to go for coffee and ice cream, and Jovan, Ivan and I will take a bus home after that while Angel and hubby go to the movie. However, it was raining when we came out of the cinema, and since Ivan is still sick, we decided to have hubby drive us home and rush back to the cinema to pick up tickets and continue to the movie at 6.30pm. The timing was really tight but they managed to get into the movie with popcorn and drink 1 minute before the movie starts! ^_^

Their movie ended around 8pm and hubby called home to ask if we have had dinner and we decided to have them pick up MacDonald's on the way home. We spent our extremely late dinner (around 9pm!) exchanging about our movies. I want to watch "Ice Age 3" too! Hubby and Angel had a lot of laughs watching this movie.

Hopefully Ivan will get well soon (he is getting much better now) and we can go for a swim by the lake, kiddos will like that!

Summer holiday starts for hubby!

Today begins 1 week of summer vacation for hubby. It is very common for companies in Sweden to close for weeks during the summer. For the past 2 years, he had to be away from work for 1 month because we went back to Singapore. This year since my family came to visit, which I hope they will do more often, he has decided to just take a 1-week vacation. He was really hoping to be able to take a longer vacation but since he owns his own company and he really hopes to complete the final phase of his product design so that hopefully he can start hiring people soon.

Unfortunately, summer weather in Sweden is totally unpredictable. The forecast for this week is rain, rain and more rain... However, today turned out to be sunny. So we decided to pack our lunch and go for a picnic and pick strawberries! Yippee! Finally a chance to get out of the apartment!

So after some research on the Internet to find new picnic place (and hopefully a new swimming place), hubby located one which is about 20 mins drive away. We had some minor problems in finding the place because it is really out in nowhere! I finally spotted a tiny handmade sign by the road which says "Bad" (Swim in Swedish) and hubby had to make a 3-point turn since we had already driven pass. The place was quite secluded and there were only 2 cars packed there when we arrived.


The place turned out to be quite nice and we will definitely be back to swim!


We brought hotdogs with bread, drink, fruits and some candies! There were dark clouds passing by while we were eating and the wind started blowing and we were freezing! However, in front of us were 3 kids with their dad, dad in shorts and tshirt and his children were just in swimming trunks and bikini, walking around enjoying the summer....

After eating and checking out the place a little more, we decided to pack up and go. The ground was wet from the rain for the past 2 days and the wind didn't seem like it was gonna stop. While we were walking towards the car, the sun came out shinning happily and the wind stopped... things like this always happen... *shake head*

Next stop, the strawberry farm. It wasn't so crowded when we arrived, maybe the strawberry season is almost over now because of the rain. We picked up a carton box and strawberries here we come!


This is the first time we have been to pick our own strawberries and kiddos are quite excited.


Ivan had a lot of fun eating more than he was picking!


Well, we were all eating and picking at the same time! ^_^


Strawberries looked so pretty hanging from the stalks!


I found a big one!


Strawberry flower.

After awhile, we had picked enough for us. Angel and I are the only ones who are interested in strawberries, Jovan and hubby will only eat a few. After weighing, it was about 700g but they charged a minimum of 32kr/kg (approximately S$5.90/kg), so we paid the minimum amount and went home happily with our strawberries!

On our way home, we swung by the supermarket to pick up ice cream to eat with the strawberries tonight! Yum!


Angel cleaning the strawberries we picked.

Dinner was a simple fare tonight since I'm lazy (^_^ I feel like I should be on vacation as well!), so we had teriyaki pork and fried eggs with onions. And as always I forgot to take pictures so had to take a picture of Angel's plate instead!


And when I was done with the dishes, I turned to look out of the balcony and saw this!

There were actually 2 rainbows but I was too slow to catch the other one before it disappeared.

Today was a good day!

Baby Strömbäck no. 4 is a boy!

We went for our 2nd ultrasound scan today. As always, I'm super nervous before the scan. Is the baby growing properly? Are all the organs as they should be? Will they spot any abnormal growth? My brain will just go crazy! So it is comforting to know that everything is developing as it should be and the baby is also at the right size for 20 weeks old. The baby is super active during the scanning, just like the previous time. It was moving constantly and the midwife commented,"It's very active, I have to follow the movement in order to do my measurements." It was changing positions, flexing its tiny legs and playing with its tiny hands. This is one busy baby! ^_^

After the midwife has checked everything she should check, heart, brain, stomach, length, legs and hands, we asked if it was possible to see the sex of the baby. We have a bet going on in the family, Jovan and Angel bet that it'll be a boy and hubby and I bet that it'll be a girl.

The midwife rolled the scanner to the left side of my tummy, paused the frame and zoomed in,"There you go." she said. Hubby and I both looked at the monitor and looked back at her. "Er... what are we looking at?" I asked. "Well, we haven't seen a lot of these kind of pictures...." muttered hubby. The midwife smiled, "That's a small penis. It's no doubt that you guys are having a boy." Kiddos win!

I think it's nice that Angel is the only princess in the family, she'll have 3 brothers to protect her! ^_^

Entrepreneurship!

Woke up this morning to discover this note which Jovan and Angel wanted to distribute to request for summer job.



The "advertisement" says:
"Hi!
Jovan and Angel want to have summer job to get a little money. We can go for walks with small dogs and clean your carpets. We can also clean 1 or 2 rooms! Vi can also water your flower if you want."

Hubby and I were pleasantly surprise to know that they're willing to exchange labor for money, which should be the correct way to earn money. However, we think that both of them are way too young to do anything for strangers. Hubby talked to them to let them know that we're really glad to know that they have the intention to work for money, but they're still too young to do summer job, so we'll wait till they're a little older.

This got me thinking, will they develop this entrepreneurship if we are living in Singapore? Honestly, I don't think so. Environment plays a big part in moulding a child's behavior and character. I'm happy that they get a chance to enjoy their childhood and get their education in Sweden. It doesn't matter that some of my family and friends think that Singapore's education system produces better results, hubby and I believe that as long as they do their best and hopefully completed at least university, they will be as competent as Singaporean in the job market. At the end of the day, we only have one goal - character building and development of creativity are more important than academic achievement.