A week of projects and many trips to the park

Sophia, Ben and I didn't go on any huge adventures this week...mostly trips to the park and a couple of art projects.  We did have two play dates this week, which were great for the kids (and me!) to meet some new people.  On Tuesday, we took a trip over to the island of Lindingo to play with Michael, who is just a little bit younger than Ben.  We headed out to the park by his house and it ended up POURING on us while we were there - we still had fun!  Thursday, we got together with Benjamin (not to be confused with our little Ben), Lila, and their mom at the park near our apartment.  Benjamin and Sophia are about the same age, so they had a great time playing together. 

Sophia loves "projects".  In addition to many coloring book pages, mazes, and dot to dots (thanks Auntie Kari!), we created a telescope using a paper towel roll.  Enjoy the pictures below.  Amazingly, the telescope has survived for several days of playing!

Currently, our friends Heather and Will are on a plane to Sweden to visit us for the week.  We are really excited to see them and show them Stockholm!

Swimming...again

I returned to Stockholm on Tuesday - my first solo flight with the kids.  The trip was so much better than I expected!  The kids were squirrelly from MSP to JFK, but both slept the entire way from JFK to Stockholm.  I really couldn't have asked for a better trip, especially considering how nervous I was to travel alone.  I'll be doing it again in September when we go back for Kari and Dave's wedding, so I'm glad the first time went as well as it did.

The kids really love swimming, so we were back at Eriksdalbadet again today.  The weekend has been gorgeous, so we are trying to soak up as much of the wonderful weather as possible.

Back Home

Although we had only been in Sweden for 26 days, we headed back home for several very important events.   

Derek and Jill celebrated their wedding at an awesome reception on Craig and LaRue's farm the last weekend in July.  In addition, I stayed longer than Aaron for Kari's shower and bachelorette party - so fun!!!  We had a great time catching up with everyone...even though we were only gone a month :-)  Unfortunately, I wasn't that great at taking pictures when I was in MN/WI, but there are a couple below.  

Craig and LaRue bought a trampoline for the kids and Sophia and Ben LOVED it.  

Great-grandparents Louie and Marvel came over on their golf cart.  The kids (especially Sophia) love the golf cart, so they had fun taking rides on the cart.  In Sophia's case....driving!!!

Ben really took to Aaron's cousin, Shelby, at the wedding reception so I had to get a picture of the fun in action.  Shelby will be heading off to college SOON!

Sophia had a great time catching up with her friends too!  Cousin Morgan and her friend Avery are pictured.  They had fun pretending their chalk was lipstick :-)

Kari's shower had a Breakfast at Tiffany's theme and the event was gorgeous!  Everyone wore black dresses and accessorized with big jewelry and black sunglasses.  We sipped mimosas and belinis and had super cute cupcakes that looked like Tiffany's boxes for dessert!

Don't worry...Sophia was just sipping on orange juice!

And the beautiful bachelorette...

All of the girls out for the night.  

Finally, we spent some time at my parents' cabin.  I was really horrible at taking pictures by this point of the trip, so no pics of the kids swimming, playing at the beach, or going down the slide at Trails End.  Maybe next time?!?! The only pics I took were of two worn out kids hanging out in the cabin :-) 

Gamla Stan

We headed out to Gamla Stan the Sunday before going back to the US.  Gamla Stan is the original center of Stockholm and means "Old Town".  The area is so quaint and beautiful!  We looked at an apartment in Gamla Stan that was great, but about the size of a postage stamp, so we passed :-)

Gamla Stan is full of winding, cobblestone streets and cars are not allowed on most parts of the island, so it is fun to walk the narrow streets and look at the buildings, shops and restaurants.  Gamla Stan also is the home of the official Swedish palace.  We haven't toured the palace yet, but did walk around the outside.

It was funny talking to Sophia about the people that live in the palace.  I told her that a princess lived there and I'm pretty sure she thought Ariel or Cinderella was going to come out of the castle!!