Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Casting Calls

Around 10:00 Tuesday morning we started getting ready to leave for Tipton's orthopedic appointment. Originally we were all going to go, and George would stay with Lilli in the waiting room. But we decided that it would be easier for everyone (especially George!) for George/Papa and Lilli to stay home. Lilli was not happy. We started to put on our shoes and Lilli said "I coming, too!" I explained that she wasn't going to come, that she was going to stay home with Papa. And she replied "But I'm a princess!"

We eventually got out the door with out Lilli (and she did fine staying home with Papa.) I was a nervous wreck on the way to the doctors office. Just dreading what was to come, but trying not to show my fear to Tipton, who was nervous enough all on his own.

They called us back and looked at the x-rays we had brought with us, then they took a few more. The doctor, Dr. Miller, came in and took off the 'sugar tong' cast. Then he 'reduced the fracture.' I managed to hold myself together while Tipton screamed and cried through that. Then they put him into a full cast - halfway up his bicep. Then they took him for another x-ray.

The doctor wasn't happy with the reduction. So they cut off the cast. They used a little circular saw. Tipton freaked. (Honestly, I freaked a little, too.) He kept screaming that they were cutting him and that it hurt. I kept expecting to see blood flying up off the saw blade. But of course there was none. They have a guard on the blade so it will only penetrate so far, and they do it all the time. But still - a little nerve wracking.

Tipton continued to scream while they 'reduced the fracture' a second time. I had to lie across his body to hold him down. He was screaming things like "Stop it! You're hurting me! Don't touch me! You're DONE! Say that you're done! It hurts! Get your hands off of me!" etc. I lost it during that. I tried to hold it together but I was crying right along with him.

He continued to scream while they put another cast on him. He continued to scream while I carried him down for yet another set of x-rays. He screamed all during the x-ray. He screamed while I carried him back to the casting room.

Dr. Miller looked at the new x-rays. Tipton's are was now PERFECT. Perfectly straight. You couldn't even see where it was broken (well, I couldn't anyway.)

Tipton finally started to calm down (stopped screaming) when they finished putting the last layer of the cast on. He has a full cast - goes almost up to his armpit. His arm is bent at the elbow. His cast glows in the dark.

Dr. Miller said that judging from the x-rays, it looks like his arm was broken at a 90 degree angle (the bones were at 90 degrees.) I told him that was pretty much what it looked like to me. Pretty-freaking-awful. But now it is perfect.

Oh, and while all of this was going on, I kept getting phone calls from Dave...

A coworker had to drive him home from work because he was in so much pain from his kidney stone. After being in intense, agonizing pain for two hours (the pain meds having NO effect), Dave called 112 (like 911 in the US) to have an ambulance come and take him to the hospital.

I freaked. (I think this was during Tipton's second set of x-rays.) I called my friend, Betsy, to ask her if she could have her husband, Martin (the one who brought him home from work) find out where Dave was and what was going on - that he had just called an ambulance to take him to the hospital. I was maybe a little hysterical after having just witnessed the first reduction of Tipton's fracture.

Martin grabbed his laptop and went to the hospital in search of Dave. He found him on a gurney in a hallway. They had admitted him, taken his vitals, drawn some blood and then left him on a gurney in the hallway. No pain med, nothing. For three hours. (Welcome to socialized medicine.) So Martin sat with him, fired up his laptop and had Dave work with him on a presentation they were to be giving the next day. Possibly the best thing for Dave - got his mind off the pain and eased his stress about not being able to get any work done.

Eventually the pain subsided on it's own (much like it had the day before - on it's own.) Eventually a doctor wandered by. Dave was released, again. After sitting on a gurney in a hallway of the hospital for over three hours. The doctor didn't do anything, didn't offer him any other pain management. Nothing.

When Dave got home he took a jar out of the recycle and peed into it. (Note: They did not have him pee while he was in the hospital, even though he was there because of a kidney stone.) He said it hurt to pee. Then he felt better. He looked to the bottom of the jar and sure enough - there was a 3mm stone in the bottom of it. He had 'passed the stone.'

I am sooooo glad that he has passed the stone. I am sooooooo glad that Tipton's arm has been set properly and that he's in a proper cast.

It was a very emotionally charged day. This is definitely one vacation that we will never forget!

Monday, July 28, 2008

Excuse Me, Is There And Orthopeadic Doctor In The House?

Tipton was up at 5:10 this morning. He couldn't sleep any more, he said. So we came downstairs and ate breakfast. He played with his Spiderman sticker book. I folded laundry. Then I put on Scooby Doo 2 for him and I came in and turned on the computer. I had an email from Dave. It said
"Hi Jenn,
Good morning. I am not online because i seem to have a kidney stone.
Anyway i am now waiting to have an x-ray. I will keep you informed.
Text if you need to reach me. I love you! Love, Dave"

Lovely. My son has a broken arm and my husband is in a hospital on the other side of the world with a kidney stone. I'm almost afraid to let Lilli out of my sight. He didn't even say which hospital he was in, Lund or Malmö. Our friend, Betsy, was online. Her husband works with Dave. I asked her if she knew which hospital Dave was in. She had her husband IM with me. Turns out Dave was in Lund. He'd had a co-worker drive him to the hospital.

Lilli woke up around 7:45. I was sitting at the computer (updating the blog, actually) and Lilli walked in clutching her Fancy Nancy dress to her chest and smiling sweetly. So of course I helped her to put on the dress. Then she ate breakfast.

Kay got up around 8:30, and at 9:00 she called the ortho doctor that "unfroze" her shoulder to see if we could get Tipton in to see him. We couldn't - mainly because that doctor didn't deal with arm fractures. He is a shoulder and knee doctor. However, Tipton could be seen by another doctor in the practice on Tuesday at 11:15 - a doctor who specializes in hands, wrists and arms. We were a little disappointed that he couldn't be seen today, but booked the appointment and asked that the doctors assistant call us so that we could ask a few questions. In the meantime, I called the next ortho doc on our list. That doctor wasn't in this week, but his nurse practitioner could see Tipton at 1:15 that afternoon. After much consideration we decided to wait until Tuesday. As much as I wanted his arm set sooner rather than later, I also wanted him to be seen by an orthopedic specialist.

Dave called to let me know that he had been released from the hospital. He did in fact have a kidney stone. They took a high resonance xray to confirm it. The stone is about 3mm and right next to the bladder. The pain had subsided and they had given him a prescription for something to help manange the pain (if/when it returned.)

Later that day Kay and I loaded up the kids to run a few errands. Our last stop was Lane Bryant - the one and only thing that I needed to do for ME while we are here in the US. Both kids fell asleep in the car on the way there. When we go there Lilli woke up and was her bouncy, energetic self. Tipton woke up just barely enough to walk into the store, lie down on the couch by the dressing rooms and fall back asleep. He slept the entire time we were there.

Tipton woke up just as we were leaving. And since he and Lilli had been so good while I was trying on clothes, we decided to run down and get them both new sticker books to play with during dinner - we were meeting Papa at Foster's for burgers/hot dogs. Tipton chose a Pokemon sticker book with over 600 stickers. Lilli chose a Fancy Nancy sticker book. Lilli wasn't very hungry (she'd eaten a lot of bunny crackers while I was trying on clothes) so she stood at the end of the table and entertained us all by dancing.

It was a very productive day - we got Tipton an appointment with an orthopedic specialist and I got some new clothes!

Almost Back to "Normal"

Tipton woke up at 1:45 because his arm was hurting. I gave him some motrin and read to him from his new Transformers comic book until the medicine took effect and he was able to sleep. Then he slept until a little after 6:00. Lilli got up around 6:50. We had cinnamon poptarts and donut holes for breakfast. The kids watched Scooby Doo 2.

It occurred to me that we could just go back to the ER and get a new sling. (We had thought about medical supply places yesterday, but too late. And they wouldn't be open on Sundays.) And when Tipton ran into the dining room, dropped to the floor and started weaving in and out of the chairs under the dining room table, that was pretty much it. Kay and I got the kids in the car and drove to the ER for a new sling. They started to admit him, again. And I said to the woman at the desk "Really? You have to admit him? His arm is still broken. Nothing has changed since we were here the other night. We'd just like to have a sling that actually fits." So she called back to ask and a very nice nurse brought out a new sling, size Adult-xtra small. It fits MUCH better.

Later that afternoon we drove over to their Uncle John's house for cousin Jack's third birthday. They were so excited to see their cousins and their "crazy Uncle John." Lilli had a blast playing with Cam and Tru, and Tipton and Jack played well together. Even with just one arm, Tipton helped Jack to open his presents. And Jack seemed happy to have the help. (There were a LOT of presents!) Whenever Tipton would leave the room Jack would look around and say "Where's Tipton? I want to play with Tipton!" Jack was very sad when we had to leave. He cried because he wanted Tipton to stay and play with him. We promised that we would come back again so that he could play with Tipton some more. Tipton and Lilli got little goodie bags. They both got little water guns (which Lilli refers to as her "pee-ow, pee-ow!") And Tipton got one of those paratroopers with a plastic parachute that you throw up into the air. And Lilli got a slinky.

Cousin Donna came back to Grama and Papa's house with us (she was at the party, too.) We ordered pizza for dinner. After dinner Kay helped me to give Tipton a bath. We had bought a 'shower sleeve' the other day, to keep his cast dry. Then she gave Lilli a bath while I put Tipton to bed.

Nothing was broken, nobody was bleeding - a long but relatively good day.

Day 2 of our Vacation

Lilli woke up at 3:30am. She leaned her little elbows on me and said "I need breakfast." Just as well since I wasn't really able to sleep. I just kept seeing Tipton falling and breaking his arm over and over again in my head.

We came downstairs and had Ego blueberry waffles for breakfast. Then I read her a couple of stories out of the Disney Princess Story Book that Grama Kay had bought for her the day before. We were just heading back upstairs to try to go back to sleep when Tipton woke up. So we came back downstairs. I gave Tipton some waffles and started him on his tylenol/motrin rotation, to 'stay ahead of the pain.'

We went out to a Mexican restaurant for lunch. Tipton ate a cheese enchilada and a corn tortilla dipped in melted butter. Lilli ate a basket of chips and chocolate milk. I had ordered her a cheese quesadilla and when it was placed in front of her she yelled until we removed it (and replaced it with the basket of chips.) I decided that one meal of chips would not scar her for life, and trying to make her eat something else was just going to make everyone else miserable. She was happy with her chips and we all had a very pleasant lunch.

After lunch we went to Target. Our initial goal was to find a new sling for Tipton. The one they gave him at the hospital was too small. The edge/end fell right across the break in his arm, and his arm kept sliding out. Target did not sell slings (neither does the grocery store, Giant, we checked on our way to lunch.) Since we were there we did a little shopping. My main concern was to buy some new puzzles and games - since our outdoor activities were going to be limited due to Tipton's broken arm. They didn't have the games I was looking for (Monopoly, Jr, Scrable, Jr and Apples to Apples Kids) but they had Zingo and What's Gnu? - both games that I have been thinking about getting for a while. And Tipton wanted to get Hungry Hungry Hippos. When I was a kid I always wanted the game Hungry Hungry Hippos, but we never had the money to buy it. So of course I got it for him. It's really a cute game, and it's one that Lilli can play, too. I also got them each a puzzle. And Lilli got some new playmobil mermaids and Tipton got a new (small) star wars lego. And some bubbles to play with at Grama and Papa's house. Then we headed over to the books. I got Lilli two new Fancy Nancy books and two new Transformers comic books for Tipton. Oh, and I got Lilli a Fancy Nancy dress-up dress. It is one of the dresses Fancy Nancy wears in the Posh Puppy book - Lilli's favorite book. I had planned on buying her one new dress-up outfit while we were here, and when we saw it I knew that would be it.

On the way home from Target we stopped at CVS pharmacy to see if they had any slings. They didn't, but they had a 'shower sleeve' that would fit over Tipton's cast so that we could give him a bath. I had gotten about half a mile down the road when Tipton's nose started bleeding. It was so bad that I had to pull over and get out of the car in order to tend to him. I got a tissue in his nose and showed him where to apply pressure, then got back in the car and started once more towards home. It took about 10 minutes to get home. Tipton's nose was still bleeding. In fact, the tissue was completely soaked with blood. We replaced it with another one and about five minutes later his nose stopped bleeding. Now, I cannot say that I am surprised he had a nose bleed. He was due for one... It had been almost a week since his last nosebleed, he had recently been on a plane (with very dry air) for almost 9 hours, and he'd had a severe trauma. So I was kind of expecting it. However, I was not prepared for it to be so severe. But he's fine now. Just a little more blood than we were used to.

Cousin Donna was waiting for us when we got home. She helped Tipton to assemble his new Star Wars legos. Then she played mermaids with Lilli. Then the four of us sat down and played Hungry Hungry Hippo. Lilli changed into her new Fancy Nancy dress and wandered off to play. Donna taught Tipton how to play Rummy Cube. The kids played bubbles outside.

We had steaks, asparagus and beer corn for dinner. The kids had chicken nuggets.

Donna helped me to get the kids in bed, then we sat downstairs and talked for a while. Aside from the shocking nose bleed and the frustration of not finding a new sling for Tipton, it was a good day.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

NOT On our List of Things To Do

So on Friday, the 25th, our first full day on vacation in the US started at4:30am, when Lilli woke up. We snuggled together in bed until Tipton got up around 4:50. We played upstairs for a while, then went downstairs and had toast for breakfast. Then back upstairs to play some more.

Later that morning, Tipton stayed home with Papa to play Wii while Grama Kay and Lilli and I went to the grocery store. I was overwhelmed - in a good way. I had forgotten how much bigger the stores here are, and how many more choices there are - of everything!

The kids had chicken nuggets and frozen pizza for lunch. Then we went out in the backyard to play. I had gotten each of the kids a big ball to play with outside. Everything was going fine until Lilli tripped and scraped her knee on one of the stepping stones in the garden. It took a while to get her cleaned up and calmed down.

Then we went to the library. Grama Kay let us borrow her library card and we checked out a giant stack of books for the kiddos. The library closed at 5:00, so we drove to the park just up the hill from the library. We had the park to ourselves - just me and Tipton and Lilli. Grama Kay and Papa had to pick up Tipton and Lilli's cousins, so they weren't with us. Lilli was walking/balancing on the timbers that mark off the playground. I was keeping an eye on her because there was a steep drop off on one side. Meanwhile, Tipton was jumping for the 'zip line' bar. He made it once, but didn't have enough force behind him to make the bar move, so he was trying again. I was standing right next to him, but keeping a watchfull eye on Lilli. Tipton jumped a second time. He caught the bar with his right hand, but couldn't get his left hand up before he slipped and fell. Onto his right arm. He screamed. He had broken his arm. I had been talking with a friend from NC on the phone. I hung up on them. I carried Tipton to the car and dialed Kay. As I buckled the kids in I told her that we were at the playground and that Tipton had just fallen and broken his arm. And where did I need to go? She said we were very near an urgent care/emergency room. She talked to me and gave me directions all the way there. I ended up having to slam on the breaks and weave between some construction barrels because I had missed the turn because I was going so fast. Meanwhile, Tipton is in the backseat screaming and crying all the way there. Even though it seemed like it took forever to get there, in fact it only took about five minutes.

I carried Tipton into the emergency room and cut in front of an elderly couple. I just stood there, in full panic, while Tipton continued to scream. Lilli was trying to explain to the woman behind the desk that Tipton had tripped and gotten a boo-boo and that he needed a bandaid. The woman at the desk calmly picked up the phone and said "We have someone who needs to be seen right away." Then someone came and took us back to exam room 3.

The nurse asked what happened. I explained that he was jumping for a bar on the playground and fell. And that we thought the arm was broken. His left arm, just behind the wrist bones. She asked when it had happened and I told her "Five minutes ago." Then the nice, calm woman from the front desk came in and started taking our personal information. She asked for a photo ID and my insurance card. I explained that we have lived in Sweden for the past 18 months and were only here visiting family. We no longer had US insurance. And in fact we'd barely been in the country for 24 hours. Their father was still in Sweden and their grandparents, whom we were staying with, were picking up their cousins at the moment. I gave her much more information than she had asked for. I tend to babble when I'm between panic and terrified. They propped Tipton's left arm on a soft pillow. I asked them if they could cover his arm, as it was upsetting Tipton to see it. It was certainly upsetting ME to see it. His arm is not usually bent like the letter 'S'. They gave him some motrin around 6:00 and said that someone from x-ray would be in soon. That it was most certainly broken, but that they would need x-rays to see the extent of the injuries.

There was a tv in the room. Lilli and I watched some form of America's Funniest Home Videos - some special animal edition while we waited. But all I kept seeing was Tipton falling, and then his broken arm. The motrin relaxed Tipton enough that he was able to doze off (remember, we'd been awake since before 5:00am.) They came around 6:15 and took him for x-rays. The woman was very careful and tried very hard not to touch or bump or move Tipton's arm. I think that was the most painful part of the entire hospital stay - getting the x-rays. Then he was wheeled back to his room. They came in and gave him tylenol with codiene around 7:00. Then the doctor came in and had me come out to a desk to view the x-rays on the computer. The break was pretty clean, angled slightly downward (I'm still not sure what that means.) It was not in the growth plate, and the nerves and blood vessels seemed to be intact. The doctor did not think it would require surgery. The orthopedic doctor would be able to confirm that, however, the ortho doctor was in surgery for the next two hours.

A little while later two nurses came in to put Tipton in a 'sugar tong' cast. They were wonderful! They were so gentle that it didn't hurt Tipton at all. The cast started at the tips of his fingers and runs along the bottom of his arm downs around his elbow and then along the top of his arm back to the tips of his fingers. It is held in place with two ace bandages. They they put his arm in a sling. They gave him three stickers and a safe-T pop. They also gave me a safe-T pop for Lilli, who had fallen asleep in my arms. The doctor explained that I would need to call the orthopedic doctor on Monday to schedule an appointment to have the fracture reduced (to have them set the break) and to get him a real/more permanent cast. A lab tech brought me a cd with his x-rays on it, I signed a bunch of papers and Tipton was released.

Kay and George were waiting for us in the lobby. They had been there for at least 10 minutes but hadn't been let back to see us. And they didn't tell me that they were there or I would have taken Lilli out to them.

We went out to the car and Kay drove me and the kids home. We stopped at the grocery store and I ran in and bought tylenol and motrin for Tipton. As an impulse buy I grabbed a copy of Scooby Doo. When we got home I made Tipton some blueberry waffles and put on the Scooby Doo movie. Then I started making phone calls.

I called our friends from NC, the ones I was talking to when Tipton fell, to explain what had happened. And also to let them know that we probably wouldn't make it for dinner Monday night like we had planned, because we wouldn't be able to drive to NC on Monday - we would hopefully be seeing the ortho doc on that day.

Kay and I ordered chinese food for dinner and George ran out and got it for us. Tipton had fallen asleep while watching the video. I carried him upstairs and got him to bed. He couldn't sleep in the top bunk because he couldn't climb the ladder with just one arm. (Papa had bought and assembled bunk beds just for their visit.) So we put him to sleep in the bottom bunk. Then I carried Lilli upstairs and put her to bed (I'd just laid her down on the couch when we came home from the hospital.) I put her to bed in my bed, again.

So, on our first official day of vacation here in the US, Tipton broke his arm. That was definitely NOT on the list of things to do that I had made to keep the children occupied while we were in VA.

Friday, July 25, 2008

We Have Arrived

Our flight was just over 8 1/2 hours. We landed a little after 3:00pm (EST). And the kids were WONDERFUL! When we were getting off the plane, the people sitting behind us said "Oh, I didn't know there were children sitting in front of us - they were so well behaved!"

Of course, they didn't sleep at all on the plane. Tipton spent most of the flight playing with the little package of Legos that the flight attendant gave to him. They didn't really have any toys for Lilli's age. She spent most of the flight watching Horton Hears A Who and Monsters, Inc. Over and over and over again.

The kids continued to be well behaved once we got off the plane. They were very patient while waiting in line for customs (one of the things that I was worried about.) And they were very patient while we waited for our luggage. Tipton was a huge help with the suitcases. He pushed the big one with the four wheels. Lilli carried the ziplock bag with our passports in it. (You can be sure I kept an eagle eye on her!) It was about 4:30 by the time we got through with all the lines and found Grama Kay and Papa.

Of course, both kids were very hot when we got outside. So when we got to the car I let them take their shirts off. Yes, Lilli, too. Whatever Tipton does... And they both fell asleep on the way to Grama Kay and Papa's house. (Which, for the duration of this trip will now be referred to as "home.") It's just as well that they did. It took about an hour to get home, so Tipton got a decent nap. I was able to get Tipton to wake up when we got home. I had him change into shorts and Papa put on a video for him. I changed Lilli into a tank dress, but she would NOT wake up. After resting for about an hour we went to the clubhouse across the way for half-price burger night. Lilli continued to sleep. We pushed two chairs together to form a little 'bed' for her. She slept all through dinner. Tipton, however, had gotten a second wind. He was very well behaved. He colored in his Transformer's book the whole time. He didn't eat much dinner, but then it was a pretty long/strange/unstructured day. My burger was WONDERFUL. Real cheddar cheese (yellow cheddar cheese!) and bacon with spicey bbq sauce on the side. And onion rings. Mmmmmmmmm. Onion rings. By the time we got home Lilli had woken up enough for me to get her into her jammies and brush her teeth, then she went to sleep in my bed. Tipton put on his jammies and slept in the top bunk of the new bunk beds that Grama Kay and Papa had bought especially for them.

Lilli woke up around 4:30 this morning, but she stayed in bed and snuggled with me until about 4:50, when Tipton woke up. Then they played with all the toys upstairs (the ones that Daddy and Uncle John had played with as kids.) until about 6:00. Then we tiptoed downstairs for breakfast. Then back upstairs to play some more.

Later today we'll go to the grocery store and then maybe to the library.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

We're Coming to America - TODAY!

The bags are all packed. The children were kept up very, very late and have woken up at their usual (early) time. (We are hoping that they will nap on the plane and get over their jet lag a little bit faster.)

The kids both got new backpacks for this trip. Lilli is SO excited to get to wear her new pink backpack. I hope she still feels that way once we're actually at the airport... I've packed several new 'diversions' in their backpacks. Tipton gets a handheld electronic spiderman game, and also a little electronic block game. The instructions for the block game were in every language EXCEPT for English. So part of the fun will be him figuring out what he is supposed to do. Lilli gets two new little mermaid dolls. Also, I found her pink purse with all of her favorite playmobil in the 'secret compartment' of the wagon the other day, so she'll have those to play with, too. And they both have a set of those 'magic' stickers - kind of like the Playforms I had as a kid. You can move the stickers around to make different scenes. Tipton has Peter Pan and Lilli has Disney Princesses. In addition, the kids will also be carrying their own snacks. They picked out some special cookies and crackers. I've packed them each a little package of fruit snacks and a little package of yogos and a little box of smartees. And a thing of Pez. I will be carrying their apples, grapes, bananas and hot dogs. (Yes, hot dogs. Because I'm almost 100% certain that they will not eat the airplane food.)

As a special treat, Daddy is giving up his fancy, schmancy touch i-Pod for the week. He has loaded it with Blues Clues and Sesame Street. The last time we flew home the 'kid' movies were Transformers (where they talk about masturbation in one scene - NOT something my then-5 year old really needed to know about.) And the other 'kid' movie was The Simpsons (in which Marge Simpson taught my the- 2 year old a swear word.) So we're bringing our own child-friendly entertainment, just in case...

As for my in-flight 'diversions'... I think I've packed a paperback book beneath all the snacks. Not that I imagine I'll even take it out. I will be too busy referring arguments, helping to open snacks, making the electronics (games/i-Pod) work properly, picking up small toys from the floor, and making multiple trips to the bathroom. Fun times.

But the kids have been really good on all of our flights so far (KNOCK WOOD) so I'm hoping that this will also be a relatively smooth flight. Especially since I will be doing it solo.

Dave will stay in Sweden and work for one more week, then fly out to join us on the 31st. It will be very strange for Dave. This will be the first time that HE has stayed home while WE have gone off on a trip somewhere. The house is going to be awfully quiet. He has big weekend plans. He's going to sleep in BOTH days. (Oh, how I envy him!)

Just two more hours until we need to leave for the train station. And I've already gotten everythign packed (except the toothpaste.) So it looks like we'll have time to relax and play with the kids for a bit before we leave. A good omen for a nice relaxing trip!

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Wading Pool

Last summer I bought a wading pool. Then it turned cool and rainy and I never did get a chance to blow it up for the kids to play in. So this year, the day after our 4th of July party, we blew up the pool for a nice relaxing day of splashing around.


But of course, the each wanted to play in the pool by themselves. And I was just too tired for complaining. So when they started complaining they had to run laps around the backyard. Lilli had to run a lot.


When they (finally!) started playing nicely together, it was time for a treat. Home made popsicles! (Thanks to Betsy and Martin for providing the tropical punch koolaid for the popsicles.) Aaaahhh - summer!

Clam Dip!

She is definitely her father's child...








Saturday, July 05, 2008

Glad Fjärde i Juli! (Happy Fourth of July!)


We had a very international Independence Day this year. Celebrated in Sweden with some American friends, some Swedish friends and some Japanese friends. It was a great time!

We started the day by making star shaped sugar cookies. The kids decorated them. And their reward for NOT licking their fingers after every cookie was that after all the cookies had been decorated they got to eat the sprinkles the didn't quite make it onto the cookies while they were decorating...


Lilli discovered that it was quicker and easier to just like the sprinkles directly off the table rather than using her fingers to pick them up. Tipton followed suit.



And sadly, that was when I stopped taking pictures. We were having too much fun to take pictures once our friends arrived. Tipton and Lilli played with Karen, Eren, Nora, Molly, (Shae), Nicolas and Josh. I sat and talked with Motoko, Heather, Lina and Susanne. Dave ran around cooking burgers and hot dogs and playing host and talking to Kouji.

It was a beautiful day/evening. We all sat out in the garden while the kids ran around playing hide and seek and having all sorts of fun.

Earlier in the week Tipton, Lilli and I made star-studded leis for all the kids. And my Mom had sent patriotic party blowers. For the meal we had burgers and hot dogs, potato salad (made with dill relish that my mom had sent, as dill pickles do not exist over here) and french fries. For dessert we had star shaped sugar cookies, rice krispie treats, caramal cork (aka "crack") and a Bavarian apple tort. I was going to make an apple pie, but my pie plate isn't really deep enough, and with such an international gathering I thought we should have an "international" dessert. And ice cream. Ha ha - reading what we had to eat, I made more food for dessert than for the actual meal! Ha ha ha!

There were no fireworks (the sun was still out when everyone left a little after 10:00), but there were plenty of good friends and to me that is much more important!