Lots of Lilli

Lilli is quite the budding artist. She is always wanting to paint or color with markers or make pictures with stickers, etc. Here she is working on a self portrait.

Lilli is growing up so fast. Sometimes it's hard to believe that she is only three (and at the same time I can't believe that she is ALREADY three!)

Lilli loves to dress up. Usually she gravitates towards skeletons and/or princesses. But on this day she wanted to be Super Kid.

Lilli has started to catch on to the fact that when Mommy says "No" she means "NO." And that no amount of whining will change that (it will only serve to make Mommy angry, which is never a good thing.) However, every now and then Lilli will test that to make sure Mommy still really means "NO." Recently she "tantrummed" herself to sleep in the hallway.

It was close to dinner, in fact I was preparing dinner when she fell asleep. So I just left her on the floor (she seemed pretty comfortable) until dinner was ready. Then I woke her up and told her to go to the table. I walked away to check on something and when I came back I found Lilli like this:

It seems she wasn't quite awake.

We recently got a box from Dave's parents. Inside was a shirt for Lilli. Grandma Kay saw it in the store and told Papa "Oh, wouldn't Lilli just LOVE that!" So Papa put it in the basket and that was that. And Grandma Kay was right. Lilli absolutely LOVES it! (You can see some of Lilli's artwork on the wall behind her.)

Little Ballerina

My friend, Sam, gave Lilli a ballerina dress. Her daughter had outgrown it. Lilli was THRILLED!

When we got home from Little Gym she put it on and danced around the kitchen.

About an hour later I realized that I hadn't seen or heard Lilli in a while. I found her in her bed, asleep. This is what I saw when I looked in her room.
One tired little ballerina.

Kivik äpplemarknaden

This past Sunday (Sept 28) we drove across Skåne to Kivik to go to the apple market (sorry the link is in Swedish, couldn't find one in English. Just click on the picture and you can poke around the website.)




One of the things this market/festival is famous for is the giant picture created with apples. Every year there is a different design.


It is pretty impressive. It is enourmous. It is beautiful.



And the details!


The statistics for this year's picture:

For those of you who can't read swedish...



The picture's size: 104 sq meters
Number of apples: about 35,000
Weight: about 3 tons
Number of nails: about 70,000 (The nails are used to hold the apples in place - the apples are placed in between the nails.)
Number of apple varieties: 9



Here we are in front of the apple picture. But the festival/market was more than just a giant picture made from apples... There were lots of craft booths and food booths. The kids got to try different types of apples and ciders and juices. There was bread and cheese and sausage also available for sale and sampling.

We bought some apples and sausage and fresh pressed apple juice. Oh, and freshly fried apple donuts. I mean really fresh. We watched them make them. And they were Oh So Good! So incredibly good, in fact, that we stood in line a second time and bought some more to take home and have for breakfast the next day!

We also ate lunch there. Kivik is right on the water. We ate lunch at a little fishing cafe. The kids had meatballs. Dave had the fried fish and I had shrimp and crayfish crepes. Yum!

This was our view while we were eating lunch.

It was a beautiful day, and we ate donuts! It just doesn't get much better than that.

Run for Cancer

Last Friday the children at Bladins participated in a Run for Cancer to raise money and awareness. They ran/walked laps around a nearby track for an hour. Alltogether the students, teachers and parents did over 2600 laps, covering over 1000 kilometers.

Tipton alternately ran and walked. He thinks the did somewhere between 8 and 11 laps.

The preschool teachers decided that the preschool kids would only walk 2 laps, then they could play/rest. Lilli lasted about half a lap before she started complaining. Now, to be fair, she had been running up and down the track for at least half an hour before the official start. So she had already put in her time, so to speak. Anyway, rather than listen to her while for the next lap and a half I had her climb onto my back. After we'd gone a little while Lilli said "Mommy, I want to run!" So I asked her "You want to get down and run?" To which she said "No." So then I said "You want me to run with you on my back?" And she said "Yes!" So then I said "Not gonna happen. I will carry you on my back, but I will not run and carry you on my back. If you want to run, you need to get down and run." She didn't want to run that badly. We finished our two laps, then stepped to the side to take a break. When there was about 10 minutes left, Lilli decided that she wanted to do more laps. She started off running, with me running beside her. That lasted for about 1/4 of a lap. She finished the next 1 3/4 laps riding on my back.

It was a beautiful day and lots of money was raised.

Quick Beauty Tip

If you find yourself without a lipstick, but have access to markers, a purple marker will do in a pinch!

Picture Day

Last Monday was Lilli's school picture day. She went to school in a beautiful dress that Grandma Suzie had sent her.
That night while I was making dinner Tipton and Lilli asked to color with markers. I figured it would keep them occupied and relatively quiet while I was cooking, so I got out the markers and lots of paper.
As I was rolling the springrolls I glanced over and saw them coloring - on each other.
I wasn't able to get any pictures of Tipton. He had little circular stamps all over his face. Like freckles. Fortunately the were washable markers.