Valborg 2009

In Sweden, Valborg is celebrated the day before May 1st. (In true typical fashion, the holiday is celebrated the day before, so that you can spend the actual holiday recovering...) It is celebrated by singing traditional songs about the coming of spring culminates with the lighting of a big bonfire.

Last year we went to Pildams Park for our first Swedish Valborg celebration. It was such fun that we decided to go again this year. Only this year we came better prepared: we brought a picnic dinner, blankets to sit on, coats to wear when it started getting cold, games to play when the kids got bored and glow sticks.

When we got there the kids ran around.

We'd brought Tipton's friend, Aaron, with us. This was the best picture we could get of the two of them. They were nonstop motion.

The later it got, the more crowded it got. There were several interesting people in the crowd. The kids loved the teenagers sporting mowhawks.

We met up with several friends, including the Trively's. I owe Clare BIGTIME as she is always watching over Lilli for me.

They played music over loud speakers and the girls danced. (If you look in the background behind Lilli & Mia, you can see a suspicious looking pipe... fortunately the wind was not blowing our direction.)

When it got dark (around 9:15pm) a choir sang some traditional Swedish valborg songs about the coming of spring. A light show was projected onto the surrounding trees (did not get any good pictures of that) and a famous swedish poem about Spring was played on the loud speakers.

We broke out the glow sticks and waited for them to light the bonfire. Tipton sat on Dave's shoulders for a better view. Dave took this picture. I think it's great! I especially like that the way Tipton is holding the glow sticks makes Dave look like he's got antennae!

This year there was a fire pre-show! They had several flame-thrower type machines set up in a circle. They released little balls of fire in time to some music. It was fantastic!

These pictures don't do it justice.

And then they lit the bonfire! It was much smaller this year. We had hardly any rain the month of April, so we weren't sure if they were going to have a bonfire at all. It is much larger than it looks in the picture, though.

By the time we got home Lilli had passed out in the wagon.

It was a good time.

Who is this?

The other morning we were getting ready for school and I looked around and saw this child leaning against the doorframe. And I thought "Who is that? Where is my little girl?" She looked so grown up - with her hair pulled back and the way she was leaning against the door frame waiting for me and she was holding her toy cell phone and had sort of a bored expression on her face. And I thought "This is what she's going to look like as a teenager."

Lilli's Birthday Party (April 26th)

Lilli had her birthday party at The Little Gym. It was her first "real" birthday party... (The first birthday is really more for the parents. Her second birthday she was sick and had no party. Her third birthday we didn't really have a party because I didn't know any of the parents from her dagis (Swedish daycare) class.) One of Lilli's best friends from school, Savannah, had a birthday near the beginning of May so they decided to have a joint party. (Joint parties are very common over here because everything is so expensive.)

The birthday girls, Lilli and Savannah, waiting patiently for their party to begin.

Lilli's birthday cake: chocolate with pink frosting (as requested) with a princess theme.

I'm a sucker for action photos... Tipton in mid-air!

Lilli in mid-air!

Look at that face... how could I not post this photo? Such a cute little mug.

The birthday girls in the middle of the parachute. The party goers held onto the outside of the parachute and walked around in a circle, taking the Lilli & Savannah for a little spin.

Lilli loves to be upside down.

Look at that concentration!

That boy next to her is Oskar. He is going to marry Lilli. He sent her a written marriage proposal. (Okay, so it was written by his Mom, but he drew all the hearts...)

Lilli & Savannah on the air track. I love this photo. The kids are blurry in every photo taken on the air track.

At one point they brought out the scarves. Lilli and Savannah and Narina went around and gathered up all the pink scarves. Nobody was surprised.

Not the best photo because of the backlight, but I love the expression on Tipton's face!

They look so serious... I wonder what they were talking about? Mia looks exactly like her Mom (Besty) in this picture!

The Mommies: Jenn, Birgit, Kim & Susann

Lilli & Savannah counting for Hide & Seek - Lilli's FAVORITE game.

Tipton and Lilli. The only picture we got of the two of them together.

Waiting to come in for cake.

Party hat on and ready for cake!

Taking a deep breath to blow out the candle...

Malin (Savannah's Mom) shows Lilli the cake she ordered for Savannah - it has a picture of Lilli & Savannah on it!

Malin and Jenn, the birthday girl's mommies, enjoying some well deserved cake.


The party is over. Everybody got goody bags. The horns were by far the favorite party favor.

Noah and Tipton - the big brothers. (Noah is Savannah's big brother. He and Tipton are in the same class at school.)

At home, after the party, Lilli got to open the birthday presents from her friends. Several of them went in together and got Lilli this pretty doll bed.

Pink and satiny and very girly - the perfect gift for Lilli!

Tipton's Birthday

Date: April 25, 2009

Time: Approximately 6:20am (It is important to note the time, because Tipton had been up since about 5:00am, wanting to know when he could open his presents... I finally gave in around 6:15 and got up.)

I let Tipton open one of his presents from Grandma Suzie. She got him a camera - something he has been wanting for quite a while now.

I made him wait until 6:45 before I let him wake Daddy up so that he could open the rest of his presents. Tipton got lots of books this year... Star Wars books...

Star Wars comic books...

Scooby Doo activity books...

Our friends, Elvira and Keith, gave him a couple of comic books - including the limited edition Spider Man with Obama on the cover!

Once Lilli woke up we let Tipton open his gift from her. Power Miner Legos. You can't tell from his expression, but he was thrilled.

Tipton's "big" gift from Mommy and Daddy was by far the biggest hit - as is evident from his expression...

Lego Star Wars for the Wii. He plays it every chance he gets. I like playing it with him, too - it's acutally a pretty cool game.

The afternoon of Tipton's birthday we were invited over to a friend's house for a barbeque. We went and Tipton got to play with several of his friends. I made brownies to have for his birthday. We managed to fit seven candles in a brownie -

I think he had a good birthday.

I can't believe my little boy is seven. He's not so little any more.

My Sweet Little Girl

Several times in the past month, when I have gone to pick up Lilli from school, she is wearing a different outfit. This is not because she's had a potty accident or because she spilled her lunch on her clothes. No. It is because she was just to DIRTY after playing outside at break time.

One afternoon when we got home from the playground I had Lilli go straight into the tub for a bath. She was so dirty that halfway through the bath I drained out all the water and refilled the tub. Then, after her bath I drained the tub again so that I could rinse out all the dirt and sand before Tipton took a bath.

I have also had to rinse out the shower after she has taken a shower.

The other day at school a friend of mine was standing next to Lilli and looked down at the top of Lilli's head and said "Oh wow. She's got a lot of sand in her hair!"

That's my girl. She wants to grow up to be a princess. But right now she's more like Pig Pen from The Peanuts. A little cloud of dust seems to follow her around.

Tipton's Birthday Party

Tipton had a joint birthday party with his friend, Samantha. Samantha's birthday is April 13th (same day as Lilli's!) Her father works for Alfa Laval. He rented/reserved the gymnasium on the Alfa Laval campus in Lund. It is a great place for a party. We had the entire gym to oursleves. We had the kids play lots of party games, and they also got to just run around (and play soccer, basketball, tag, etc.) For one of the party games they had to break into pairs, and each pair got a balloon. They had to keep the balloon from hitting the ground, and they couldn't touch it with their hands. Tipton and Samantha were a pair:

I love that picture. I wish it were clearer.

In Denmark they don't sing happy birthday. And they don't have what Americans think of as traditional birthday cakes. The birthday cake is actually a pastry, and is in the shape of a person. It is usually decorated with candies (or goodis as they call them over here.) Then, instead of singing happy birthday they count "1 -- 2 -- 3!" and then all the children scream while the father cuts off the head with a large knife. A little disturbing, but great fun for the kids.

Tipton's cake was more "traditional." I made him a chocolate cake (from scratch) with cream cheese frosting, tinted ocean blue. The party invitations were sort of an ocean creatures theme, so we carried that over into his cake... Used brown sugar for the 'beach' and found some sea creature turtles. The "happy birthday" and the number "7" are actually made out of chocolate. Sadly, there weren't enough Ts or Ps in the package to spell his name in chocolate letters, too.

Before we had the cake, we fed them hot dogs, grapes and apples. One boy ate FIVE hot dogs!

Keisuke, Nicolas and Tipton

Samantha, Tipton and Nicolas. I think Tipton looks very young in this picture. Makes me want to just give him a big hug.

Grandma Suzie sent Lilli this shirt. "What's not to Love"

The birthday couple. Tipton and Samantha are going to marry each other. They decided this when they were both still four. They are now seven.

Action photo! You can see that Tipton has already blown out the first three candles.

Daddy and Lilli.

I wish we'd gotten more photos of the kids playing in the gym, but the pictures we did take didn't turn out very well. That's the problem with gyms - they just aren't very photogenic. But it was a good party. Everybody had fun.