Jam-packed

 April 2025

The kids were adamant that we have our traditional April 1st dinner (it got skipped last year amidst all the change), and it was a lot of fun. I made menus, moved the table, and put up a curtain to hide the kitchen while they were at school. This year Adaline helped me and we made deconstructed pizzas. Somehow Andrew always manages to order his food in the right groups so that he gets just a regular meal.

Just a magically little rainbow in the garage.

I was hoping to see the northern lights one more time before summer, and we did! It was just one of those nights where I happened to check out the window before going to bed, and we got lucky! Andrew and I went outside and watched for a while because they were so bright and dance-y. It is not lost on me how cool it is to see the northern lights out my bedroom window and then take pictures with the lights swirling above our house. It's getting too light to see them any more, so it was fun to get one more time. 

I love how confident this kid is in just being himself. 

Trying to take a picture with his red nose on, but the wind kept blowing it off and making us laugh.

Easter dress-up day! Rather than an Easter witch, (påskkärring), Adaline went with this fun hairdo. It almost made us late to school, but she liked it so much, I think it was worth it. 

Making Easter crafts and being a goofball at school

Just before the kids' Easter break and the end of my semester, Andrew's parents arrived! We got to celebrate two birthdays and Easter with them while they were here. We had lots of time to play - at home, at Leo's, and at Trampolinhuset. We also went to Exploritoriet, Storforsen, and showed them around town. The big bummer of the week was that the kids got sick. Adaline spent most of the time in bed because she had a fever for a few days, and then slept for the next few days. 

Adaline's birthday was a little bit of a bummer because she still wasn't feeling well. We tried to go to Tramplinhuset when she thought she was up to it, but by the time they opened, she was ready for a nap and didn't feel like going. Luckily, we finally got to go and celebrate her birthday the day before Andrew's parents left. Our standing-favorite activity there is still family dodgeball, where every time you get out, you switch teams. Once one team has everybody, the game is over, but this kind of means that everyone always wins, so there's no fighting, and we just play over and over again. I love it. 

Even though the boys were a bit low energy from feeling sick (except for Alex- he's the only kid who avoided it), we had a lot of fun hiking around and exploring Storforsen. It feels so typical Swedish to have all these firepits built right into the rapids, and I love that.

I call this one "Alan On a Cliff"

We got lucky with the most beautiful weather. In fact, Andrews parents said it was warmer here the whole week than at their house in Utah.

This part started to look a little like something from Lord of the Rings to me. I love hiking in a dense forest.

Alex said he needed to use his "I'm lost" face for this picture.

Over the weekend, we decorated Easter eggs! I guess it had been a while since we'd done it (again, a lot got skipped last year), and they were overflowing with creativity. We ended up boiling another batch so they could color more, and then had some intense negotiations when it came time to peel and eat them. 

Alex picked playing at Leo's for his birthday activity.

Alan burying Deborah because big kids get to play too.

What this boy really really wanted for his birthday was a full soccer uniform. Luckily, we were able to make his dreams come true. He loves it so much that he wears it to school every time it's clean.

I don't have to worry about him getting lost at school when he goes like this. In fact, maybe they don't even make him wear his reflective vest when he has this on. 😉

Love this cute goofball.

Sva 1 (Swedish as a second language 1) is wrapping up for me, and that includes an oral presentation on the theme "whose responsibility". I took a picture of my rough outline to turn into the teacher and thought I'd include it here just as a chance to celebrate my current progress and also have it to look back on in the future when I've learned even more. It's been so tiring and a lot of work (7-hour all-day test anyone?) but I'm also proud of how much I've learned since August!

The weekend after Andrew's parents left, Adaline had a friends party to celebrate her birthday. I gave her a budget and she carefully chose food, decorations, activities, and party favors. The theme was, of course, Taylor Swift, and Andrew made an awesome cake with only that as a prompt. I'm so impressed by this girl and feel lucky to be her mom. I'm just curious when she's going to be taller than me because it's getting close. 

And April wrapped up with a light coating of snow because why not? This is still northern Sweden despite our very mild winter this year.