Let the Summer Begin!

June 2025

I really forgot just how great June was until looking back through these pictures. We wrapped up the school year, had a couple busy weeks of summer with fritids and track camp, and then flew to Stockholm for the first phase of our trip to the States. 

I took Adaline to a birthday party that was about an hour away. While she was there, I did homework and had a lovely walk around a lake. Hooray for summer weather and views! When I went back to pick her up, her friend's mom (who is a photographer) asked if we could do a little spontaneous photoshoot. These are a couple of the cute pictures that came out of it. 

Alex made this super cute Mother's Day card for me, and it says, "Happy Mother's Day! I love you! I love you so much! Can you buy me a present? Can you buy me a toy?" Hahaha 

We followed these geese all summer! It looked like two families with about 30 goslings between them. It felt like they really lived the "it takes a village" principle. We'd often see them "raising their kids together" or one pair with all the babies while the other pair was off a little ways away. It was so fun to watch them grow up until they got so big that we couldn't distinguish the parents from the babies anymore and it became too hard to tell if it was still the same geese. 

I love his self-portrait that he made at school. And how happy he is about it.

Next up...Sarah turns 34! Andrew and I bought me new running shoes and (finally) went to lunch at the restaurant across the river from us. It was lovely! And delicious! After lunch, we got dessert from the french bakery in the square (thank goodness because it has since closed and it was delicious). At home, the kids and Andrew put together a cake for me and everyone played a card game of my choosing with me. Couldn't have asked for more.

That weekend, the circus came to town. Other than it being a bit hot in the tent, we all were thoroughly entertained and impressed by the talents and antics. Afterward, we played tag in the grass and then came home and harvested some rhubarb that we found growing in our yard. 

School clean-up day

We're still working on the heatless curls, but these ones at least stayed all day!

Last day of school! It's a big deal here with ceremonies, performances, dressing up, and awards. Adaline earned the Role Model award and Greatest Improvement award, which highlighted how far she has come with Swedish over the last year. I'm so proud of all she has accomplished and overcome. She has had to adapt a lot to make this move at her age. 

I am positive someone else got an award as well, but I cannot remember who or what and after search the house, I can't find it. Parent of the year right here. ha

Anyway, the kids sang and danced in their class performances, which were all fantastic. After the festivities and pictures, we took the kids and one of Adaline's friends out for lunch. We suggested burgers or pizza, but in a proud parenting moment, they chose Thai food instead. We hung out in the square, went to the library, and got ice cream at Stig's. It was a super fun day.

A somewhat surprising event that occurred in June was Alex's birthday party. We don't normally do all-out birthday parties for the kids. Usually, they pick a special activity for us to do together, and we have dessert and presents at home. This year, we decided that everyone could have a party. The problem is that April had two birthdays, a full week off from school for Easter, Easter itself, and family in town. Alex also had his heart set on having a Star Wars-themed party complete with pool noodle lightsabers. As it turns out, April in northern Sweden isn't the easiest time to find pool noodles. His party continued to be delayed as I looked for pool noodles and considered what weekends could work as our schedules filled up. Summer holidays and Midsommar were creeping closer, and I knew we were running out of time. We got it scheduled for the day after school finished, found all the pool noodles, and almost all of Alex's friends were able to come. We even got lucky with scheduling, and it was at a different time than another kid from school's party so Alex and his friends kind of got to party together all day. It was a fun (and energetic) group of kids, Andrew did an awesome job with the cake, and I think Alex was happy with how everything turned out. 

Alex chose all the activities - including "pin the lightsaber on Darth Vader"

While Alex was at his party, the rest of us went to the lake and enjoyed the unusually warm weather. It was a great start to the summer.

I just love watching everything grow and bloom throughout May and June. It's so much more exciting when winter is as dark, cold, and long as it is here. 

The next weekend was Midsommar! It was rainy and kind of a chill day, but we still went to the May Pole festivities in Bonnstan, bought the kids candy, and took a ride on the train. No complaints here.

Getting bigger!

Hahahaha. I ran into the grocery store for one thing after dropping the kids off at school. I was collecting candy and treats to bring to friends/family on our trip to the US. I saw one person after another coming out of the store with huge boxes of strawberries - some had 2 or 3 of these. Of course, I had to see what was going on, and when I saw that they were selling whole boxes of strawberries for 43 kr (less than $5) I obviously had to buy one! What an insane deal! I was elated. I got home and was so giddy walking in the house with this huge box of strawberries. It was seriously like 8kg. Andrew looked at me like I was nuts...why on earth was I buying so many strawberries? Especially when we were trying to empty the fridge to prepare for our upcoming trip. I told him what I great deal I got and he just stared at me...like he wasn't even getting it. As I repeated it to him again, I realized what I was saying didn't make sense and I had actually paid 429 kr (more like $45). Hahaha, I laughed so hard at myself. I often still convert between USD and SEK, and sometimes I think I do the conversion one too many times. Was it still a good deal? Absolutely. Did we enjoy eating (and freezing a few) tons of strawberries? Absolutely. Did we need $45 worth of strawberries right before leaving on a trip? No, men till slut var allt bra, men...oj...Hopefully next time I'll pay better attention and be a bit more intentional. 

This fruit-loving kid was not mad at all.

While Adaline went to fritids and hung out with her friends, did crafts, and wrote and performed a skit, the boys went to track camp! They got to try out all the different events like shot put and discus. The report was that they had a super fun time.

Doing important things like collecting the right licorice to bring mom and dad. 

Celebrating summer and the end of track camp/fritids with ice cream!

And then we were off! It was the kids' and Andrew's first trip since we went to Norway last summer with Anna and her family. First stop was Stockholm to hang with our dear neighbys who moved down south. And you get to hear about it next time, since this is the end of June!

It is certainly tiny and remote, but our airport at least has some great scenery.

Flight 1 of 4 was a success!