Sisters

Here was bubble blower #1 at the age Alice is now.

And bubble blower #2. Other than the hair, they are pretty similar.

Ice cream and sunshine

Haylie's grade went on a field trip to a dairy farm today. She was a bit disappointed that they only had cows there, no other animals. I picked her up at the playground at Almedalen in Visby when they were done. We walked over to the harbor and bought ice cream, then walked back to by where I had parked and stopped by the beach so she could throw rocks.

Pepparmint and Mint chocolate chip. I had Coconut and Brownie.

Alice was enjoying sitting up a little in her stroller.

Sunny and 70 today, so Alice and I were outside all afternoon. We took 2 walks at home prior to picking Haylie up.

The leaves aren't out yet, but if this weather keeps up they will be in no time.

Påskmarsch

Today was a nice and sunny day, over 17 C/64 F. Here is Västerhejde kyrka, one of the two churches near our house. Alice is getting baptized here in a month.

Haylie, Alice and I went to Visby this afternoon for the Easter parade. We parked close to the end of the parade and walked uphill to Östercentrum where it starts. Stefan met us there when he got off of work.

This is a girl that would just love to chase those ducks, but at the mature age of 6 was able to restrain herself from giving in to the impulse.

On Maundy Thursday, or Skärtorsdagen, kids dress up like witches and go door to door for candy. The witches supposedly fly to Blåkullen, and the kids dress like witches so they are disguised and the real witches don't get them. In Visby, there is an Easter parade, where all the kids dressed up for Easter get an egg filled with candy, and the adults can get actual eggs.

My two little witches

Here I am with Alice.

Alice, Haylie, and their cousins Cornelia and Tindra

My brother-in-law Håkan and Stefan. What good sports. Stefan is normally dead-set against all forms of costumes, but actually wanted to do this. I was surprised, but I was quick with the eyebrow pencil freckles and the scarf as soon as he said it, before he could change his mind.

It took forever to get through the East gate into the Old town. That worked for me, since Alice decided she was hungry so I had to find a bench and nurse her and catch up with my family before they disappeared.

Aren't they cute?

Haylie got her candy egg and I got to eat the ones she didn't like.

What a sweet girl. You would never know her tongue had just been out.

Our yard is in full bloom with all the spring flowers.

Today, I planted an apple tree. Coincidentally, the type of apple is called "Alice".

Haylie's new swingset

Alice was all cozy in her stroller. She took all her naps in there both today and yesterday.

These two pictures are from last night. Haylie was watching Air Buddies, with some help from her father and sister.

TV-zombies

This morning, as we were going to school, we saw two fat doves in our front yard. All winter, the birds and the wind knocked all sorts of birdseed off the feeder, so now they are still busy eating it up. Just as well, since I don't need a forest of sunflowers in my front yard.

It was freezing, so this little guy looks all huddled up. It did warm up really fast and turned out to be a sunny spring day.

At about 10, Alice and I headed into Visby to buy some stuff I needed and a present for a party Haylie is going to on Sunday for a girl in her grade. I had a quick bite to eat at McDonald's after and then we took a walk since it was so nice out.

Alice was posing outside Dalman's gate, on the east side of the town wall. It looks nice, but all the dog poop people neglected to pick up from all winter was thawing, so it didn't smell that great on our walk.

The flags were up in honor of Crown Princess Victoria's visit to Gotland today.

The cathedral of St. Mary's

Here is Alice posing again att the Finn stairs. What a ham.

The big square in the old town.

Lots of flowers blooming, but no leaves out yet.

Alice was getting hungry, so I stopped at work and fed her in a conference room. I heard from a friend at that point that the Crown Princess was supposed to be walking from the library to the museum, right by work. So after Alice ate and got a new diaper, we walked down to see if we could see her.

We stood in Almedalen at a great spot with just a couple other people. The royals were preceded by a knight from the jousting matches they have in the summer and some guy who was dressed like Ben Franklin. Or Carolus Linneus, I don't know.

There they came. The Swedish security guys don't look as tough as the Secret Service, do they?

Princess Victoria and her husband Daniel

I was holding Alice up, since she was wide awake and not so into laying in her stroller. She was busy sucking on her hands and her snowsuit. Victoria stopped and said "Nej, vilken liten! En liten påskpresent! Grattis." That means, what a little one! A little Easter present! Congratulations. I said "Tack, tack", Thank you.

They were headed for the museum to open a new exhibit.

Spring is here

Today, after school, we went to the library to trade in our old books for some new ones. Haylie's English teacher had made her some chocolate chip cookies, inspired by reading "Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar" last week, an old favorite that Grandma gave her. Haylie is loving English now, since she has a fun an experienced teacher and likes feeling a little extra special and showing off for her friends. Her teacher comes once a week, on Mondays. They read books, play games, draw and write captions for the drawings. It will be fun to see how much she advances while we are on vacation at Grandma's this summer. She is planning on teaching the neighbor girls some Swedish. I am working on my English too, trying to remember to speak it to Alice. It has an added benefit that as I speak to Alice, Haylie listens and therefore doesn't get crabby about me speaking English since it isn't directed toward her.

The bulbs I planted this past fall are starting to come up. The Siberian Irises and Snowdrops are blooming, and the Crocuses are on their way. The Narcissus, Tulips, and Daffodils while take a while longer, but hopefully something will be blooming for the baptism.

Haylie lost a tooth this morning while she was brushing her teeth. She worked on it for two days and all that wiggling paid off.

This poor worm was found yesterday and spent the night in a glass jar with some damp dirt and a ladybug. She let it go today.

A Snowdrop in my flower bed.

Little Miss Sunshine helped me make cookies. She got mad whenever I wasn't paying attention to her, but as soon as I bent down to talk to her, she was all smiles.

Here are the cookies. I used the Toll-house recipe but switched out white chocolate for chocolate chips, and dried cranberries for the nuts. They were really good. I am freezing them for the baptism, but I wrecked two, so I had to eat them.

A sign of my mortality?

Alice likes to feel her face and the back of her head or ears when she is sleeping lightly.

Haylie and Stefan went shopping for a new bike helmet this morning. She then proceeded to wear it all day even when not riding her bike.

Stefan has started working on our patio, but we need more stone to finish it.