Wonderful weekend...

A few weekends ago we went on a little roadtrip with Grandpa Christer and 5-year old uncle Hugo. We left early morning heading east to Öland, an island right outside the city Kalmar. We arrived short after lunch and started with a visit to the royal park Solliden. All three kids had a lot of fun running around inside the park, and we also had a nice "fika" at the cafe. The only problem we had was to keep Jamie out of the grass, though the signs clearly announced DO NOT WALK ON THE GRASS...not so easy for a 1.5 year old....I can say she didn't really care about the royal laws...

Anyway we had a nice and sunny afternoon before we head north to the big campsite Böda Sand, where Dad had booked two cottages for us. On site we grilled some skewers and watched the kids play on the playground. This campsite is huge, but tonight it felt like we were almost alone. The morning after we were actually all alone on the long and pretty beach. I don't think that happens so very often at Böda beach....The water was cold but Natalie, Hugo and Dad took a bath...of course...  After breakfast and the quick swim we drove up to Vimmerby and  Astrid Lindgrens värld. This is a themepark in honor of the beloved and world famous author Astrid Lindgren. We had a absolutely wonderful afternoon in the park, and I was really impressed with it and also with the live shows all over the park. To see Natalie's facial expression when she met Pippi Longstockings for real was a priceless moment. She loves Pippi and now she actually got to talk with her and give her a hug... ( and she is still sure it was real Pippi..which I can understand because they did an extremely good casting job for the role...) We'd already planned to buy 2-day tickets and I must say that is something I recommend for kids in this age ( 1.5, 4 and 5) so they have plenty if time to explore without being too tired. The night we spend at Fredensborgs Herrgård, which was a nice and calm oasis after a day in the children's park. This was a great place for children, with a good kid's buffet for dinner and a playground outside the dining area in the yard. For the adults they had a little more advanced a la carte, with a good selection of beverages. We did go to bed quite early so we could get ready for the next days adventure. I slept like a little baby... Next day we were up before 6 a.m so we had to take a morning walk before breakfast. But it was well worth wating for...a delicious breakfast with high quality, homemade or locally produced food. This buffet had everything you'd ask for, but could go by the slogan Less is more...
After breakfast we drove the 10 min to Astrid Lindgrens värld, and got ready for another day full of impressions, smiles, playtime and unforgettable memories together...   Thank you so much Pappa/ Morfar Christer for spending this weekend with us!

               

                                

            

Swedish "Midsommar"...

In Sweden we celebrate Midsummer the third friday of June. It is a truly swedish tradition when friends and families get together to eat, drink, wear dresses, put flowers in the hair, play, sing and dance around the Maypole. (Sounds like fun, doesn't it... ) The pole usually gets decorated with leaves and flowers the day before or early morning. I guess each family have their own traditions but I'll tell you about our day!(Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me all day but got pictures from at least most of it...)
We started with a visit to see the Blohm's and fam. Åkerstrand/Weirum. We made some wreaths with flowers and got a very nice start of the day! At lunch we drove to Mom's and ate traditional midsummer food;  new potatoes, herring, chives, sour creme, meatballs and sausage and had a delicious Strawberry cake. In the afternoon we went to Hälleviks camping and danced around the Maypole. In Hällevik we also met Dad, Hugo and Ulrika for a short while. To finish of this day we drove back to Blohm's place for more playtime and BBQ. We even had our own small Maypole and a fishing pond for the kids...All in all this was a lovely day and a big thanks to Johanna and Daniel for having us over and fixing a very enjoyable midsummer!

A day of fun...

We spent a very fun day at Tosselilla. It is an outdoor playpark with all kinds of different activities that children and adults can enjoy. The entrance fee for a family is around 100 USD and includes all activities. This day we were almost alone in the park, or at least it felt so! We had cooler weather, (cloudy but no rain) to start with but in the afternoon the girls even got to swim a little... This park isn't huge but that's just good for smaller kids and it is easy to walk around everywhere. We spent most time in the Tarzan woods and my upperbody got a real workout from all the climbing and swinging around the lians. The park also have bbq-areas scattered all over so it's easy to bring your own food if you don't want to spend extra money on food.  After a full day of playing we were happy and tired and I can say that the girls fell asleep almost before we left the parking lot... Tosselilla was well worth a visit, we had alot of fun and both girls could try most of the activities. The only drawback I must mention is that some of the facilities were in need of tlc, and also a minus for growin' ups that had a little too much to drink and smoke close to the water-playpark...