Tall cousins

A quick visit to South Dakota over the weekend brought the boys together with a few of their cousins at Aunt B's house. Nothing like getting together with some 6-foot teenage boys to make you feel short! They had a good time playing ball in the yard and enjoying a rare appearance of the warming yellow orb in the sky.

Farmor!

Happy birthday to grandma Ingrid!

She incidentally shares the birthday with Patti LaBelle!

So without further due:

Confidential numbers

Technically, today is Ericka's - ahem! - 26th birthday. But we made it easier for us and celebrated yesterday. The boys helped make her breakfast (waffles) in the morning. They helped her open her presents. And they helped make her a birthday cake.

While the cake was tasty... it wasn't one for the germo-phobes! All kids want to lick the spoon after the cake is made. Ours began while we were still stirring the ingredients. While decorating the cake they were also sampling about as much whipped cream as went on it.

Ericka still thought it was the greatest cake she ever had!

Happy birthday, Ericka!

The joy of a glass of water

We don't dine out as much as we used to...

At least we dine less at places where it takes more than 3 minutes to get your food. The boys aren't much for enjoying the anticipation of waiting while the chef prepares something from scratch. Although - as illustrated in the clip below - the wait for your food goes better if there is plenty of ice water to play with (and not very many people around you).

In this particular case... the water arrived just as Mathias asked 'who farted?!'

Happy Mother's Day

Thanks, Ericka, for being the greatest mom!

-Mathias & Johan

Road trip!

This week we spent a couple of days up on the north shore. While Ericka attended a conference in Duluth, the boys and I enjoyed being on a mini-vacation. We noted this last time we visited but reconfirmed on this trip - nothing compares to the joy of throwing rocks into lakes! We literally spent hours chucking pebbles into Lake Superior.

Of course, we also ate ice cream at the Portland Malt Shop and swam in the pool at Larsmont.

We're ready for summer now!

Spring at the mall

When the spring weather stubbornly refused to show up Anna, Per, the boys, and I spent a day at the Mall of America. We took in the aquarium, had lunch at the Rainforest Cafe, and rode the rides at Nickelodeon Universe.

On the way home the boys slept like lambs!

Take me out to (a portion of) the ball game!

Anna, Per, Mathias and I took in a Twins baseball game in their shiny new stadium.

It was a midday game so we arrived at noon when the game started - just in time for lunch. After missing the first couple of innings we watched some baseball. Mathias quickly got bored. We had ice cream during the fifth and sixth inning. By then the Twins were WAY ahead...

For M, the highlight of the game was the giant parking ramp next to the arena. He might be more of a hockey guy than baseball fan.

Overseas visitors

The boys have - to put it mildly - lots of energy.

So the idea of putting them on a plane for 8-10 hours to visit overseas relatives makes me reach for the Tums. While we're waiting for them to become bona-fide globe trotters their relatives are kind enough to come visit us. Aunt Anna and Uncle Per visited last week and the boys had a blast with all the attention lavished on them. More to follow on what we did!