Pumpkin carving party - Check!

Well dadgum, that was a hoot and a half! Kelly and Göran’s pumpkin carving party this afternoon was awesome! We had dressed Ethan and Hudson up in their respective doctor’s outfits and when we got to the party, there were loads of kids there to play with, all dressed up as pirates, spiders, a princess and a skeleton… and the hostess herself was face painted as a tiger!

“What about you then? What did you dress up as?“ you ask. Well, Shaena and I decided to dress up as something arguably even scarier than all the pirates and spiders in the world: 2 Canadians! Shaena in a lumberjack shirt, me in a hockey shirt, a Canada-napsack, a Canada hat, and apparel with Canadian flags all over… the works! And our gift to the hosting couple: A bottle of Canadian maple syrup of course!

Anyways; besides loads of cool kids to play with, Kelly and Göran had prepared food and drinks and party snacks for everyone and as we all know; keeping a) the blood sugar levels up for the adults at all times, and b) the kids occupied with toys or games or something they can stuff their little faces with, is the key to a successful shindig involving kids.

Shaena was on carving duty and I was on kid watch/play duty and we had an absolute blast!

Kelly

A selection of pumpkins that the other partygoers carved

Yes, it is the Fabulous Hudson Hornet!

Hudson and Hudson

And this is how it's done:

1: Start by posing for the camera with your pumpkin

2: Open up the top and gut the pumpkin.
If you are really ambitious, you can oven roast the seeds afterwards.

3: Cut out a really scary face in your pumpkin

4: When you are done, pose with your pumpkin again!

Say hello to The Nightmare Before Christmas-pumpkin!

Christmas is just around the corner!

Some people find that statement depressing. We are pretty stoked about it! So far Shaena and I have celebrated Christmas in Winnipeg, Orlando, Green Bay and Edinburgh. We figured it is about time we celebrate Christmas in Sweden, especially since we actually live here now!

So, said and done. We’ve scoured the web for cheap transportation options up to Norrbotten, the county where I am from. The problem every year in Sweden when it comes to domestic travel around major holidays is that prices are cranked up to ridiculous rates before, during and after the holiday and you pretty much have to resort to selling your kidney on the black market in order to afford to travel.

In the last couple of weeks however; this obstacle has kind of resolved itself and the puzzle pieces have slotted themselves into place quite nicely. As I am going on daddy leave in December and we are therefore no longer limited to certain dates, we were able to book a flight up north on a date when it is still cheap and home again when the prices have gone down to normal rates again!

The plan now is to simply fly up there, hang out for 2½ weeks, go visit, relax, go snowmobiling, check out the northern lights, build snow castles, go visit some more, eat loads of holiday food, drinks lots of mulled wine, meet Santa, fire off a few rockets on New Years and just have a jolly good time. How is that for a plan!?

Another major happening that is just around the corner:
The Roxette concert at The Globe next Thursday!!!

Tomorrow's Sunday fun: A pumpkin carving party!

Tomorrow we are invited to a pumpkin carving party at a friend’s house in town and the party is BYOP (Bring Your Own Pumpkin) so today’s mission was to go out and find us a good carving pumpkin. So, off to ‘Hemköp’ we went!

Mister E on his way to buy a pumpkin

Sometimes it's more convenient to hitch a ride on mommy

Pumpkin stuff...

...and the real deal. Which one to choose?

The chosen one safely transported away in Ethan's basket

Hudson figured he'll just leave the decision to us and go for a nap instead. Good call!

More falltime fun with Ethan and his friends

Ethan got really upset when his BFF had to go home!

Giggles and googles and shmoogles

Hud Man - 4 months

Falltime fun with Ethan & Elve

Ethan

Elve

Ethan and his buddy Elve

Ethan happy as ever!

Ethan and Elve again. Ethan is blurry and Elve is not due to Ethan's OCJD (Obsessive Compulsive Jumping Disorder).

Creative problem solving when both kids want the only kiddy swing at the same time!

2 | 724 | 20964 | 3627 | 90 | 1240

Here we go with the numbers again! I thought I’d give you a quick update from my beloved geek-tool Google Analytics, as I (and I am probably the only one!) find it really interesting to keep track of how many visitors we have on our blog, where they come from, etc. So here we go:

Over the past 2 years our blog with a total of 724 entries to date has been visited by 20964 visitors or 3627 ‘absolute unique visitors’ from 90 countries or 1240 cities.

So there you go.

Whirlwind visit from ”Ammo!” and Roland

This past weekend Grandma Gertrud and Roland came down for a visit with the kids, to hang out and to help us build shelving in our storage. No visit from Grandma and Roland is complete without either a) a huge batch of cinnamon buns for us in their luggage or b) a home cooked meal of our choice from by Grandma, who is a chef by trade. This time we went for the latter.

Shaena has recently discovered a well kept Swedish secret called a ‘Smörgåstårta’, which translated is a ‘Sandwich cake’. A Smörgåstårta is basically layers of white bread soaked in goodness and dressed with vegetables, cheeses and delicacies like smoked salmon, caviar, smoked ham… whatever your heart and taste buds desire really. Divine!

So, whilst Shaena and Grandma were working away on the Smörgåstårta, which we got to stuff our faces with for dinner later that evening, accompanied by Uncle John and Mikaela; Roland, Ethan and myself converted the old broken futon from our apartment in Edinburgh into awesome shelves in our outdoor storage and also built shelves in our indoor storage at the same time. (Well, truth be told; Roland did most of the building and Ethan and I did most of the swinging and most of the playing in the nearby play structure!) Ethan and I figured that that was the most fair and even distribution of workload for everyone involved and in the end; the shelves turned out really, really nice.

We had a great time, a great banter and the kids definitely got their fair share of attention and playtime this weekend! Oh, and now we are also officially booked for Christmas and New Years up north. Very much looking forward to that!

A day in the life...

As many of you family, friends and more frequent readers know; Shaena and her group of mommy-friends are avid patrons at most of the playgroups and open pre-schools in the area. Today they headed out early to check out this new open pre-school that was rumoured to be pretty sweet, and man was the rumour ever true!

This one supposedly took the open pre-school cake of awesomeness by a mile and the boys had an absolute blast! It is so nice that these really cool venues and groups are available, free and just around the corner from us! We heart Sweden!

Cool dudes on a bus

Pretty sweet venue for kids, eh!

...and a great place to crash too!

Very fitting backdrop for these multi-national kids! Ethan who is (obviously)half Swedish, half Canadian and Kieran who has an Irish dad and a Swedish/Lebanese mom.

Boom!

Huddy Buddy is a happy little camper

Papa-days with the kids and Roxette concert, comin' up!

It’s decided! After a year filled with a lot of change, excitement, new challenges and more change, we decided we wanted to end the year with a bit of a break for the both of us. So, as of December 1st; Ethan and Hudson’s dad will be on paternity leave for 2 months! I am so very excited and can’t wait for December!

As I never really had any paternity leave with Ethan in Scotland, this is going to be extra awesome and the four of us get to hang out, maybe go see and do, and recharge those batteries for whatever 2012 holds.

Oh, and less than a month till the Roxette concert! We have scored a couple of pretty sweet VIP tickets; which means that we get to enter through the VIP entrance, we have the best VIP seats in the house right below the row that is dedicated to the Royal family, and we have access to a VIP bar where we can purchase VIP beer and VIP wine and mingle with our fellow VIP’ers.

Walking like a man, hitting like a hammer
She's a juvenile scam, never was a quitter
Tasty like a raindrop, she's got the look
Heavenly bound cos heaven's got a number
When she's spinning me around, kissing is a colour
Her loving is a wild dog, she's got the look

Awww!

Who are they? Only the coolest cats in town!

Doc Hudson