July 4th weekend

Yes.. I'm backtracking all the way to July 4th weekend. It was a Saturday, and we went shopping that day to buy more yard-toys for Leia. With the hopes of keeping her in our yard more than the neighbor's yards. :)) That day was the last day of our heat-wave and vacations hadn't started yet. So lots of kids out running around and Leia spent a good 3-4 days out running around with the neighbor children. :)

I don't have pictures from all of that, but I do have a few pictures of Leia and Nils playing in the yard together with her brand new toys. :)

Construction of the Sand Box - Part 2

Proof that Fredrik and I take our sandbox building seriously. ;)
We wanted to make sure we had proper cloth underneath, to make sure that nothing started to grow up through the sandbox, and then to keep as many bugs and worms out as possible. And then a bit of material around the side to help keep from losing as much sand as possible. We ended up with more than enough sand. :)

The quality of sand is unbelievably good, I couldn't get over it. It is beach-quality sand. Perfect for castles. ;)

It ended up raining ALL day on Friday, so we had to finish everything up today. So the sand was a bit wet today, but perfect for packing into buckets! :))

Leia and her slide.

I should have been a photographer. I have a camera in my hand 25 hours a day. (Yes, 25.) So, here is a little bit of catch-up from all my picture taking. :)



Leia and her slide:





















Notice how her cat has to sit on the bench and watch her. He can't lay on the bench, she fixes him until he is sitting the way she wants and then he has to stay there while she goes on the slide. :)))

Almost Friday!

It is almost Friday!!!
Fredrik starts his 2nd vacation tomorrow (7 days off from work). :P Then he'll have his 3rd vacation (5 days off??) the last week of August. (And then his 3 weeks off that he had the beginning of June. Gotta love the Socialist attitude towards work.) ;)

The last 2 weeks at work, Fredrik has been completely alone! Since everyone else takes their vacation at this time.. he's been completely alone in the office, which he doesn't mind at all. He knows that it is going to be quiet and that no one can come bother him, so he gets LOTS of work done.

He has been working pretty much non-stop these 2 weeks with the sanitation project, which still isn't done. :/ It is pretty much almost done though, and these weeks, Fredrik has had to work on putting together finalized maps of the area. The project only lasted 12+ months longer than it was supposed to.. :D But Fredrik is a little sad to see his workmates leave. :/ He's been working with them for over 2 years and he has gotten close to them. He really likes the Belgian guy that he works with. Fredrik's schedule is going to be much more empty now that that project is finally coming to an end. They have been rotating guys and sending them up to work in Norrland (FAR North in Sweden) (in Kiruna maybe?? where they are relocating an entire town. They mine under the town, and whoooa.. big surprise, the entire town is sinking! So they are having to move the town). But they are sending guys with no families and not really sending anyone with children, so that no one has to be away from their families. So Fredrik probably won't be sent, BUT that means that Fredrik is going to have to travel more here where we live and cover all the jobs that need to be done since others are going up North. Wooohh.. that was a mouthful to explain. :)))

During Fredriks vacation we want him to spend more time with Leia, obviously. :) And we hope to get some painting done on the outside of the house. A few odd things like that here and there. One of us watch Leia while the other one can get things done. :) During his vacation in August, Leia will be at daycare, so we hope to get LOTS done then.

Yesterday, I was out working on weeds and Leia was running around like a crazy baby. :)) Then Nils came outside with Ulla. Leia instantly ran into their yard and started playing. :) Ulla said that she had it covered and that she would watch Leia. :) That was sooooo nice. :)) So I was able to continue working in the yard and have a little break. :) Very nice indeed. Ulla really, really likes Leia and tries to hug her and hold her every chance she gets. :) Nils does the same. He tries to rub noses with Leia and steal kisses here and there. :)) Fredrik and I were trying to decide when Leia and Nils will end up having their summer "romance." :)))


Some pictures from yesterday, Leia playing with Nils and Ulla:

Construction of the Sand Box - Part 1

We bought the sandbox a long time ago, but we never bought the sand because the bags were just so small, and we thought it was silly to have to buy so many bags. So Fredrik got some really, really good quality sand from his workmates. :) (A big thank-you to the Belgians.) So he piled his truck full of sand today after work and brought it home.

With the help of Leia and Nils (the neighbor's grandson), we dug down into the ground, to get rid of gravel and weeds, to have a good foundation. Fredrik had emptied his truck to bring home the sand, and in doing that - he didn't have his staple gun.. :( So we will have to wait until tomorrow to finish the project, so we can put some lining inside the box, to make sure the sand doesn't completely come out the slots between the wood pieces.

Pictures from today's progress:

Rain, rain, rain.

We've had almost nonstop rain the last 2 weeks, so when we have a chance, we try to get out and let Leia run off some energy. On Friday, the weather was very nice in the afternoon, so Leia and I went out and spent plenty of time while waiting for Fredrik to get home from work. So here are some pictures from Friday:





Leia and I ate plenty of cherries from our cherry tree.

I'm trying to figure out what to do with the cherries. Fredrik won't eat them or eat anything made with them. So I don't know what to do.

Leia's slide that we bought July 4th weekend. After that day, it has been raining so much that she has barely had a chance to use it..... We also bought a sandbox that we haven't been able to fill with sand yet because of all the rain.







The neighbor across the street, Karl, has a hammock that he lets all the neighbor children use. :) He only puts it up for the children (he doesn't use it). He is also the brother of our next door neighbor. He is really good with Leia and he likes her a lot. :) He doesn't mind if she comes and plays in his yard, she likes to run down the little slopes and go up and down the little stairs next to his house. He gets on all 4s and pretends to be an animal and she loves it. :) We've been lucky to have older neighbors that are so great with kids!



"smultron" - wild strawberries. We have them in our garden, but since they were planted they don't taste very much at all but Leia really likes them.

And our normal-sized strawberries that taste absolutely delicious! They turn out so great every year.