Midsummer Picnic

We spent Saturday afternoon at a friend’s farm…a little picnicking, a little playing, and a little pyromania.

Time to play in the tree.


Time to build the witch.


Time to play in the tree.


Time to take a cow walk.



Time to play in the tree.


Time to burn the witch.



Enough of that tree. Time to eat smores.

Back to the Baelt

There was no playgroup today. We are having a big Sankt Hans picnic and witch burning camp-out tomorrow. Still, by the end of the week, Peter is ready for a break from bornhave. He is also a bit under the weather right now - all stuffed up in the head, all runny in the nose. It was a rainy and gloomy day too, so we chose to go back to the Fjord and Baelt aquarium since its mostly indoors.

It was nice to go there without playgroup this time because when all the kids get together they usually run right through. This time around, Peter and I stopped and checked everything out, together.

No tears at this party

Peter was sitting at the art table with his new buddy when I left him today.


Today is actually the day I've been waiting for - a going away party for the 6-year-olds. Daycare is closed for 3 weeks in July, and in August these 6-year-olds will be going to pre-school (what we call kindergarten) preparation school.

I see these kids at the bornehave and they look bored, and boredom leads to making trouble. Which is what they do. Its time to move on and put that brain to work. Peter is looking forward to not getting spanked anymore by their leader. And I'm looking forward to that too.

Just vegging

Here is Peter watching Toy Story the other day with some of his Toy Story buddies. We are missing Bulls-eye right now, which is a shame since I just sewed his head back on.


We watched the Little Mermaid this afternoon after school. He is never not scared of Ursula - the sea witch. He's very curious about her too. Was she mean when she was a baby, why does her body jiggle like that...He is just freaked out by her.

A skinless wolf demon with fangs and horns - no problem. But a purple octopus woman - now that's just too much.

Hello Kitty

We went to a Hello Kitty themed b-day party on Friday. Pink, pink, pink, and then some more pink. I don't think its Peter's favorite color anymore, but he still doesn't seem to mind much. He did however ask if there would be any boys there. So I can see him breaking away from the girls a bit.

That's the birthday girl with the crazy smile. The girl across from Peter is her sister and one of Pete's favorite older friends (she's 6). The big surprise of the day was that Peter got his very own Hello Kitty egg-free cake. He ate half of it there, and got to take a piece home too.




These are a few things from the goodie bag. One was a make-your-own-stained-glass thing. You trace a picture with a gel crayon, let it dry, then peel it off. Pete chose a ninja turtle for our first try at this.


Another goodie was a giant balloon with a face on it. Rich succeeded in blowing it up, and now we have to talk to the thing, its like he's a new member of the family or something. It of course resembles a giant thing-which-I-won't-name (so that people googling that word won't land on this blog), so I don't really like talking to it much. Worse yet, *he* (it, the balloon, whatever) was having a conversation with Peter's Woody doll (from Toy Story), and Woody asked what *his* name was - and *he* said his name was Blue Woody. Great.


Saturday (after another botched effort to go swimming) we took Rich to Egeskov Slot.


Rich and Pete are pretending to be knights here.


And everyday ends at the playground.



Blue Blankie Update
The grandmas and aunties know how attached Peter has been to his blue waffle blankies. I am happy to report that on his own he no longer sleeps with them wrapped around his neck. He puts it next to his pillow, but not touching his body. I guess this means he's growing up, and I'm happy he's doing it on his own. (He won't be in therapy 30 years from now telling the doctor about how his mother ripped away the only comfort he had.)

He's there somewhere

This is how I found Peter last night. This is AFTER I had already re-adjusted him once. Must have been some night for dreaming.


He's back at bornhave since Tuesday of this week. As usual liking it and not liking it at the same time. When I picked him up yesterday he was crying cause he stuck a broom in his eyeball; when I left him today he was ok happy making a bead necklace.

He's also been throwing out a lot of new words, and asking about others. This morning he asked if he should knock of the ruckus. And I said where did you here that, and he said - "Word Girl - it means lots of noise". He LOVES LOVES LOVES watching Word Girl on the PBS website. Also from this show he wants to know why, when you get kissed by a monkey (that would be Mr. Huggyface in the show), do you then need to call a lawyer.

Are you ready to Rumble?

I was in our office room yesterday - tapping on the computer - as Peter would say. When I came out I saw that I was soon to be under attack.



We went to the northernmost point (I think) on the island of Fyn on Sunday. It is a cape and there are hiking trails within the land (and sheep and dairy cows) or you can walk the whole way around on the beach. We kept to the east side, since the wind blowing from the west could have knocked us down. And even though its been none too warm out this past week and weekend, Peter INSISTS on wearing shorts and muscle shirts every day.

Pete wanted me to take this picture of him. I wished I would have zoomed in a bit, what a pose! Also, if you enlarge the second picture below, above Peter's head you'll see water windmills. These are located out in the sea, not on land. Pretty cool.




Its been fun to explore the beachers here. They are all just a short drive away, and they are all just a little bit different. And now that summer is here there are opportunites to buy strawberries, snap peas, potatoes, radishes, honey...from lots of roadside stands.

Dyrskue Weekend

This weekend (Fri, Sat, & Sun) is the Odense Dyrskue – it's like a state or county fair for the island of Fyn. We went on Friday with playgroup and saw lots of horses, cows, bunnies, chickens and sheep. No goats – go figure.

The people showing the dairy cows dressed like milk makers.


Here’s Pete checking out the long haired cows. They were mammoth-like.


Down in the kid’s 4H area they had a few games and activities. For the older kids they had stick whittling with nice long knives, or pound a nail as-hard-as-you-can into the old log, or lasso throwing lessons. Although I said a firm *no* to the stick carving, Pete did enjoy holding the guinea pigs.


Saturday the weather was nice, then not-so-nice, oh! then it got nice again, then the clouds were back…it went on like that almost all day. So I looked through my stack of tourist flyers and found one for a place called Sonderby Cliff, locatd to the southwest of us, a little more than a half hour away. The card said that rock collectors like to come to this beach because of the nice stones and amber.

Finding it was a slight challenge, the roads were not really marked to show the way, but Rich told Pete to just think of it like a treasure hunt. And treasure we did find - lots of shells, rocks, and even some amber.

Sour

The weather has gone sour - windy and cloudy for two days now. Maybe this is the point (that is foretold) where summer ends??? That's why on our walk today Peter wore shorts with sandals, and a stocking cap and gloves.


My plan to switch bornhave has also gone sour. I thought I was getting somewhere by talking with someone at the Kommune in person. But I received a letter in the mail today saying otherwise. Translated it said:

You have shown up regarding a transfer to the bornhus Fraugde. That Peter cannot be written up to, when he has a space at the great catchment area where you reside.

Summed up - He's already placed within the school district, and I can't change my mind now. So -they won't let me change. I even tried to drop him out. Maybe I can't do that either. I know the borhave in my neigborhood is quite full, but let's say for example he wasn't doing at all well with the kids or teachers, would they let me switch to a different one then (other than our neighborhood one)???? Maybe I'll try that next, just to see, I've got the time. I'm curiuos if its just the one I want, or a total can't-change-your-mind-ever kind of thing.

Almost Unbelievable

A gorgeous week-to-the-weekend. Rich had Thursday afternoon off (Constitution Day – he wondered if there would be fireworks, I said it would be hard since it never gets dark), so we drove on over to Kerteminde. They have a public beach and harbor area. We checked it out for just a short while, and then headed into town and had some ice cream.

Saturday – a bit windy but still nice enough to go to the beach and try out the new tent.



Sunday was another hot and beautiful day. We can't pass even one of these up, because at any moment they may just disappear for the rest of the year. So we packed a lunch and headed for an island called Langeland; which is just south of our island of Fyn, and has is a bridge to get you there.

We went to the very northern tip of the island. The first place we stopped smelled of sulfur, and the washed-up seaweed looked like this.



The pink is actually thousands of small starfish, all trapped and dead. Poor little fellas. We stopped at a few different beaches that day, saw some jellies, a lighthouse, and some old windmills; and we collected enough treasures to make the car stinky. It was a hygge and quiet island, and I can see why people have their summer homes there.

Madsby Park

This week playgroup met at Madsby Park in Fredereicia. Its a pretty big (what they call) nature park – lots of things to climb on, in, over, up…



Just like all good parks, they have the standard goat pen; however, the sign said that the goats were feeling a bit stressed, so we couldn’t go into the pen this time.

This reminds me of the prairie dog area at the zoo, only with kids. Its nice cause once they are down in the holes, you don't really have to worry about them running off.


It was a beautiful day, but awfully dusty. We don’t have a hose or spigot at our place, and after the car ride home we were a sweaty, stinky, and sticky. So I let Pete strip down to his undies and pour water over his head (I opted for a shower), followed up by a nice relaxing soak. What a life.

Post

I think it was mid-May when I ordered a beach tent from LL Bean. They shipped it out and within the scheduled 2-3 weeks, I got a letter from the Post (Danish post office people) letting me know that I could pick it up. They also let me know that I owed them 297 kronner or about $60 for Danish taxes. So the tent cost $90, plus $30 shipping, plus $60 DK. That wasn't that frustrating because I knew I'd have to pay some sort of exorbitant tax.

What was frustrating was that I was supposed to pick it up at our local post, located within our little town grocery. And since last week, the little machine that they use to note that you've picked up and paid for your package was broken. And each day I went in they would say, he'll be coming to fix it today, yeah today, oh later today it will be fixed. And I saying - I can't miss a day of good weather in this country, I really can't, I need my tent.

Well today was the day. Pete and I biked to the mall area (I'm looking for a pressure cooker, I didn't find one, but I found an irritating shop guy that kept telling me - "could we avoid him doing that" - he was talking about Peter touching things in the store), and then on our way back home I thought I'd try AGAIN. I like being a little persistent here, they don't expect it, and I think it bugs them because they don't like to look like they are not doing their job. And Hallelujah! the machine was working. I even used my new Dankort card (a whole nother story in itself), and that worked.

And Pete's big adventure for the morning was then riding with the big box inside his cart, with the trailer lid un-zipped. We live a wild and dangerous life here.

Scoot!

While I was out at a luncheon on Sunday, Rich took Peter to buy a scooter - his first one. Pete's doing well with it, and having a good time too. Its a three-wheeler, and the base has blinking lights (which you can only see in the house since its stays light out long after his bedtime).


Looks like nice weather huh? I've just read that May 2008 was the sunniest May on record for Denmark. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we'll have a repeat of that record this June and July as well. Now if only the gale winds would let up bit, we could get out for a bit.