Returned home not long ago from a mini-vacation down to Umeå, where we set up housekeeping in a little cabin and spent our days shopping and eating and shopping some more.  We also–much to Lydia’s chagrin–managed to make a few non-shopping excursions, including a visit to a herpetarium (or “herpet – arium,” as I amused [...]

Tage has been a little slow to learn to ride a bike.  He’s a very cautious kid by nature, never one to leap headlong into anything, and it’s been hard for him just to let go and lift both feet off the ground.  We bought him a new bike last summer, hoping to encourage him [...]

Petra is a Mickey Mouse fan from way back, so when Onock and Tony found a source for official mouse ears they knew there was a little someone in Sweden who would appreciate a pair.  One look at the birthday girl’s face here is enough to tell you that their gift hit the sweet spot:

My mom will be arriving on Thursday for her annual month-long visit to the hinterlands, and for the past few days I’ve been trying to put some semblance of order to the house.  It’s a good thing she’s coming to see us and not the house, because around here, “cleaning” mostly involves shuffling unsorted piles [...]

As a general rule, Lydia frowns upon my posting pictures of her here, but she’s proud enough of these tan lines that I’m sure she’ll make an exception for this one:

A couple of days ago, my three younger kids and their cousin Alex were in the living room enjoying their Saturday candy and playing a little Wii, when things got uncharactistically quiet.  I popped my head around the corner to check things out and found Petra and Tage focused on their sweets, Alex riveted to [...]