Green monster food day!

Today we just had to spice it up a little and make all the food very very spooky!! For breakfast Max & Emmy had "green eggs" (filled with Spinach without them knowing of course) and we pretended that it was the scarriest eggs we'd ever seen and had to be real careful of the eggs while eating them.... you never know if they'll come to get ya!

For dinner we made a new delicous receipe - green pancakes, which of course was right along our spooky theme! All you had to do was puree 1.5 cups of frozen green peas in the food processor together with an egg. Mix 3 tablespoons of flour with a tiny bit of baking powder and a pinch of salt and add the peapuree and let sit for 10 minutes. Place 1 tablespoon of batter in a well oiled hot pan for silverdollar large green pancakes. Serve warm with thick natual yogurt dip spiced with a bit of curry - YUM!!

Quaffer's dinner evening

Last week I went for dinner with friends to a great little french restaurant in town called La Grange. The food was wonderful and the atmosphere great, the owner is also an interior decorator and you could tell from a few of his touches around the room - one wall was covered with large hanging gold soup spoons inside rectangular gold frames - pretty cool!

After dinner we ended up going to the Park Hyatt in today's tallest building in the world (not for long though) where some new friends had a grand birthday bash in one of the large suites. We got a tour by the excited hostess and the lavish decorations in these suites are amazing; automatic toilet seats, rain showers size XL, huuuuuuuge beds and all out decor. After a quick drink I was ready to head home - Max, Emmy and I were heading to Max first soccer practice early in the morning! And don't ask me how I ended up with a rose between my teeth.... I still don't! :-)

Here are the pics from the fun night out with the girls.

Here are the pics from Max soccer practice

Cheers

Potty training a la success!!?

Ok, so we were certainly not planning on this but all of a sudden we're almost ready to graduate Emmy from Potty training school - in less than 5 days! What happened!!? Aren't we nearly 2 years earlier than her shining brother's successful change from the diaper to the toilet?? We simply can't believe our luck...

One day Emmy showed us that she wanted to pee-pee on the toilet, just like her big brother does every morning. I rubbed my tired eyes, tried to comprehend what was going on and finally held her up on the toilet only to remember that we had one of those Baby Bjorn rings which sits on the toilet and makes the hole smaller and perfect for a little baby butt. Sure enough, happy as only an independent child can be, within seconds Emmy started to pee! Wow, we clapped our hands and did the funky dance 7 AM in the morning... Late morning it was time again, Emmy asked/showed me to take off her diaper and she sat down on the potty and a BIG smile surfaced when she managed to squeeze out a little pee-pee again - and this we captured on camera! So for the last 3 days we've kept Emmy pretty much naked and sure, we've had a few accidents (mostly # 2) on the floor but she seems to know when she's ready to go and is SO happy when she successfully finishes. And this morning she woke up with a dry diaper only to ask me to go "pee-pee" right after those big blue had opened up! We make a big fuzz about it each time and high-five, dance and cheers is all part of the ritual :-) This afternoon as the celebrations continued; Emmy did a famous # 2 on the potty and this part took over a year to train her brother to do even after he knew how to do #1 on the potty....I simply can't believe our luck and hope to be out of diapers real soon... for good!

Congratulations Emmy on being a big girl now!!

Here are the pictures from the happy moment

Swedish Semlor!

Well, we couldn't wait any longer and had to bake our yearly February Semlor earlier this evening. I think they turned out great and will serve them during our playdate tomorrow morning. Of course, I had to mess with the doug and added 1 dl of whole wheat flour and 1 dl each of white kidney beans and sweet potatoe puree - I tasted the bread part before adding the toppings and it tasted good! I would however question whether to add whole wheat flour next time, you can defintely feel the grainy texture of the whole wheat although I only added 1 dl out of 9 dl in total.

Well see what the kids will say tomorrow :-)

Cheers!/Lovisa

Sweet Valentines....

Magnus and I celebrated a rosy Valentines at Lari's Restaurant tasting some flavors and textures we had long forgotten existed - pretty sweet stuff!! Since we made the reservation less than 6 hours earlier (and the Chinese people seem to love Valentines or anything Western for that matter...) we had to arrive for an early 5.30 PM dinner. It worked out great though as Magnus was off to the US the next day and eating a 7-courses meal takes its precious time anyways... Afterwards we were off to Glamour Bar for a drink and to look each other deeep in the eyes all night :-)

Lots of love - always and forever!

Pics from Lari's and V-day!

L.

Magnus Birthday!! Happy 37th!

Today Magnus is celebrating his 37th birthday in a warm but hectic Singapore meeting with clients and collegues and away from his family :-( We had a chance to celebrate the birthday boy earlier this week though and had some friends over for dinner (Tina's fish soup, mmmmmmm and homemade cake) which was a good time.

Max got to sing happy birthday to dad in Chinese over the phone this evening which was hilarious - i snapped some good pics of them tonight posted below.

Happy Birthday my love and hope you'll have a wonderful time in Singapore on your big day. We miss you! Hurry home!

Link to pictures of Emmy & Max taking a fingerpaint bath (again) and calling dad.

Emmy starts Music & Me Class

Emmy and I started going to Music & Me classes every Tuesday morning and it's so much fun! The theme is "sea and fish" and all the songs and stories are about little fish swimming in the deep deep sea - so cute! Emmy showed improved interest during the second class yesterday but during the first class she was more interested in looking at herself in the mirrors than following along the wiggling movements in class... All children are about the same age as Emmy so it's great to see how they interact and play together. This will be a great start for Emmy to get ready for day care this fall.

More pictures from Emmy's first class here.

If you don't know the name Signe Nordstrom.....

"If you don't know the name Signe Nordstrom - it's about time you are updated" is how this great article (VeckoRevyn Nr. 3) starts off... wow, my sister is rocking the world of plus size modeling for sure!!

My brother Alex went to the hair salon with his girls the other day and came across this great article while casually going through some magazines. Of course Signe would forget to mention such sweet piece of herself to the rest of her family....

We're all so proud of Signe and what she's accomplished in the tough and competitive world of modeling. She has a very relaxed attitue towards her work which I'm sure is one of the secrets for her worldwide success. You go girl, we love you and support you always!!!!

Sis

Korea ski vacation full of fun!

WOW - Korea rocks! Who would have known that only an hour and a half's flight from smoggy Shanghai one can land in cleaner air, beautiful nature, amazing hotels and even fantastic ski resorts! We had such a great time at Muju ski Resort, about 3 hours Southeast of Seoul. We ended up staying at the Tyrol Hotel right at the center of the village with ski in/out access. The kids stayed outside for at least 6-7 hours/day and haven't gotten that much fresh air since Sweden last summer! Max loved being in ski school together with his friend's Jakob and David and he learned how to ski really well in just 3 days. We made this great ski trip with our friends Niclas and Annika and their 3 kids; David (7), Jakob (5) and little Louise (11 mo). The picture here is showing us arriving back at the airport in Seoul together with our driver who we referred to as "Kimpan" - he had a striking resemblance to Kim Jong-il, the ruling President of North Korea... actually it was pretty cool to be less than 60 kilometers from the North Korea border!

The last night in Korea we stayed at W Hotel in Seoul and were all mighty impressed. Thanks to Magnus platinum card, we enjoyed a fabulous suite with a bed so crazy we all had to jump in it at first sight - whoa!! Well, if only the walls could talk in that room (ha, Niclas!).... The hotel actually belongs to the coolest hotels we've ever stayed in and is a must if anyone is visiting Seoul.

Here are the pictures from our great week away in Korea.