New Swing set!

In addition to celebrating our mothers today on Mother's Day (see below), we celebrated the occassion by installing a big wooden swing set in the garden - and the kids LOVE it! Our dear neighbors from Holland are moving back so they were kind enough to sell this handmade frame to us and help us install it earlier today. It fits perfectly in the front yard of the house and both Max & Emmy can get up on their own and swing really high now!

I love swings! :-)

Grattis pa Mors Dag (Happy Mother's Day!)

Happy Mother's Day to our beautiful and amazing moms in the family - Beatrice, Karin & also Ulla - who is as much as an extra mother to Magnus as mom Karin so we can't leave her out!

We hope you'll enjoy a wonderful day with lots of love from your families. Thanks for being our moms and teaching us almost everything wise we know! We miss you very much!

Love,

Magnus & Lovisa

Our new patio furntiure!

We're so excited about our new rattan outdoor furniture set which we got a few days ago (it replaced our old IKEA table and chairs which we really liked but took a bad beating from being in Shanghai for the last 1.5 years). I love the dark brown color of the new furniture and according to the instructions, it's supposed to last 2 years in the harsh Shanghai weather (i.e also known as pollution)! And today we found a good size umbrella to help provide some much needed shade during the very sunny and hot days in the Shanghai's summer months.

We enjoyed our first family dinner outside yesterday and it was quite coozy! It reminded us a lot of our favorite Chicago grilling nights on the upstairs deck.

Graduation - 17 years ago today! May 27, 1992

My very dear friend Jenny called me today and said "you know what today is!? The day we graduated from Gymnasium/College 17 years ago"! Wow...it's been 17 years already was my first thought and then we giggled over some fun memories from that day - what we wore and the picknick and late night on Djurgarden in Stockholm...those were the days. Young, happy, educated with a whole world of opportunities in front of us. It sure doesn't seem like 17 years ago, maybe 10 like Jenny said, but not nearly 20 years!

I celebrated the big occassion in my Lidingo apartment with my wonderful family, relatives and friends. I remeber how my dad, who worked a lot in Russia at that time, had brought cases of Russian Sparkling wine and a wonderful buffe of delicious foods was created by my mom and my godmother Waino, who also had made an amazing cake in the shape of the hat we wear for Graduation. It was such a fun day and I was so so very happy to have graduated from a great school in Stockholm. At the time, my next step in life was to move Rhode Island in the US and study at the University of RI - a very exciting and big step for my at the time.

Thanks mom & dad, my siblings and friends for making that day so special!

Lovisa

So I was pondering about all random kinds of things today. Preparing for summer vacation in Sweden, deciding to stay in this house for another year although we had looked forward to move closer to school and work, thinking and worrying about the kids (only a little though), worrying about getting older and the deeeeeeep wrinkles in my forehead, my love - my husband, and me... So much in this blog is about the kids and random parties we attend but very little about me and Magnus.

This blog was created as my diary of our lives in China so I can print it out when we move back, maybe bind it into some kind of book which I will keep for M & E to see when they are older, so I guess it makes sense to include some stuff about us too, right! A lot has been going on I guess but how can I make it concise and clear? Well, here's my LIST (we all know I love lists, although I've gotten increasingly worse at writing them the longer I've stayed a house wife, ouch!) of things going on and I'd like to accomplish this year:

• Be the best mother I can be for my children who are developing so quickly!


• Finish writing my cook book I've been working on since November of last year


• Book a spiritual trip for Magnus and I to learn something new this year - about ourselves or each other - togetherness is key.


• Volunteer with something while in China - I'd love to help out with local schools and children


• Start a company to run my own business - start working essentially! Staying at home makes your mind sluggish, no likey! It's time for me to start bringing home the bacon too! I don't care how small or large, I just want to experience the process of doing something on my own!


• Take better care of the environment - think before acting to make our planet a better place.


• Continue to eat healthy, exercise and also care for mind and soul!


• Run a 1/2 marathon in November here in Shanghai (anything attached with the word Marathon is an accomplishment as far as I'm concerned).


• Start to not sweat the small stuff in life - life's too short and too much is happening around me to worry about the insignificant details in my or other people's lives


• Stop worrying about the big, difficult, mind boggling, heart wrenching details in life too - I day dream up major worries for myself which can keep me sleepless at night when there's nothing to worry about - I got to stop doing this and then refer to point above...


• Lastly on my list of things I can even think of would be to finally start building our summer home on Gotland this year - that's a very important priority for us because we would love to return to something in Sweden we can call our own.

Not too shabby of a list I think. Lists are only as good as the goals set to actually accomplish them, so I truly hope I can place a check mark next to each one of my little tasks or....I'll just move them to 2010 - in my usual procrastinating style!

Cheers! /Lovisa

EMMY's Birthday Bash - Pictures!!

We had Emmy's big birthday bash in the garden earlier today and it was just so much fun! 40 of our friends celebrated Emmy's 2nd birthday and she was overwhelmed with presents and surprises throughout the party!

Thank you ALL for making Emmy's day so special!!

First, when all 21 kids arrived they sat down at a long table to have some messy fun with finger paints which turned out a lot less crazy than I had anticipated (I was secretly hoping the parents would be gue'd up in some paint too, haha, that always makes for a fun laugh!) but the kids smeared and got themselves perfectly messy but that was about it! I had gptten T-shirts for them to wear and after they were done, it was just a matter of taking them off and clean their hands - back to clean cut cute kids! After that the balloon clown made them fun balloon creations while entertaining. The big suprise of the day was the long 12 ft cake I had made for the kids to decorate with tons of sprinkles, candy, chocolate sauce and frostings. It was so much fun and it really looked like all kids got into it and enjoyed their cake creations. Later when we cut up the cake, some kids only wanted "their" piece even though it was right in the middle (which was no problem!). Lots and lots of fun and I could see how Emmy enjoyed the crafty part of her party.

Last but not least was the Piniata part where all the kids took turns to hit the Piniata in order to break it with a wooden stick so all the candy would fall out. After a few screaming epoisodes with Max (who had a tough time waiting his turn and share with the other friends...hm!) the Piniata was broken enough and Magnus showered all the kids with the candy which was great fun to watch! And the biggest surprise was Emmy hitting the Piniata -with such confidence and strenght she smacked that big princess cake Pinata with a big BOOM! Who knew she had that in her (well, she's got kind of a strong cowboy brother at home who might have had a certain influence...)!

I have no pictures to share today as we had a great photographer snap all pictures of today's festivities but promise to load them here as soon as we get them later this week.

Cheers and HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY DEAR LOVE EMMY!!

Here are the pictures from the fun Birthday!

Blog blocked in China!

So, we're in China and that means that one of the world's most popular blogsites can be blocked by the government at any time...beacuase they feel like it and a very special big anniversary is coming up so they rather not have peopel talk so much at this time!

But thanks to some technical ways around blocked sites in China, I'm back up and running again :-

Most recent on the list of updates (there have been many!) is Emmy's upcoming 2nd BIRTHDAY!! Tomorrow Friday May 22nd our little angel will turn 2 and I can't believe how fast time has gone by...it seems like yesterday she was in my arms, newborn and so little - "IT'S A GIRL" are some of the happiest words in my life and whenever we want a good memory to recite we say those words out loud and smile big...! Now she's quite the independant girl with so much humor and happiness she can light up any crowd! She's our shining light!

We're planning a big Cake Decoration and Finger Paint Party in the back yard and it remains to be seen how smart this idea was! I've just purchased tons of big jars of finger paint and paper which I will put out on a long low table for the kids to have fun with. Should be a real mess and hopefully they will love it! After cleanup and wipe downs, I'll have the kids decorate a long cake covered in whipped cream with all kinds of colorful sprinkles, cake decorations and chocolate sauce that I had Magnus purchase while in States (poor guy, the shopping list was slightly too long this time). We will also have a fun balloon clown come and enterain the kids with some greate balloon creations!

So, this week will be all about planning the food, activities and how keep the parents sane during this mess of a party! :-)

Chocolate goodness - and not too bad for ya either!

I recently experimented with putting together two different recipes, adding my own stuff and out came something I'm now afraid of inside the refrigerator - it's a chocolate bomb waiting to be inhaled - oh, d e l i c i o u s! This ended up being so creamy and good and Max ate two in less than a minute (he needs the extra body fat so I'm ok with desserts for the kids on weekdays). This recipe conceals both a whole avocado and carrot or sweet potato puree, so it's actually good for you too!

I have to find someone tomorrow to give these to or they'll end up in the biggest trash can we have in this house - my belly! This one also reminds me of a Swedish treat I ate growing up with rice puffs and drizzled chocolate on top which you can still buy in the stores today. It's funny how so much of the food I cook and experiment with brings back some wonderful childhood memories - so much of our memories from early years are food related.

I'll promise to post the recipe here once I have noted down all the exact measurements.

Cheers!

Wine tasting at Stiller's

A few weeks ago I attended a wonderful little wine tasting event at Stefan Stiller's hot spot here in Shanghai - Stiller's Restaurant & cooking school (where we seem to always end up nowadays since the food is crazy good). Nicki had brought the girls together and the evening ended up being a lot of fun and v e r y yummy with appetizers from Stiller's and wonderful South African wine from the man in the picture's family vineyard.

I can always count on a good time when Nicki is involved and this evening was certainly no different :-)

Birthday party fun!!

Staffan turned 39 earlier this week and we celebrated the last year of his "thirty-something" by hitting up a fabulous Italian restaurant in town- all organized as a surprise event by his better half Anna!

The food was excellent and the restaurant served the best cheese I've had since arriving to Shanghai - actually, it might have been the best Parmesan cheese I've eaten in my life - completely fresh and perfectly buttery, nutty, with a slightly fruity taste!

Following dinner we had a few crazy drinks and hit the dance floor up on the 92nd floor at the Hyatt bar. Staffan was serenaded by the soulful nightclub singer and the rest of us! the night was topped off by heading to Bar Rouge where we hit the dance floor again and admired the blurry view of Shanghai from their amazing outdoor deck!

Great night, fun fun!

Here are the pics (click on link).

A favorite rendez-vous - musli receipe!

I just made my friend Annika's wonderfully healthy and crunchy musli again but this time adding some fruit purees to go alongside with my latest project!

It turned out great and I just have to post it here again, now with the added nutrition of bananas (rich in B6 & C vitamins and potassium/kalium) and pineapple (rich in A and C vitamins). This is a great breakfast start or afternoon trail mix snack for both kids and adults, loaded with fibers.



Annika's musli:

• 1/2 dl honung/råsocker (honey/raw sugar)
• 3 msk rapsolja (vegetable oil/sunflower oil)
• 2,5 dl vatten (h2o)
• 1 banana pureed
• 1 dl ananas/pineapple puree
• 4 dl rågflingor (Oat Bran)
• 5 dl havregryn (Oat Meal)
• 2 dl dinkelflingor (don't know translation but use anything grain)
• 2 dl boveteflingor (buck wheat)
• 50 g valnötter (walnuts)
• 50 g mandel (almonds)
• 50 g hasselnötter ( hazel nuts)
• 2 dl solroskärnor (sunflowers)
• 1 dl kokosflingor (coconut flakes)
• 1 dl linfrön (flax seeds)
• 1 dl sesamfrön (sesame seeds)

Gör så här:
Blanda ut honungen med vattnet, oljan & pureerna. Arbeta in honungsvattnet med resten av ingredienserna. Fördela allt på en plåt. Rosta i 30 min på 200 grader och rör om minst var 10:e min. Låt svalna och rör ner 3 dl russin.

Preparation:
Mix honey/raw sugar with water, oil and purees. Work in the rest of the ingredients. Place everything on a baking tray and roast in the oven 200 degrees C. for 30 minutes - stir every 10 minutes. Let cool off and add 3 dl of raising (about 2 cups).

Yummy!!!!!

Organic Strawberry Picking!!

Like many other places around the world, today was a holiday in China and we decided to head to the Organic Strawberry Farm here in Pudong. It's such a great place where the strawberries are juicier, sweeter and now at the peak of its season! We had so much fun with Max & Emmy picking all 8 kg of berries so tomorrow will be jam and marmelade cooking day!

Here are the pictures from today's hard work.