My big runner - what a trooper!!

We're in Sweden and are having the best time of our lives!! The trip over was GREAT, Copenhagen was awesome, forgot how amazing that city is, now the weather is just perfect in Sweden and we're with family we love - what better things in life can one ask for!

Also, Max ran the Trosa Stadslopp this Friday and did a GREAT job running the 700 meter race for 0-6 year olds. He got a little bit of a cramp after 200 meter but thanks to dad's encouraging words he was able to finish the race a trooper and star (in mom's eyes :-). More pictures from our fun time here in Sweden soon.

Gotta go to the beach now!

Cheers!

Can someone call the Guiness Book of World Records.....!

So this is my packed suitcase for Sweden... for 7 long weeks I'm heading back home with the kids and this is all I've packed... definitely a rare new record for me and for those who greet us each time we come back home, know this for a fact too!

But to be honest, the shoes are not packed here, nor are the toiletries or a few other items..but it's still pretty good I think :-)
We're preparing the last few items and going to bed soon for an early start to the airport tomorrow. Even got myself a massage, pedicure and manicure today so I feel like I've prepared well for the long flight back.

The kids are very excited to fly and we read the airplane story book tonight to get them even more excited. The snack bag is packed, the surprise toys for the long flight too and a VERY charged DVD is ready to be used for long time tomorrow! I just hope they can agree on the movies without too much fighting (in business class, that could be fun to watch for our fellow passengers :-)

Sweden, here we come!!

Glad Midsommar!!

Spending Midsommar in Shanghai for the first time proved to be both fun and special! On Friday Magnus worked as usual so we only spent a quiet evening eating curry sill, potatoes, lax, gravlaxsas and knackebrod together with cold aquavit and beer followed by a home made jordgubbstarta - a perfect "sillalunch" dinner!

On Saturday we celebrated the Midsommar together with friends, mostly from H&M Asian HQ here in Shanghai - lots of fun people and tons of very good Swedish typical smorgasbord food! So much fun, we even danced a few twirls on the dance floor and a very special lady showed up to surprise everyone with her generously curvy physique!! :-)

Sunday was a long happy lazy day with the kids in the pool and playing around the house in the afternoon. The weather was perfect and we all had so much fun!!

Here are the pictures form our fun filled Midsommar weekend:

Party on Saturday , Pool on Sunday

The Tedestedt's future home!

Well, the contract will be signed this weekend so I'm pretty sure we will call this lovely house our next home! After 56 (yes, that's f i f t y s i x) house hunting visits, we finally found this wonderful house in the Greenhills compound in JinQiao area. It's very near Max & Emmy's school and only 15 minutes to Magnus work, so our communte to school and work will be drastically cut down...a welcomed relief!

The house is simply gorgeous - after seeing all those houses I had given up on finding a light, bright, simple yet stylish house out there. Although many people are moving back due to the economic situation, the closing down of a very large compound in JinQiao is making the search for a good house so much harder. Everyone is trying to find the perfect house which is not decorated in gold and chinese dragons. Wow, what a business idea that would be for some rich Chinese person - buy some houses and decorate them in simple, stylish, no-frill decor - leave out the gold leaves, the white marble floors, the scones, the pillars and the 25 ft ceilings for once.... you might actually make a killing having your house consitently rented by the picky Westerners!

More about the house soon when it's all a done deal!

Tom's Shoes!

I'm so excited about my new Tom's Shoes which Magnus brought back from the US on his last trip (one of those items on that long long list.... opps!). I love the sprinkled glitter all over them, make them festive yet casual as they're similar to regular ole' espandrillos.

Tom's Shoes is an organization started by Jake Mycoskie who recognized while on his many world wide trips that many children couldn't attend school or protect their feet because they didn't own shoes. Tom's Shoes offers 1 pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair sold. So far he's give away nearly 200,000 shoes to children in need, primarily in Argentina. It's such a simple idea yet so powerful. Love love that organization and I highly recommend any of my reading friends to buy a pair to support children all over the world.

Love,

Lovisa

Tattoo mania!

I've always had a fascination with tattoos but consider myself way too conservative to get one (booohoo) but I always love when friends get them so I can check them out and dream myself away.... :-) Not too long ago our friend Esther had one done here in Shanghai as a tribute to their 4 years in China before moving back to Europe. It's a beautiful string of cherry blossoms along her whole back and I asked her if I could photograph it as I thought it was simply beautiful!

It takes a lot of courage to put something this big on your back but I still think it was done very delicately. We shot about 60 pictures this morning in front of a bright window to get as much overexposed light as possible in the background. I used a low setting of Av on my camera to get as much sharpness on the object but with as much blurry background as possible. I think we did OK.

Cheers!

Shanghai Healing Home!

I'm beyond excited that I found this lovely organization recently - Shanghai Healing Home. This organization, started by husband and wife Ministries from the US, are helping abandoned children in China with significant physical needs - primarily cleft lip. These children are left at orphanages here in Shanghai or simply abandoned and then transferred to the orphanages. The orphanages themselves are usually filled to its limits with children and a child with cleft lip takes a long time to feed and needs much special care - that's where Shanghai Healing Home comes in. They take these children into their own place, fund their surgery through local hospitals by raising money, and cares for them post-surgery. After that they try to find them local foster homes instead of returning to the orphanages. They need a lot of help from volunteers and I feel like I've finally found a place where I can help out with something I feel is important and close to heart here in China - helping children.

They are opening their home in August and before that time they meet monthly with volunteers to discuss the type of help they're going to need. Christina, who's the founder and the director of the SHH is a lovely and sweet person who seems to have devoted her life to helping others. Impressive!

Yesterday I cleaned out the house and got rid of so much stuff we no longer need so I could provide to the organization. Bathtub, highchairs, clothes, bed linens, wash cloths, medical supplies, baby toys, carpet, and many other things were loaded into her car today to fill the rooms of her new mission.

I thank someone there are people like Christina who make a big difference in children's lives!

Max!

I love nothing more than when I manage to snap a happy picture of Max!! He's so difficult to get on camera and he usually makes it into a game of making funny faces or looking real sour! But the other day we were playing hide and seek and I was hiding from Max and Emmy behind the chair in the kitchen. When he turned the corner to find me I snapped this one - he looks so happy and it melts my heart when I look at it! It's not a perfect picture but he's so happy it shines through any imperfections of his armature photographing mom...

Just love him so much and always want to protect him! There's something about little boys and moms - special bond is too light of words to even begin describing the love one mom feels to her son. It will always be special and now I understand my own moms connection to my brother as well as my husband's (who's the only child to his mom) bond with his mom.

LOVE!