Skipping Rope fun!

Max and Emmy pulled out a skipping rope the other day and we went to town having a ball with it all evening! Before bed time, Max was a great hopper and could make 7 hops without getting nestled into the rope, so impressive! We laughed so hard at the fun we had, Magnus just had to snap some pictures of the three of us.

Click here for the rest of the pics.

Cheers!

Princess gala!

Not too long ago we all headed to a Disney princess gala here in Shanghai, mostly for Emmy's sake, but Max was soon fully involved in all the princess extravaganza offered at the event! They painted their nails, listened to story telling, made a princess crown (or prince crown in Max case) and many other fun things.

But the best of all was when Emmy got to dress up as Snow white herself, get a full make up and her hair done and then have her picture taken. She took it so seriously and knew she was doing something really special. It was absolutely adorable to watch!

Look at my cute little princess, love her to pieces!

cheers!
Lovisa

Star Wars has competition!

...and his name is MICHAEL JACKSON! I don't know what's better or worse, but all I know is that in the last week light sabers and Darth Wader have been replaced by music videos and crotch punches in our house... and it's quite amusing!

Max is completely absorbed by MJ thanks to his friend Isak who brought a music DVD during the last sleep over and now the requests are no longer for dark masks and capes but for a white glove, black and white clothes and shiny jackets! Max is practicing all the moves, including the moon walk, and we have MJ streaming from the stereo every day... I'm desperatly trying to sort through my closet for anything resembling the MJ wardrobe (and not sure if I want to admit it or not, but suprinsingly enough, I've been able to find quite a few things!). Max asks me to google Michael costumes every day so we can study and admire what he wears, it's all very interesting seeing a 5-year old this excited about his new hero.

All I have to say is that I'm glad Star Wars is on the way out and something a little more soothing to my ears are on the way in. Glad MJ didn't use too much profanity in his music videos, they are not entirely bad for a young person to watch (except for his addiction to crotch grabbing moves, I could have done without seeing my son doing this every 5 minutes....) but as I'm forced to watch his videos every day I'm suprised to hear all the songs I hadn't heard - the Earth Song is so beautiful and Max loves it and asks what it means when they are cutting down all the trees in the forest... this I am glad to inform him about at such a young age. So, all in all, thanks MJ for introducing Max to your music, it's exciting to see that my son' first music hero was also my first when I was 12 years old!

RIP Michael!

Lovisa

Project Gotland is kicked off!!

 We finally headed to Sweden to start the process of getting our summer home built on the gorgeous island of Gotland outside Stockholm. We left Shanghai early on monday morning arriving first to Gothenburg for both some work and fun, meeting my brother and his beautiful family and then celebrating our friend Jon's wedding to his expecting bride Therese - and what a beautiful winter wedding they had! This much snow is not common in the southern regions of Sweden but the snow had poured down this particular week and at one point we were even happy we were able to make the wedding and not get stuck in one of the many snow storms around the country.

Here are the pictures from the very lovely bride and groom's big day!

Next day we headed over to Gotland and once there, we met with our architect and builder and went through all the drawings and details. Many hours later, drained but happy, we left the meeting feeling we were truly going to build our dream home!

The next morning we got up way too early thanks to the nagging jet lag and got our outdoor gear on - heavy duty pants, boots, ski jackets and warm insulating underpants and shirts to shield from the cold. With lots of coffee and a hearty breakfast in our bodies we headed over to the land we've acquired to help the builders clear it of trees, bushes and everything else growing inbetween! It was so thick we've really never been able to walk it properly and I was worried all along wondering if the house will fit on it! Together with our parents (THANK YOU ALL!) we worked hard to clear the land and mark the four corners of our future house. It was almost surreal - I could see it ready and overlooking the magnificent ocean (not near but close enough!) in front of it. It was time to celebrate! Magnus went to the store and got a few bottles of good bubbles and we headed over for a nice dinner to our soon to be neighbors in the area for a wonderful dinner with friends and family - a perfect ending of a perfect day!

The next few days we spent meeting with everyone; the local window and door company, the land owner, the architect again, the builder, looking at local houses to draw inspiration from and all pieces started to fall into place. We're still searching for some of the solutions to the house's design but we're almost there, 90% at least. The journey there is so fun I have to pinch myself to really believe I get to do all this! Truly a dream come true.

When we left Gotland the weather was just amazing - I told Magnus I actually believe the sunny winter days are more beautiful than the amazing summer days and he agreed! There's nothing like snow covered b.ranchens and a large field of snow glittering in the sun - breathtaking! we had to stop the car at one point, and I snapped this picture. It doesn't give justice to how beautiful it really was, but close enough. We love Gotland!

Here are the pictures from our gotland trip.