Holidays are over...SCHOOL starts!

Summer is almost done work is back and SCHOOL IS IN! K finally started school this week so it's been a hectic exciting week in our house. We had a great holiday though with 4 weeks off for K, E and Daddy. With lots of time spent swimming, chilling and hanging with friends and family in what's been one of Finland's hottest summers in decades. 

K and A practicing jumping into the pool..

..again...

and again. 

Mimmit played a concert in Turku finally which was great. 

E picking blueberries in the forest in Parainen. 

Daddy and Äiti had some time away in Helsinki with Godmother Anni at Flow Festival...they had an awesome time too. 

Daddy being Björk's tulip and Nick Cave's dog. 

The big schoolboy about to head out for his first day!

YAH!

...I think Äiti was actually more nervous than K. 

Down on the farm...

We headed out to Askainen to visit Päivi and Lukasz overnight and had a great time hanging out, swimming, eating, fishing and playing lots. Thanks for a awesome time guys!

The kids collecting their first potatoes with Päivi

"Where chips come from"

Tiny princess tatties

Off to the market on Saturday morning. 

The Angry Birds onki gets its first outing

E's first fish. We definitely threw it back. 

Fishy, fishy, fishy!

Sorry...it's been a while

But we still care, really. It's just, well we've been doing stuff...but not taking photos. So anyhow here's a few random pics from the last few months. But I promise we'll stick up a longer post soon. HUGS

One of the kids' favourite things to do is built a laavu in the forest. I guess in english we'd call them a bivouac or just a plain old hut.  

E showing her personality at the spring party performance at kindy. She was a cow hiding out in the barn.  

E has finally got the hang of using her birthday board. It's cool to all skate together. :)

A weekend with Kisu Pikkukuu

K's preschool has a project going where each weekend one of the kids takes home a knitted toy cat called Kisu Pikkukuu (something like Kitty Little Moon, because she has a moon crocheted into her tummy) and then writes a diary of what went on for the weekend. This weekend was K's turn. It just so turns out we had lotsa fun stuff planned anyway so Kisu had a great time!

We visited one of the kids' friend's Dad's blacksmithing workshop with Lukasz. Most of the time was spent telling E..."Don't touch that honey!" but there was cool stuff to see. Like this anvil..

...and Juha making a metal bar into a dragon...

...and the truely awesome POWER HAMMER!

Then we all headed over to Päivi and Lukasz's place in the countryside to stay the night. Everyone spent some time clearing up the garden and burning the leaves and fallen branches off. Then we settled down around the campfire with a few other friends and had grilled sausages and chats. 

This is Kisu Pikkukuu and K bonding in front of the fire

K and KPK in front of Louhisaari Manor where Päivi found her first ever geocache and we checked out the cool old trees. 

Racing to keep up with Äiti. 

Cheeky!

Peeking. 

KPK with the second geocache of the day at Pikisaari.

K chilling on the benchless bench.

Cheers Päivi and Lukasz; we all had an AWESOME weekend. :)

Spring is totally here!

Saturday started with a downpour and touch of sleet and then turned into a +8c perfect spring day. Happily as K and I had a cycle, hike and cache mission planned for today. We headed to Kaarina to hike around St Catheine's Paths for the day. It's about 7.5km along cycle paths from our house to this great little nature reserve filled will sea views, pine, oak and birch forests and quiet trails. 

K hanging out inside a living oak tree...which has a hidden cache too.

Our lunch spot a little walk away from the laavu and bird tower. 

K was super, super excited to spot this sea eagle being harassed by another bird

The view from the bird tower over the still iced over sea. 

Looking towards home. 

 Daddy and K with matching jackets. 

Spring's here...almost

It's been a strange winter this one. No snow to speak of until mid January...then as soon as we get into the snow/cold being here, ie buy skis get into ice skating on the weekend...it's raining, then sunny then the buds are here...on the first of March! But if the weather hangs in like today it's gonna be a great spring and hopefully an awesome summer to follow. 

Proof that we did actually have a few weeks of snow and cold, K getting familiar with a hockey stick. 

E trying out skates for the 2nd time ever, that's K's school in the background. 

Äiti commands the room at pinata time at E's Bday. 

The cat cake for E...

..and the brownie filled cheesecake for Äiti. 

Hanging out on Aunty Lotta. 

Who was that masked woman?

Massive thanks to everyone for the visits, birthday gifts and cards for E and Äiti. They both had a great time on their days. 

The snow's here at last!

It was beginning to feel like the winter was never going to start 2 weeks ago with Turku shrouded in darkness, raining everyday and running at a steady lame +2-4c. Then last weekend it changed overnight to -12c and a weekend of snow! Yeah! At last it's bright white and sunny...and about -15c everyday. 

The council has almost finished building a Moomin themed playground in the park nearest our house which is awesome. They've upgraded everything in the park as well as adding a whole new playground, including the kids all time favourite: the BIG swing! We've been hanging there a lot...even in the dark as they've yet to install the lights for night use. 

The BIG swing!

E loving it

K bundled up for -14c

What is that strange glowing ball in the sky?

Glöggi at the playground for K...

..and E. 

Hanging in the steam exhaust for heated water pipes..

...which creates this great snow drenched effect on the surrounding trees.