field of buse

zoe's favorite thing is to go out in the field behind our house and pick flowers.    flowers, flowers, and more flowers.  we have piles of dying flowers everywhere!  she has started taking eijla with her on her field adventures.  so i followed them out one day to see what they got up to.  eijla was a grumpy monkey as she needed a nap very badly. so we could not get the binky out of her mouth, but i thought we ended up with some cute shots anyway...

summer painting and gnawing...

the weather has been fantastic lately. and with our new back deck, we have been enjoying it thoroughly.  we pulled out zoe's easel the other day, and she got to painting.  here she is with one of her fantabulous works of art!

i often wonder if these meat eating kids are actually mine.  man, do they love their meat.  the other day eijla was chewing on some bbq ribs, a summer staple here at che thoren, and i had to get a few shots of her animated devouring of them. 

yeah, our girls are cute.

eijla has been such a charmer the last couple of days. been having a lot of fun with her.  she has found a new favorite chair, the dolly stroller.  she pushes it over to where she would like to chill out and climbs right in.  i am not sure how much longer it is going to hold her. but she seems to like it so much, i do not want to make her get out.

then she decided the stroller was not high enough so she climbed up on the pall and started giving me all these adorable poses, so cute.

then today i walked in to see zoe had put eijla down for her nap.  what a great big sister.  gotto love it.

a visit to baby ella

today we had the pleasure of heading over to see jocke and sanna's new baby ella.  only 9 days old.  so very cute.  while there i did a photoshoot with her which was interesting as i had planned for all these newborn poses, that the baby needs to be asleep for. but ella was wide eyed and bushy tailed, she wanted to see everything that was going on!  we still were able to get some good shots i believe.  the girls thought she was adorable.

 then as a bonus, there were baby kittens as well.  zoe just could not get enough of them.

 she even taught eijla how to very gently pet them. it was really cute. 

a tyringe day...

thomas mowed our grass the other day.  it has finally come in enough that it looks like we have a yard instead of a mud pit. yeah!

 

we headed into tyringe for the day today.  first we stopped at mormor's house to drop off some plants for her garden. so eijla snuck in a little mormor snuggles.

silly mormor!

then it was off to österströms for playtime!  i think i have a pic of zoe and maya about this age on this same swing.  these two are so different though.  love the different personalities.

 

zoe and maya hamming it up as per usual.

monica entertaining eijla with her furry, pink elephant.

monica entertaining the rest of us with her, well, general silliness.

lina and elin were there as well.  elin was charming the pants off us all.

nice to have a fun, relaxing day with friends.  and the weather is nothing to complain about either!

back to ivö and then good times with the Svenssons

yeah for the weekend and back to the good time that is ivö with the tidholms.  we a had a great evening. and even played taboo,  like pulling teeth to thomas to play a game, but i think he had fun.  i know rita and i did, and not only because we kicked the boys butts!  the girls attacked their jasmine bush.  the flowers were everywhere, but yeah, that's what little girls are good for!

after saying good-bye to our dear friends, we headed up for more fun.  roger, marie, and the girls came up for a bbq.  despite the fact that it has been so long, the girls all really hit it off.  and the hammocks that christer and thomas put up the weekend before were well used!

 

really enjoying this summer weather,  just hope it lasts. it has been great seeing all these friends recently, but gonna be nice to just relax, well, as much as possible with all our projects, me trying to start my own photo company, thomas working tons, and two wild little monkeys.  relax,  yeah right.  :-)!

auntie zita and uncle fredrik come to sweden!

yeah!  always a treat when they come over from new jersey.  we picked them up at the train station and after a rather crazy big shopping trip to ica, we headed out to their cottage on the island of ivö.  ah, relaxation...

we headed down to the water the next day while thomas was at work, and rita managed to get her trousers wet, yeah, sure you did not pee yourself auntie zita! i did a bit of a foto shoot with them, as well as some other friends recently, but as i am putting together my new website for my photography, you will have to wait and see them until it is ready.

zoe was keen on the water, but eijla was a bit hesitant.  had a hard time understanding why this water wasn't warm like in asia!

and then had to post this one.  my little zoe monster, she sees no evil, hears no evil, and speaks no evil, or does she?

it was a great couple of days relaxing with two of our favorite people.  looking forward to heading back on friday for some full on weekend chillin, cuz thomas will not have to work! yeah!

fun with family annermalm!

the annermalms came by for an afternoon of fun today.  it was hot and sunny, so we were really grateful for the deck so we could have the swimming pool.  we also dragged out the seahorse slide zoe got for her birthday last year.  it was a real hit with the girls.  rebecca and mathilda were much braver than zoe and went at full speed. 

thomas and christer came up with an idea for hanging hammocks on the new deck.  it was not 5 minutes before they had tools in their hands and smiles on their faces.

meanwhile mathilda and zoe snuggled in the garden hammock with the itouch. 

and then there was ice cream.  lots and lots of ice cream.  eijla obviously enjoyed hers!

thanks to the annermalms for another day of great fun. 

deck building time

this weekend thomas went crazy and built a deck in literally a few hours!  but first let's say good morning to zoe!

this was after about 2 hours... the man works fast!

then the next day we had to go and get some more wood.  but after a few more hours it was really starting to look like a deck!

the girls were lots of help and were even careful of their ears when pappa sawed!

eijla just would not stop helping with the screws!  i swear i put them up at least a million times.  and if we did not catch them when she handed them to us, she would shove them down in the gaps for revenge.  stubborn monkey!

the only way to get her out of our hair and away from the screws was for her and zoe to share a bit of ice cream.  that is the best bribe of all, it never fails.  i am so excited to have a finished deck for the grill, and finally a flat place to put the inflatable swimming pool! 

artichokes! yum!

zoe bugs me everytime we go to the grocery store to buy artichokes, but they are usually pretty sad looking and way too expensive.  but today, they were huge and beautiful.  so we picked up a couple.  she was so excited.  i think she can eat them faster than we can. if we turn away too long the entire artichoke could be gone down her little tummy!

eijla got the hang of it even.  she seemed to really like them as well, good thing we have planted some in the greenhouse, just hope that they produce.

i just really thought this was a cute shot of eijla. that little tummy gets so huge when she eats.

zoe was not being nice at all.  doesn't she know that is eijla's swing, not zoe's!  another nice day in the garden, loving this weather.