daddy gets a haircut

by his very talented hairdresser zoe!  as you can see, it ended up being a pretty interesting haircut, but pappa is happy with it and that is what counts.  thanks zoe!

 

next week we are off on our family camping trip!  yeah, really looking forward to it!

missing pappa

thomas is working away in umeå for a bit.  and the girls have been missing him. but luckily we talk to him everyday on the phone and skype.  the girls are so animated while talking to him on the phone, it is so fun to watch and listen to, especially zoe...

eijla insists on holding the phone herself, which usually means she hangs up on him.  luckily he does not take it personally.

 

and this was just too cute. the girls sitting in the window sill chowing down on their left-over easter candy.  yeah, they got caught red handed! (and chocolate faced!).

a little daddy-daughter time...

one of the many joys of traveling for so many months a year is all the quality time we get with the girls. thomas takes full advantage of this and the girls absolutely adore him. especially since he does things like paint their little nails...

pappa fyller år! hip hip hurra!

there was wii
there was royalty
there was more wii
what's that? more wii?there were snuggles
there was even cake
and what is that you say, there was more wii?
and then there was wipe out!
happy birthday pappa. we hope you had a great day. you are the bestest pappa ever!

a climber, a muscian, a hairdresser, an addict?

eijla is a super climbing monkey. she climbs on anything and as high as she can. she inherited this great learn to walk table from anya the other day. but she seems to think it is a learn to climb toy!
zoe giving eijla piano lessons. it was a great moment.
and then brave pappa came home and let zoe give him a new hairdo. pretty fancy having an exclusive hairdresser.
yes, our 9 month old is addicted to ice cream. yes, we are bad parents. but it is just too much fun watching the joy on her face, and laughing at the mess she makes.

happy fathers day!

today is father's day here in sweden. so yesterday we decided to bake pappa some pepperkakor. zoe really gets into it. funny enough her favorite part is the flour, she loves to put way too much on the cookies, but honestly i think it is more about having fun than making tasty cookies.
eijla watched, but was not so sure what we were doing
but don't worry, it won't be long before she starts getting in flour fights with us too!

we love you pappa!

missing pappa

thomas has been working the last few days up in vaxjö, so we have been missing him. but the girls are always glad to hear his voice on the phone. eijla was complaining, but then i put the phone up to her ear and she responded with this little half smile. so cute.
cannot wait till you're home again pappa.

all in a day's work...

first there is the picking and blowing of the dandelions, or what is left of them.
then of course there is the feeding of the little sister.
watching pappa attempt to paint the house, but...
deciding he probably needs some zoe help. yep, time to paint the house green!

caught red handed...

snuggling and busing with his girls. that's right pappa. we know what you have been up to!

tis the season to be baking

well, that´s it, i admit it, i am addicted to baking cookies. zoe is turning into quite the little baker herself. she loves to help. especially stirring, but she has a hard time waiting as the recipe i have for cookies means the dough has to sit in the fridge overnight. poor kid, just does not have the patience.
this time pappa even helped out with the cookie cutting part, they made all kinds of shapes, but they were very mean and kept making mooses, which are the hardest to move from table to pan to cooling rack without breaking off their horn and legs!
and here we have the finished results. i tried a different recipe for the frosting, but i apparently failed as it seperated and was not good at all, so sadly zoe was frustrated for days that she could not "paint" the cookies.

pappa´s home!

zoe definately missed papa while he was in scotland and has been sucking up as much daddy time as she can get since he came back. she loves helping him with whatever she can. thomas bought a very sharp, fancy, ceramic kitchen knife while we were in prague, and decided to let zoe use it! (mommy could hardly watch). but really, it is better that he lets her use it with him, than come in the kitchen to find her trying to use it herself, like we did the other day. scary! good thing the kid has serious hand control beyond her years...
and of course what could possibly be better than some after breakfast snuggles with papa? she sure loves her papa. everyday she asks, "var är pappa nu?"(where is papa now?) and of course i tell her he is at work, and she often says, "jag saknar min pappa. han är så fin" (i miss my pappa, he is so great).

pappa o zoe

mamma o monica gick pa bio sa pappa o zoe hade e dag for oss sjalva.
forst blev det lite rit pa gatan sen titta vi pa film at godis o glass o hade det gott

a mysig morning with pappa

there are not many things in life that can beat a snuggly, yummy, fun morning with your pappa. so it is easy to understand the smile on the monster´s face. pappa started out by serving yummy homemade pancakes with strawberries and ICE CREAM for breakfast. yeah, well, that was an obvious winner.
then after downing all that goodness there was of course the crazy dancing in the living room. he was throwing her around like a ragdoll and she was loving it. that girls loves her daddy.

helping daddy cut the grass

zoe is a great help around the yard. she is constantly trimming things back by picking all the flowers, and today she helped pappa mow the lawn. good thing that daddy is so talented at driving the lawnmower with only one hand. they had fun anyway.

another productive weekend at the thorens

so we started saturday morning off with our very first breakfast in the new greenhouse, even though it was not officially finished, we figured it was close enough. it ended up being almost too warm, but it was exciting to break in our new cozy space.after breakfast thomas and zoe screwed down the boards in the flooring. zoe was in charge of the screws, handing them to pappa one at a time. and he was NOT allowed to hold them in his mouth. it was very cute. but pappa took too long, so zoe came over and insisted on a picture of us in the greenhouse as well. she has really gotten into self portraits. i got a new cellphone that has a camera and she insists on taking fotos of her or me whenever she sees it.
then i had to put in a foto of zoe inspecting my tiny little tomato plants that are coming up. i am just hoping that it is not going to freeze overnight again. we are seeing tiny little green heads poking up here and there elsewhere in the greenhouse, but these were the first of the year. i am so excited, i cannot wait for all the homegrown tomatoes, unless zoe gets to them first like last year.
then after the screwing down of the floor, pappa decided to be even more productive and started cuttting down our chesnut tree. i know, i know, but it is not the kind of chesnuts you can eat, and it just litters tons of chesnuts on our lawn every year so that nothing can grow. not to mention that our neighbors have complained (very nicely mind you) that blocks alot of sun in their garden in the summertime. here is a pic of zoe holding up pappa in the tree. see? he is standing on her hands. she thought that was hilarious. now the tree is completely bare, well almost, pappa left enough branches so that we could hang zoe´s swing, which she is loving, finally has a swing close enough to the ground that she can swing by herself. i am looking forward to reclaiming our yard that was unusable due to chesnut dropage.

pappa´s got a brand new grill

our gas grill that we abuse every summer by grilling every single day, finally called it quits. so pappa went and bought himself a lovely new one. (which came in a million pieces, i think ikea is behind this assemble everything you buy phenomenom in sweden). anyway, of course the first thing he decided to bbq was the zoe monster. she looks excited, don´t you think?

glass!

sa igar hade zoe o pappa lite mys tid for oss sjalva nar mamma jobba med datan. efter att zoe lekt med ett par tjejjer pa stranden i ett par timmar efter middag o grusat ner sig hel o hallet. sa gick vi o kopte glass (igen). for zoe sa att hon varit en -ukig ejj (duktig tjej), vilket hon varit. sa givetvis blev det glass, och sa var det lattare att fa zoe at ga med pa att dusch igen... sa vi hade det mysigt pa varandan och at glass. sen blev det dusch och e barbie film. pappa tyckte det var skont att ligga pa zoe mage men da papekade zoe att - pappa ja e inte udde (kudde) ja e oee (zoe). sa det gick inte. och anledningen till at hon inte var en kudde var foe... - oee kan pata, udde an ente pata! (zoe kan prata, det kan inte kudden!)
sen kom mamma hem sa da var myset slut :)
gonatt

pappa and farfar off to scotland november 9-13

My dad retired after 43 years at vägverket (he was a road engineer). We had been talking about going to Scotland for a while and now we finally did. After 6 months of hard work for me and 43 years of work (almost the same) for dad we took off. Our first flight from Gothenburg to Glasgow was delayed for 6 hours so we had time to play some cards and have a few beers (or dad did, I was going to drive when we landed). After a long wait we arrived in Glasgow at midnight. Got our car and drove to a hotel. Short planning for the next day and then it was time to sleep.

We had 3 relaxing, whiskey soaking, great days. We managed to find one of Scotland’s best pubs with its own beer distillery (both anita and eimi had a nice laugh that evening when we called after a visit). Of course we had to try all the different kinds of beer they made (luckily only 4). We went to the oldest, smallest and biggest distilleries + a few more.

And I think there was a back thought to have only 1 driver… me. After a smell I had to give them all to that old man.


Well it’s not the last time for me in Scotland. It was super nice.