Lexi and Lillian's World....

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Summer memories 2010 - blog entry 2 of 2

Week 2 started with the arrival of Grammy and Grandpa. Although tired from their long travels, they were super-troopers and jumped in the car with me for the 2 hour drive to Feda (where Tim and Lexi were). We had a wonderful week and it went by way too fast. We spent a few days in Feda at the boathouse and a few days in Arendal at the hytte (summer cottage). As with any "Allen family vacation", there are zillions and zillions of pictures. Here are some of my favorite ones. (PS - anyone who posts, prints or otherwise distributes a picture of me in my very large, pregnant state will be disowned :) )

Lexi modelling her new outfit from Grammy and Grandpa

(complete with the American flag)

Lexi LOVES her new Dora battery-powered toothbrush! THANK YOU Great Granny!Awesome gift!Lexi in braids... Tim, Lexi and Grammy on a sightseeing boat trip...

Grammy & Grandpa in front of a pretty rose bush in old-town Feda

Grandpa and Lexi

Lexi picked-out this picture for me for my birthday from Lajla's art gallery. It's for the new baby's room :)

Lexi eating yoghurt and leftover McDonald's chicken nuggets & fries while wearing her scooter helmet and sitting on the deck at the hytte in Arendal (no trousers, of course)

Lexi picking (and eating) wild blueberries at the hytte in Arendal

Grandpa at the fish market in Arendal center

It wasn't raining...

A little afternoon siesta on the way back from Arendal center

Grammy & Lexi at the hytte in Arendal

Grandpa and Lexi

Back in Feda - Lexi caught a little crab

He's now in her net as she is going to throw him back out in the water

Mom and Dad in Flekkefjord

Mom and Dad at "Utsikten" (the viewpoint) in Kvinesdal

Lexi playing in the sand at our neighboring beach

Grammy pulling Lexi in her beach towel

Grammy and Lexi at the playground

Bran & Lexi with Sunday's crab...

Sunday's catch of crab...

Dad with one of his crab

Lexi netted one of Grandpa's crabs...

Dad and Tim washing the cooked crab

Summer memories 2010 - blog entry 1 of 2

For 2010, we decided to spend our summer holidays in Norway. So, we headed to Feda on Friday July 23rd to start 3 weeks of R&R.

The first week was filled with lots of fun and friends. Tim's cousin (Frode) and his wife and daughters (Anne, Karine & Mette) were also staying in Feda for two weeks. Tim's good friend (Arne) and his son Sverre (age 3) were in Feda visiting Arne's parents for a week. In addition, our friends from Stavanger (Jan Tore and May-Linn) visited us with their two gorgeous boys Trym (5) and Theo (1). So, we were surrounded by friends and family the first week. We spent one day at the zoo in Kristiansand, but spent the rest of the time in Feda (swimming, catching crab, fishing, playing in the sand, etc.).

We ended the week with an official "move-in" party to the boathouse. It was a fun-filled (and long) evening catching up with many friends (22 of us). Our friends from Froland (outside Arendal) came in for the party and stayed with us a couple of extra days. They (Ole and Marta-Karin) brought their two lovely children Amalie and Jonas. Lexi loved playing with them.

Here are a few fun pics from Week 1.

Lexi driving the boat on a fishing trip out in the fjord.

Lexi and Trym with the daily catch of crab.

Sverre and Lexi riding bikes

Sverre and Lexi playing in a water puddle at the zoo

Lexi and Amalie

Monday, July 19, 2010

The last couple of weekends...

Time to catch up with a new blog entry as it will probably be several weeks until the next one. We are taking three weeks of holiday starting next week (local here in Norway), and I probably won't be blogging much.

We have spent the last couple of weekends in Feda (shocker!).

This pic is Lexi and Tim catching a fish two weekends ago. Lexi thought it was fun until the fish started flipping around in the bucket on the boat (final spasms, etc.) and there was blood underneath him. She got some splatter on her and she really just wasn't sure about fishing any more. The next day, when she and Tim went out to catch (and release) some crabs, she asked "Do crabs have blood inside them like the fish did?". So, it obviously made a big impression on her. Today (nearly 10 days later), she explained to me that Pappa had stuck something in the fish (a knife) and then the fish was dead. So, she has now accepted the facts...

We had the pleasure of having a "girls" weekend this last weekend. Our friends Deb, Elita (3-1/2) and Lailah (almost 2) came to visit from England and we met-up with local friends Jacinta, Grace (3-1/2) and Rachel (almost 1) for a fun few days. I confess that I did not have my camera out very much; so, I will wait for Deb or Jacinta to send me any good group pics. Deb and the girls arrived Wed afternoon and spent Thursday wandering around Stavanger with Jacinta and her girls (I had to work and Lexi went to daycare). Thursday night was a grill party at Jacinta's where Tim and Joe were invited (needed the men to man the grill) and Friday was a fun day at Metro Lekeland (indoor play place). Friday night, we headed to the boathouse in Feda for the rest of the weekend. The guys mysteriously declined to come....

Here is a pic of the older girls at the boat harbor in Feda

(Grace, Elita, Lailah and Lexi)

Lexi would only "cheese" for me and my camera...

The three "three year olds" walking down the street

(Grace, Elita and Lexi)

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Another fun package!

Aunt Brenda sent Lexi a package and it arrived yesterday! Lexi loves to receive packages; so, when I picked her up from daycare, I had the little notice from the post office in my hand. Talk about a motivating factor to quit playing and head out! She is normally one to keep playing or take ages to gather her stuff to come home, but yesterday it was lightening fast. We were going to our local grocery store / post dispatch to pick up her package!

Aunt Brenda, Cousin Jennifer and Cousin Jonathan sent a huge goody box with loads of arts and crafts type activities. Lexi had to try everything last night! The video clip of her opening the package is below, but I didn't manage to get the camera back out in time for every "activity station".

Here is the end result of her painting...

Here is her new book stand with one of her books on it...

Here she is tryin out her new chalk and chalk holders....

Here she is drawing with the "magic" markers (see second video clip below)...

Here she is stencilling...

Friday, June 18, 2010

Balloons from Grammy & Grandpa

Lexi received a balloon (or ba-balloon) bouquet from Grammy and Grandpa on Tuesday afternoon. It was an early "Get Well" since she was going into the hospital Wednesday morning to have her tonsils and adenoids removed. All went well with the surgery and we are home recovering. Her appetite is starting to come back and she was in better spirirts this evening. She will be home from daycare at least 5-7 days. We'll just have to see how it goes....

Thursday, May 27, 2010

The Dolphin Show at Mundomar in Spain

As mentioned in the main Spain blog entry below, here is a video clip of Lexi during some of the dolphin show at Mundomar in Benidorm. I merged three little clips together and had to compress it quite a bit; so, the quality isn't the greatest, but... Lexi was really into the show for a while (she was quite the clapper), but then she got bored and needed to run off some energy. Enjoy.

Spain 2010

Firstly, let me say that my sister nagged me recently to update my blog, but HELLO! she has like 6 blog entries for the whole of 2010! So, Kris, you better get busy uploading some new pics of MT!

Now, I know that this blog entry will completely defeat the purpose of a blog, but I seriously could not narrow down the pics any more. We have so many great memories from our recent 2 weeks in Spain that I decided to upload a whole batch of photos. We spent our first week in Spain with our good friends from Flekkefjord, Morten, Ann-Britt and their two boys Sander (nearly 7) and Dani (5). They left after a week and we had a couple of days on our own before our good Irish friends Joe, Jacinta and their two girls Grace (3) and Rachel (9 months) joined us.

Here are some of our favorite memories...

The princess in the sand....

Always on the run...

Lexi and her Pappa

Cheese!

Sander, Dani and Lexi

A very round Bran (finally lost some water weight while in Spain :) ) with Tim and Lexi

PS - for those that haven't heard, we are expecting baby #2 in November and I have been feeling pretty poorly for about 8-9 weeks now. Lack of excercise and eating regularly to ward off the headaches caused me to gain some weight pretty fast! Hence, you won't see many pics of me....