Broderick's School Party

Just wanted to share a couple pictures of Broderick's fastelavn party at school.

There's my little clown with some of his classmates.

Hitting the barrel.

And then after I picked him up from school, we went to the airport to pick up my sister Joni. We were so excited she was coming for a week.

I knew Brad was going to be gone for one week this month, but when i found out he was going to be gone for 2, I called my sister and pleaded for company. I was so excited that she took me up on the invitation. I'll be including pics from her stay here soon.

Happy Valentine's Day and Fastelavn

Today, we got to celebrate 2 holidays - Valentines Day and Fastelavn. The Valentine's day was a little anticlimatic as Brad is in the US for two weeks. We miss him a lot, but my sister Joni is coming tomorrow to stay with me, so that will help so much and I'm looking forward to some quality time with her.

I'll be honest, it was a rough day with the kids, so I'm not feeling all that romantic anyways. Our day started early with Broderick waking up just after 6 and promptly going into Anika's room, turning on her lights and waking her up. "But I wanted to play with her." he says.

I attempted to put them both back to bed for a little bit. I actually think Anika did sleep a little more, or at least she was quiet for an hour, but apparently Broderick was prowling the house shortly after I had put him back in bed.

I had bought them each a little valentine's gift - he found them and opened them.

He got into the cupboards and was eating cookies - who knows how many he consumed.

And he took stickers out of his art box and stuck a couple of sheets on his bedroom floor. (That was fun pulling all those up.)

I know, I know ... where was the mom while all this was going on??? Well, I was sleeping and didn't hear a thing. I know ... bad mom, but it was early!

So even though they drive me crazy sometimes, I do love these two SO much and glad to have them as my valentines.

We had a great surprise in the mail this week too! Grandma Jane sent us a valentine's package. We love mail! Broderick was more than willing to help Anika open her gifts. Trying on the new clothes from Grandma. Thanks grandma so much! Broderick (and Anika) were so excited to get a package.

And like I mentioned earlier, its fastelavn. Broderick will have a party tomorrow at school, but he also had a party at church today. I have to say ... he makes quite a cute clown. We didn't go door to door, but we did go to our friends Jørgen and Kirstine's. Broderick and KirstineAnika and Jørgen were in the kitchen. Broderick had to check out what they were doing. Here's Broderick at church hitting the "barrel". They have the tradition of hitting a wooden barrel, kind of like a pinata. They put candy in it now, but back when it started, they put a black cat in it and hit it to ward off evil spirits (or something like that).

Happily eating some candy.

Yesterday, I had my mother's group. Now that some of the girls are back to work (after their one year maternity leave), we are meeting on the weekends. It helps pass the time when Brad's gone to have things to do, so I was looking forward to seeing all of them.

One afternoon for fun, Broderick and I made cinnamon rolls too. The recipe made a ton, so I froze a lot of them, but Broderick had a lot of fun. He loves helping me in the kitchen. Many days, he pulls his chair over to the kitchen and helps me cook dinner.

Yes, they are kindof pathetic looking, but they tasted good. That's all that matters, right?

This last monday before Brad left, we had a conference with his teachers at børnehave to see how he's doing.

Our very first parent/teacher conference.

About this crazy guy ...

But, it was great. They had nothing but good things to say about him. Always quick with a smile (that's Broderick) and friendly. They also told us "when he's backed into a corner, he will hit" (ok, not so good), but they didn't seem concerned, "that's just boys", they said.

They also told us that he understands quite a lot of Danish. He doesn't speak it much, but understands most of it. Way to go buddy.

We also talked about his potty training ... or lack thereof . We have had many frustrations dealing with this for the last several months. But his teacher told us that its probably more than he can handle right now. She reminded us that the situation we put Broderick in every day ... in a new environment where people don't speak his native language ... is very mentally tiring for a kid. Other kids don't speak english. Many adults do, so we don't have that constant stress to communicate (only a sometimes stess), but Broderick doesn't get that break when he's dealing with his peers. This gives him one area where he can maintain control

I don't know if there's anything to it ... I think Broderick is a smart kid and I know he has the ability. But it made me realize what a tough kid he is and we probably don't give him enough credit. So, maybe I just need to relax a little and wait until he's ready.

Brad keeps saying he doesn't know a kid yet who went to kindergarten in diapers.

I really hope we're not the first!

Catching up

The doctor is in ....
And its a good thing, because even though we are all healthy now, the last couple of weeks the husband and kids were sick. Somehow mom lucked out and stayed healthy. It started out with Broderick and dad not feeling good. He had high fevers and a bad cough. And just when he started to feel better, Anika started having high fevers and lots of snot! You have to love when their faces are crusted with snot most of the day. And this isn't because I never wiped it, but 2 seconds after I wiped it, there was more and she was wiping it everywhere. And when Broderick has a cough, he throws up ... a lot. So we were heavily motivated to keep the cough under control so we wouldn't have to deal with puke as well. Poor babies, I always hate seeing my kids sick.

Broderick took full advantage of people coughing or sneezing and was there with his doctor kit to fix you up. So I am very happy that everyone is back to normal, except Anika is working on 6 teeth.

That's right ... I said 6 teeth ... all at once. The poor baby ... I guess we might as well get it done all at once, right?

But I guess with teeth, comes more hair. It keeps growing. Now that she finally has enough that I can put a clip or something in, she has decided she wants nothing on her head and promptly pulls everything off. Broderick is actually more interested in wearing the clips she promptly pulls off her head.

Look at all that hair.
Fastelavn, the Danish holiday that marks the start of lent is this weekend. You celebrate by dressing up in costumes and going house to house (like our halloween), except you usually get money. You have to sing a song when you go to each house (not an easy phrase like trick or treat) and I still have no idea how to sing it or pronounce the words, so we won't do that part. But ... at church sunday they will have a little party and Monday at school they will have a party as well.
Broderick wants to be a clown this year, so that's what we got him. This is him making a silly face. (Actually all his faces look the same .... sad, silly, funny, mean .... they all look like this.)

This costume was too small when we tried it on at home, so we had to get a different one. I'll post pics of that after the weekend.
Broderick had to visit the dentist this past week. He was nervous, but he did so good. He laid there and did everything they asked of him. I was so proud.
Last week, our barnepige (babysitter) had the lead role in a musical at her school, so Brad and I went to watch her. She's 18 and goes to gymnasium ... which is like high school in the states.

It was so strange, at intermission ... at a high school function ... they were serving beer. Then after the show, some the the performers ... high school students ... were walking around drinking beer. Brad and I had to laugh, imagining functions at our high schools, and the consequences if the students were walking around drinking beers after the performance.

One small difference in culture, I guess.

Snow

So, Denmark usually has mild winters. Maybe it will snow once or twice, but it usually melts within a day or two when it warms back up. Last winter while we were here, it was in the 30s most of the winter, rainy and gray, but not too cold.

Well, this winter ... mother nature thought we were missing the midwest or something, because she has sent us a lot of snow. The danes were all excited to have white Christmas this year, but I think even most of them are ready to have it quit snowing and warm up a little bit.

But, if it snows, you should make the most of it, right? And that's what Brad and Broderick did after one of our snows back in January. Broderick wanted to build a snowman, but the snow was to dry to do that, so Brad started the task of building a fort. Broderick was helping him and lasted about 1 hour, maybe. But Brad kept on building for hours.
The process may have gone faster, but because of how dry and powdery the snow was, Brad was actually having to add water to it to make the blocks.
Here he is working hard.
And the semi-finished product. Brad had intentions of building it up with a roof ... Broderick's own little igloo, but he has yet to complete the task. I don't think Broderick minds though. He's had a lot of fun with it.

Now I know those of you in the midwest don't feel that bad for us, because I realize you have had even MORE snow and its still coming.


And a picture of Broderick ... he wanted to wear my glasses.
Love this little guy, but he needs to quit growing. Pants that I bought him only a few months ago are already to small. I can't keep up with his growth spurts. I mean he's 3 and I have to buy clothes for 5 years old. Slow down buddy, I'm not ready for you to grow up this fast.

Are we British or American?

In the area of Denmark where we live, there are very few Americans (we've met none). So people often assume we are from England and when I'm out shopping I will get comments about it.

Like when its rainy and overcast, someone will say, "...kindof like London weather, huh? hahaha."

Or the gentleman at the cheese shop, who I've told everytime I've been there that I'm American, still asks when we'll move back to England. (We converse in Danish though since he doesn't speak English, maybe that explains the discrepancy.)

When the Danes learn to speak english in school, they learn British english, not American. This isn't really a problem, except for a few words or phrases. Now Broderick, instead of asking for cookies or crackers, ask for biscuits or kiks.

And the other day, he asked if he could watch the tele.

Maybe he'll move back with a British accent ... you never know.

Gran Canaria

After Christmas, Brad had off work until January 4. (I love Denmark.) So we decided to go somewhere warm and fun since we weren't with family and had no plans. We decided on the Canary Islands. They are about the only place part of the EU that is warm this time of year. They are Spanish islands off the coast of Morocco. We went to Grand Canary and it is a beautiful place.
They have mountains ....

beaches ...

and the Dunes of Maspalomas. They have rain forest and a volcano too. I would have loved to go to the volcano, but it would have been an all day adventure and we thought it was too much for the kids.

Here's Daddy and Anika at the dunes.

The weather was perfect, about 75-80 during the day and at night it would cool down to the 60s.

Little known fact ... Grand Canary is where Christopher Columbus was from. His house is a major tourist attraction in a town in the northern part of the island.

What's this my husband is looking at in the distance?

I'm sure he was just looking for the toilet. =)

One of Broderick's favorite things to do was to find rocks and throw them in the water ... not always caring if there were people nearby. We had to watch him closely.

Pool time:

Broderick loved the pool. The water was a little cold, but once you got in, you did get use to it ... really ... like, once you went numb.

Anika loves the water too.

Anika has also discovedered french fries .... she is a big fan.

While we were walking around, we had seen a Hard Rock Cafe, we had to go. We really miss American food over here. Now I don't know if Hard Rock normally has good food, but it tasted really good to us here.

We took the kids to a wildlife park nearby our resort. We went to a birds of prey show, or as Broderick would call them "fierce birds". They had bald Eagles that they let fly around, but they had a little problem ... the birds didn't come back. They had to cancel the rest of the show and were trying different things to get the birds back. After about a half hour, finally 2 of the 3 birds returned. Not sure if the 3rd decided to stay free or not. It made it rather interesting to watch.

This orangutan made a big impression on Broderick and he is actually still talking about him 3 weeks later. He calls him his good friend and is very concerned that the store abe (big monkey) is sad that Broderick is not there with him. Its pretty cute.

We also went to Aqualand.

It was a really nice water park and I'm not sure who enjoyed it more ... Broderick or Brad. Brad was lamenting there wasn't other adults to go on the rides with.

And ... HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!!!!!

Our resort had a very nice candlelight meal that evening. It would have been very enjoyable if it wasn't after Anika's bedtime, but we survived it. I'm not sure if we should take it personally, but they put us in the corner of the restaurant ... away from everyone else.

They gave us bags of party favors and treats to bring in the new year, but we didn't stay at the party. We took the kids up to bed, but Broderick snuggled with us on the balcony for a little watching the fireworks.

I was up for the new year, but I can't lie. I went to bed for an hour and then Brad woke me up at 11:30 to see the beginning of 2010. What can I say? I'm getting old.

Here's Anika ready to go out ...

Coming back from dinner.

We were there during the Christmas season and there were decorations set up for it, but it just didn't seem right. I guess the midwest is a part of us, because when its sunny and 80 degrees, it just doesn't seem like Christmas.

We really enjoyed getting away to some nicer weather and this is a vacation that we could just relax instead of trying to see so many sights. There are some negatives to travelling with two youngsters though .... like sharing a hotel room. Broderick is a deep sleeper, but Anika wakes up with a pindrop. So once she was sleeping, we had to make almost no noise. I don't think Brad and I have ever got so much sleep. We were going to bed early, but that's a good thing ... because the kids were waking up before 6.

What???

Don't they know we're on vacation???