We headed out to a park on Sunday to celebrate Norwegian Constitution Day (which is really today) with the local Norwegian crowd. We attended the church picnic just before, and by the time we rolled into the Syttende Mai party, we were stuffed. We then faced down tables of Norwegian food and ate another meal, even though it wasn't even 4 p.m.!
we have one dance recital costume, which Molly will wear on stage for about five minutes in early June. The girls tried on their costumes this week while the parents reeled over the cost. Anyone need a flower girl?
We took the kids to a local strawberry festival last weekend and were pleasantly surprised at how fun it was! The kids went on rides, had their faces painted and ate barbecue, and the highlight or our day was watching piglet races. This is the South!
We weren't sure if Molly actually enjoyed this ride. She stayed in this position with her eyes closed the whole time!
Josh had to watch the pig races from the top of the pig trailer, and here he's signaling the beginning of the race for some reason.
A feed trough was enough incentive for the piglets to run around the track. They were very happy at the end of the race!
We spent spring break and Easter weekend at my parents' house in Florida, where the kids were reluctant to leave their life of leisure and return home on Sunday! The weather was in the low 90s every day, so the kids got in plenty of swimming and lounging.
Dying Easter eggs with Elizabeth and Abbey
Somewhat confused during the Easter egg hunt
We also attended a Florida/Alabama baseball game, and some fans sitting behind were quite confused about why Elizabeth was wearing and Alabama shirt and Abbey was wearing a Florida shirt. I wore a green shirt, which definitely did not fit in with the color scheme in the Gator stadium!
Mom and her five grandchildren -- welcome to baby Emily!
The weather was near 80 degrees today for the neighborhood Easter egg hunt, which involved 1,660 plastic eggs hidden in the woods. We enjoyed sharing the event with a number of Japanese families, some who experienced this American tradition for the first time.
Molly and her friend Jolie listening to the Easter egg hunt instructions
Josh was disqualified from the Easter egg roll once again this year for picking up the egg and running to the finish line instead of rolling the egg on the ground. He has a "do whatever it takes to win, regardless of the rules" attitude toward games!
This is my friend Junko, who I tutor in English once a week. Junko and another friend took me to a Japanese grocery store last week so that I could try some Japanese cooking at home. I was so proud of my first Japanese dish, only to have another lady tell me later I had cooked "Japanese junk food"! This week we'll be trying Japanese seaweed, but the kids don't know that yet.
We headed out Sunday for yet another rubber duck race, and we were so thankful for the 80-degree weather after a week of rain and cold. Josh refused to pose with the big duck, but Molly was a good sport! We had a lovely afternoon watching the duck race and eating Klondike bars on the lawn.
One of the great things about being a freelance writer is that I can take the kids with me on assignments, which I've been doing since they were infants. Today Molly went with me to an interview at a plant nursery, and we took some pictures while we were waiting for the real photo subject to show up.
T-Bone the dog also accompanied us today.
