Diploma

Yesterday, Ellen got her diploma for her communications degree. We were all there to cheer and celebrate. It really has been a great accomplishment with excellent grades.

Dad tour

The kids and I are on our annual trip in to the wilderness. Last night we went swimming under a magnificent full moon.

Astrid Lindgrens Värld

Rita and Ellen visited Astrid Lindgren's Land yesterday. It's a theme park in Sweden showing buildings and scenes from Lindgren's books. This scene is not Gulliver in Brobdingnag but Nils Karlsson Pyssling. They came back to dau in high spirits after a great trip.

Haithabu

The largest city in Northern Europe during the Viking age. A veritabel metropolis of 1000 inhabitants.

Friedrichsbrunn

The town we stayed in didn't have much to offer but it did have schnitzel paradise-with 200 varieties of schnitzel! The kids was so disappointed that Wednesday was ruhetag and closed so they didn't get a farewell meal.

Tired hikers

5,5 km hike through the forrest after visiting Hexentanzenplatz wore all out.

Harzbob

Cosmos is restablished. When I visited the Harz 30 years ago I really wished to try a bob sleigh but didn't get the chance. This misdeed is now undone:)

Teufel mauer

We have yet to figure out what it was but the end of the day brought us to some spectacular windy blown cliffs. A German monument valley. Goethe visited the place was all the explanation given.

Donkey kong

This fella woke us up at 6 this morning. Ellen believed it to be an elephant. It was loud! The day brought us on steam train to the top of Brocken.

Stau und Stau und Stau

We drove the 500 km to the Harz - supposedly a 5 hour trip. But before Hamburg we hit lots of trafick on the highway-stau in German. We had the GPS plan an alternative route. It took us through Hamburg - which even more congested than the highway! Eventually through it we drove through a beautiful mid-German landscape alternately drenched in floods of rain and illuminated by one rainbow after-hours the other.
Oh! and the trip took 9,5 hours with just the necessary stops for lunch etc.

Touring Ribe

Vagn, Elses father, giving us the grand tour of Ribe. The kids had a swell time picking cherries in their garden.

Blueberries

We found a good spot with lots and lots of blueberries. A bunch was picked almost 700 g. So we had plenty for dessert with sugar and cream. Yum!

Summer breakfast

Breakfast with fresh baked rolls in the rain on the porch.

Aquaman

Axel will dry out if not in water - though it was his 3rd time today he had to have a dip before the sun set.

Rita the beach Babe

Rita just know how to picnic with style. Another great day at the beach.

Erik the kite flyer

We had perfect flying weather yesterday. Erik figured out hos to fly the 2-handed kite. It was a lot of fun.

Rømø

Overlooking the wadden sea when the tide is out. The weather is rainy and windy. Perfect for kite flying.

hip hop

Fun at Bakken

hip hop

Fun at Bakken

Fun in the sun

Rita and Cecilia playing around in the backyard.

Swedish grandma's sugar treat

Axel loves this cake. We made it for him yesterday along with chicken pot pie which he had asked for.


The cake is with a topping of meringue and is so delicious I just have to post the recipe.

Cake:
3 dl sugar
75 g butter
5 egg yokes
6 dl flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 ½ tbs vanilla sugar
2 ¼ dl cold milk
3 tbs boiling water
2 tbs bread crumbs

Wip sugar and butter. Add yokes. Mix the dry ingredients. Then add flour and liquids to the egg mixture.

Butter cake pan and sprinkle with bread crumps then add dough.

Bake low in the oven at 200 degrees C for 15 min.

While baking make topping:
5 egg whites
5 dl sugar
1 1/2 tbs vanilla sugar
5 dl red currants.

Whip the whites. When stiff gradually add sugar. When fulled mixed fold in the currants.
Spread on the baked cake. Return to oven and increase the temperature to 250 C. Bake another 5 min.

I'm sorry about using metrics but it's a bit late and I'm tired.

Axel's back home

16 days spent in the US. What a treat. Axel was bursting with stories of all his experiences. Riding the bike in the forrest with Uncle Paul and Isaac. Eating Aunt Maria's pork and apples. Cayaking at Grandma and Gary's - and eating Chicago style pizza. Dino show with Uncle Rick - it must have been spectacular and then something about drinking out of Sam's cup of water and it tasting nasty? And many many more stories.

Thanks everybody for giving him such a wonderful time.

Jazz Festival

We all 3 went down town for the Copenhagen Jazzfestival. We got to see some very different bands - both traditional jazz and t new wave. Erik's favorite I believe was Angel (sounds a bit like punk was his opinion). Ellen seemed to like River Jazz and I can't decide between Murder or Mokuto but at least both starts with "M".

These were the bands:

Bang Bang
Angel
River jazz & blues Band
Mokuto feat Herb Robertson
Murder

19th Anniversary

What a treat. Erik really wanted to cook something special for our aniversary. He spent most of the day preparing a 4 course meal. This was the menu:

Grilled scallops with marinated artichokes on a layer of rucolla. Served with home made Italian bread and tapenade.

Grilled small lobsters with a garlic parsley marinade

Grilled lampchops, butterbaked new potatoes and tzatziki

Vanilla steamed pears with creme, raspberry

Good wine was included.

It was treat which we thoroughly enjoyed. I believe we will keep the cook to ourselves :-)

Summerschool

Last week Rita went to summeschool in English with one of her friends Silke. The programme was English speaking in the morning and cheerleading practice in the afternoon. All was conducted in English and the teacher in fact didn't speak Danish at all. Rita loved it so may be we will do the same next year.

4th of July

I'm running a little behind with the photo documentation here.

Well, the photos of our 4th of July celebration with Baba, Farmor and Merete's girls didn't turn out that good. But we had a traditional cook out with burgers and barbecued chicken. No fireworks though.

One evening last week we went for a swim and as must be pretty obvious Erik and Rita had a blast.

Perspective

For some reason Erik is really fond of this picture. I just think it's the perspective fooling you. He can't be taller than me. Not yet at least.

While the cat is out

Rita has been enjoying being a single child for the last couple of days. Today we had a great day at the beach and we finished it off picking lots and lots of strawberries.

Sending off Axel

We spent a good part of the morning in the airport sending off Axel. Check-in took 2 hours and then the plane was delayed for another 2 hours. Axel had been excited all morning and took it in good stride. But he did get a bit anxious when the steward/chaperone came to pick him up. However, he was not the only one travelling alone on the flight to Atlanta. He was part of a group of 4 12-14 year olds. And he gave us a big big smile when he was escorted through security - ready for adventure!

Summer vacation I

Seeing Alex and Erik off at the station. They will be gone for 5 days biking and camping. It was pure excitement. Besides their clothes they had stuffed those bags with dvds. I wonder if they'll be able to watch them at all. In just a few hours we will see Axel off at the airport and then we will be single child parents for a while.

Final exam

Ellen had her final exam today. Erik got so excited when he heard the result that he went straight out and bought some flowers for her. It was a bunch of red roses and then one blue! He had thought a lot about it.

SRK

Rita joined the rollerskaterclub a month ago. She's been at practice 3 times. Last night was the end of season contest. Rita gave all what she head - jumping, one leg etc. and she made 4th place. She was so delighted.

Rita the folk dancer

Yesterday, we went to a folk music festival with Rita's music class. It was a lot of fun. As part of the opening act Rita's group marched on to the stage and played with all the other musicians - there must have been about 60 all together. I didn't know they had practiced dancing as well. Here is an example with both music and dance.

Premature birthday

Today we celebrated Axel's birthday. I know it's a wee premature but this was the only date we could find which worked with Axel's friend Rasmus with whom we had the party. We had rented a shed in the forrest and two weeks ago we were certain to have fine og warm weather. Well, without exaggeration I can tell the promised showers were a bit heavy. But we had fun nonetheless.

We had planned an untraditional treasure hunt where we went geocaching. Axel enjoyed searching for treasures with the GPS.

I know, I should have posted a photo of Axel with his cake, but I really liked this picture of the kids on the treasure hunt in the rain.

Farmers market

Yesterday, we spent the whole day in Roskilde at the annual farmers market. We had a lot of fun seeing and touching all the animals. Rita naturally was most excited about the horses - she is crazy about those. The Hereford Bulls were amazing. Pure muscle. The largest weighed more than a ton. Well, we also got to visit a stand where we could shoot with bow and arrow. It was a lot of fun. Axel took the price for most hits ( 3 out of 6) and got a medal.