Birthday partying

Last weekend we went to Cecilie's new class friend, Ellie's birthday party. Lars was embraced as a part of the group and soon got busy working on his skills of seduction.

He's got tatoos in his tool box too...

...and with help from sister and farmor he managed to eat the cake while wearing the hat.

The biggest game of the day was the rocket balloons; the dads blew them up, one kid launched them and they all ran after them - this picture shows the different stances the Nilsen kids took to getting what they wanted...

A Last Sprawl at the Beach

Fall is finally here, but with temperatures matching a nice Norwegian summer day we loaded the vikings in to the car and headed east to the beach, at Lewes DE

At the beach opposite the Lewes lighthouse

Hanging with farmor

Flying our patriotic kite over the dunes

Building the castle

One excited viking

Only the boys made it in to the sea, at 19C (66F) it was actually not too bad once we were in...

Enjoying Indian Summer

We went to a state park yesterday, for a last summery hurray

The diva on the people towel (the people of El Salvador...)Lars has become quite inseparable from his trucks; this is cute until nap/night time -depending on where play has taken place you need a tractor / life guard to navigate his bed...
The obligatory baby burial

Normally this is Maryland's largest waterfall, after a dry dry summer it has become the tallest trickle of water

Made for some fun sliding though... (especially since the lake was too low, I would guess 9 ft (2.5m) below normal, which made it impossible to swim in it - Lars got stuck in the mud to his crotch trying...)

So, did you have a good time...?
After having worked hard on them all summer long, she's finally mastered the monkey bars, pretty good for a girl that has just turned five...

(Note for the pedantic: these were shot with my mum's camera - she hasn't quite figured out the date settings it would seem...)

At the tire park

She's a Good Year girl

Climbing on his onwn

The Nilsens

The Yellow House

To bring you up to speed...

We are back, blogging in the present tense, almost - here the kids are doing a pumpkin ride with Cecilie's class, on Friday...

The dumbfounded pumpkin picker

Made his day!

American Gothic, anno 2007

Ohio

A random picture of the future birthday parties, 40 seven year olds watching an old Disney western
That's just funny...
...and that is beautiful!
I shout out to all the ladies...
Feeding the llama, a little too big for comfort
Lady of NO fear - well, as far as feeding four legged animals

Smooching with the kiddies

It's not entirely clear to me what a petting zoo has to do with Thomas, but I suppose kids like both...

The Nilsens and Thomas

I'm off, on the Trans Siberian Railroad

The happy traveler
Cool stuff
With the official certificate, he's a bona fide Thomas engineer...
Mother - daughter bonding, on an antique train carriage
All it takes to make a two year old happy
Not exactly the Fat Controller, but as close as we could get, bar a guy in a fat suit (well, make that a Sir Topham Hat suit)

"...is it still raining? I hadn't noticed." I am SO blissed out in my balloon airplane hat, you see...

Returning from Ohio

These two pictures just crack me up...

On a walk

In the relatively new tradition of blogging backwards in time we now arrive at the weekend walk we did before Cecilie's first day at school, it was a Sunday afternoon thing down at the State Park near our house

Yes, she's growing out of this one, don't worry there is a bigger one at home

This one was taken before he decided that the tricycle was actually an all terrain vehicle...

At the creek that has turned into a trickle (we've had NO rain since July, well almost)

Checking out the sounds of the wilderness, aka jumpy kids...
On the trails
Getting her shoes wet
The thoughtful traveler
On grandpa's shoulders it's all good