Annual Scandinavian Dinner

Hejsan! Each year our friends Cindy and Robert host a Scandinavian dinner. They're both from Hawaii, served missions in Italy and France respectively, but Robert LOVES Scandinavia. Especially Norway. I think it was his love of the composer Grieg that's Norwegian.

We've been going to their shin-dig for about 10 years now (it's supposed to coincide with May 17th--Norwegian Constitution Day but any day in springtime will do). We all got together again this past Sunday, and it was awesome as usual. Anyone with any connection to Scandinavia is a given invite, and Eric and I both served as missionaries in Sweden. This year, there was an actual family from Sweden (he's studying here for a year), and a woman who served her mission in Denmark.

The smorgasboard!

What I always make: Jansson's Frestelse (potatoes, onions, milk, etc.)

What I made for the first time this year: the Swedish cinnamon buns (next year I WON'T put them in ziplocs--they got too moist and the expensive pearl sugar I put on the top dissolved).

The marzipan cake is Robert's masterpiece that he makes every year. Behind that is an almond cake that I hadn't had since I lived in Sweden (made by a real Swede that came this year!!). This one lady would make "tosca torte!!" every single time we visited. Good stuff.

Anyway, it was a great time as always. Thanks Cindy and Robert!

Sophia's Birthday

Sophia turned 10! This is us at Sonic (we got Sea World stuffed animal tots! I love Sonic tot toys. When we got home Dillon collected all of his plush tots he got in kids' meals to show Eric. I said to them both, "Daddy's not supposed to know we've been to Sonic that many times" hee hee).

By the way, what's the deal with Aaron and Dillon in this picture?

My new haircut and color (it was supposed to be about three inches longer but oh well). Eric, who took this shot, said he was being "artsy". (Ang, look at the haircolor in this picture, not the one below--it's more accurate. We discussed haircolor while she was visiting.)

This picture cracks me up because I look so tiny (which isn't a bad thing, I guess. . .).

The sand castle cake I made for Sophia.

Break-in

We actually had a break-in yesterday! I saw the punks with my own eyes and I want justice.

So they didn't look like this at all, but I was unable to get a picture of them (yes, I did drive my van around the neighborhood with my cell phone ready to snap a shot if I found them).

I guess we actually were very blessed, because the burglars came into the house (via the upstairs back door) just seconds before Eric went running up the stairs because he was late for home teaching. The rest of us were gone dropping Aaron off at a youth Sunday Evening Discussion. It just so happens that the exact moment that the punks (yes, they were punks!!) ran out the back door because they heard Eric, I had just pulled into the driveway waiting for the garage door to open. They ran right past the van (probably very surprised to see us there!) and kept running. We had them surrounded (not really).

So, they didn't have time to steal anything. A couple of things: it was in broad daylight (7:00pm--still completely light out). We always lock our doors, but I didn't lock it because I knew Eric would be leaving in a few minutes and he was still HOME, so they just walked right in.

We did make a police report, but there wasn't much to report. The guys ran past so fast I wouldn't be able to identify them, although I could identify a jacket one of them was wearing. Dillon was very observant--he said one of them had a black t-shirt that had a circle on it, with another circle inside of the other circle. Good work, Dillon! I'm just so glad we're safe and nothing got stolen.

Angela's Visit

Angela, Haley, and Grant came for a visit from Kentucky. I love that they are only 5 hours away now. We went to Allerton Park yesterday and had a great time. The weather was perfect. (Aaron had school).

  

April Fool's!!

At breakfast, I gave the kids some "juice". It was really jello that I made last night and put in the fridge, straw and all. It was the first April Fool's joke I'd ever played on the kids and it went really well!