An intense but so awsome day!

Marlee had his birthday party today at a park here in Ormond Beach, Rainbow park. We were late with the invitations and handed them out last Monday so I did not expect very many people showing up. However, it ended up being a good group of 15 kids (I am glad that we decided to have it at a park and not at home as we did last year!) I was a little stressed last night and this morning since the rainy season has started here and we had not reserved any tables at the park but everything turned out perfect. We got three tables in the shade, the kids had a great time and the weather could not be better, cloudy and a light breeze. It was still a warm day and when we got home around six we decided to go down to the beach where I went swimming with Marlee and Noah. The beach was beautiful!! We ended the day with drive thru Taco Bell before the boys passed out in bed :-)

Gabriel's first time on the swing

Cake time!

Pinata time

Gift opening

Late last night after I had updated the blog I made some cookies for the party today. I was going to make them shaped as M (for Marlee). I ended up doing them a little different than planned and different from what the recipe said but the result was better than expected :-) I will definitely use this recipe again!

The result, used nib sugar (Pärlsocker) to decorate them and sweeten them

And the very simple recipe (I would happily translate it on request)

Was curious to see if I could find the nib sugar here in the US and I did, at Walmart, for almost $25!! Are they kidding, it is just sugar!!!??? Good I have some from Sweden!

Sorry for being gone for so long, but I have a good reason..

... I got an early birthday gift, a Kitchen Aid mixer, and I have baked, and baked and then baked some more. Perfect timing since it is Marlee's birthday party tomorrow. While I have been busy baking Alex has been very very busy doing radio interview after radio interview about his book. He had six or seven interviews the other day and it is really exiting! He was even in a TV show the other day and there might be another one! The book is out now and can be bought in most major places.

This is my new best friend in action :-)

Banana bread (not necessary to use a mixer but more fun :-)

Swedish Cinnamon buns

Marlee is making Cinnamon buns for his birthday party

Ended up looking a little funny, but I hope that they will taste good!

To be meringue cake for the party

While I have been baking we finally got Marlee's car track to work!!! The boys love it (including Alex!)!

A few days ago a rocket left Cape Canaveral and we saw the smoke from it. We had probably seen more if we had known about it but it was exiting to at least see some of it!! We need to make sure that we are better updated next time.

Me and Gabriel had a scary moment today. While Marlee and Noah went to the library and the park with farmor me and Gabriel was outside for a bit. I have put him on a towel on the grass several times lately and he has been fine. Not sure I will do that for a while now... When I picked him up I realized that he had ticks everywhere!!! Baby ones, tiny tiny! First I did not really know what I should do, give him a bath, strip him naked or just try to take them off. I started to take them off but finally gave up and took off all his clothes, including diaper. I went inside and took off my own clothes and they are now all lying outside waiting to go in the laundry machine. It feels like they are everywhere on me now but Gabriel seems to be clean. He had several in his hair, in his diaper and all over his clothes. I am not particularly scared of ticks but this was grouse!

This is taken hours after I took this off Gabriel but they seem to like his clothes.

The small black dots are the baby ticks.

Nice Mohawk after a bath

Gabriel in the grass a few days ago and he did not have a single tick...

 

My TOOTH!!!

Here is a pretty exiting coincident: There are some celebrity Swedes who are biking from coast to coast across the US, to raise money for special needs kids, and they will finish in St Augustine. There are 24 legs (?) which are all sponsored by different companies etc. The last leg is sponsored by a camping and lodge rental firm at Fårö where mormor and morfar live, an island with less than 500 people.

Time to do the last baking for the party and maybe take a shower to get any possible ticks off!

Gabriel's first tooth!

He has been drooling for four month and today I finally saw one - a tooth! I tried to get a picture but the little lizzard tongue is always in the way!

Farmor and farfar came up yesterday and Marlee And Noah went to the library with farmor today. We all went out for a nice dinner at River Grille later. :-)

Gabriel is 6 months today!!!

HAPPY HALF A YEAR GABRIEL!!!

Saturday we had a great day on the beach!

So charming to eat next to the car but also soooo convenient :-)

Sleeping with his Lavender smelling bear

I love this picture of Marlee <3

Suddenly Noah started cleaning today. I don't know where it came from but he was so cute!!!

And now the pics...

My computer will hopefully be back on Monday, faster and happier than ever! :-) Right now I have used another computer to upload some picture and a great video in the end!

American Easter eggs

Beach day with their fourth (?) cousins Seth and Silas

Easter egg hunt in the back yard :-) (I might have had more fun than the boys :-)



Visiting Silver Springs (great swimming!)

Seth is reading, one of the many books Jackie brought for the boys, for Noah and Marlee

By Uncle Mike's pool

The water in the pool is "only" about 24C so it gets a little chilli

A true Newman, already sleeping across the bed ;-)

Easter egg hunt at Marlee's preschool. Look at those happy faces!

On a mission!

We stole these two in Uncle Mike's garden. Is apparently Pommelos.

 

Turtle wathcing in Central Park



Turtles

Such a big boy sitting in Noah's hight chair.

 So close!!!!

No pics today either...

My computer did not come home today the computer doctor decided that it was worth replacing the hard drive do it will be gone for a little longer. However, I will give you the last updates now and pictures will come later. 

We enjoyed the company of Aunt Jackie and Uncle Doug for a few days. They also gave us the pleasure to spend time with their great grand children Seth and Silas. They are so sweet. I organized my first Easter egg hunt while they were here and we visited the beach, and Blue Springs :-) A lot of fun! I am really happy that they could stay for a few days this time!

So they all left yesterday and they house got quite again. Today was The Easter egg hunt and Easter lunch at Marlee's preschool. Alex could not come but me, Noah and Gabriel had a lot of fun helping out during the day and eating the yummy lunch. Well, the fun did not stop there... Later in the afternoon me and the boys met Curren and his mum and brother at the park. It was so nice to see them after such long time (we have not really seen any of our friends in ormond for six weeks)!! The kids had a lot of fun and so did me and Deborah. 

I hope to be back with some pictures soon!

Computer trouble

I apologize for the lack of updates but my computer is at the computer doctor. Unfortunately it won't be with us for too much longer due to a hard drive problem.  It's coming back home tomorrow so I can do another blog post with pictures :-)