A Midsummer Night's Boll

Last night we celebrated midsummer with a great big bonfire, and it has been tradition for the children to dress up in costumes for this celebration. Bollan was very sad that she couldn't find a pretty costume in time, but the evening turned out to be fun anyway :) We even built a teeny tiny beacon out of gravel! We couldn't light a tiny fire on the beacon, so we put a pretty white pebble on top instead :)

For most of the evening, Bollan and Glyptodon were both nice and warm snuggled up in my bag, plus it kept most of the smoke (and smell!) away :)

Though the weather was great, it became a quite chilly after a while, so it was nice to move a little closer to the fire than the rest of the crowd to keep warm.

Sadly for Bollan there were no beer around yesterday, but she did manage to steal a few sips of my apple cider. She's a sneaky little Boll!

Apparently she sipped a little more of my cider than I'd suspected, she needed a little rest by the road on the walk back to the house after the party :p

Cheers! Hope everyone had a good time last night, whatever you were doing :)

Huzzah, Huzzah, Huzzah!

Today is (or was, it's rather late now) the national day of Norway, the day the Norwegians celebrate their Constitution. Years ago it was made into a day for children to celebrate and have fun marching and singing in school parades, stuffing themselves with hot dogs and ice cream, and play lots of games. Of course Bollan and her family didn't want to miss out on the fun!

Here they are marching away on our sofa, with some embroidered giraffes cheering them on in the background:

Tiny and The Mouse made themselves pretty with bows in the Norwegian colors,  and Iggy got to lead the parade with the flag, look how proud he is (not to mention his mother, I suspect she's very happy that he feels a little Norwegian as well):

Piggen formed the marching band part of the parade, and was so happy about his new saxophone, he got a little carried away and did a little jazz solo:

Of course Diego overslept and missed the whole parade, but he woke up from his slumber on top of the frigde in time to join the others for a little celebration :)

Then it was time to eat: hamburgers for dinner and ice cream with chocolate sauce & peanuts for dessert. Yum!

After all the food they were all very tired, so now they sit on their shelf and relax with Alien on DVD :)

Happy Birthday, Norway! :D

Easter surprise

This morning this huge egg was suddenly sitting on our couch.

Bollan quickly came to investigate, she'd never seen such a giant egg before!

She liked the chicks on the outside...

But she needed to find out what was inside the giant egg.

It was Piggen! What a sneaky guy, he was probably trying to get all the Easter candy for himself...

Thankfully he only wanted to surprise Bollan, and he invited the whole family to share in the fun :)

Saint Patrick's Day!

Such a glorious occasion (and perfect excuse) to drink lots and lots of beer :) Green beer! Bollan, Tiny and Glyptodon love the color, though the beer was a little flat...

Dressing in green :) Iggy and Piggen has new stuff to show off:

Glyptodon, Humpty Dumpty, The Mouse, Cousin and Tiny eating green cupcakes that Bollan helped to make :)

Happy Paddy's Day!

Some friends of the family

Glyptodon:

Part of Bollan's extended family, a kind of adopted uncle for the kids, rescued from the souvenir shop at the Natural History Museum in Oslo. He doesn't speak much, just the odd grunt. He very much fears there will be a new Ice Age, as he barely survived the last one, but now he has his scarf to keep him warm during the Nordic winters :)

The Elephant:

A housewarming gift from some friends, meant as a mount for The Great Boll. He walks, flaps his ears and blows his trunk. The Boll proved to be a little too round, so she kept rolling off his back when he raised his head, so some kind of harness and a wagon will have to be constructed.

The Fox:

At first he was feared by The Boll because of his sharp teeth, but evetually he convinced her that he wouldn't bite. Now they're the best of friends :)

Cthulhu:

A monster from outer space. The story goes that he sleeps on the bottom of the Pacific, but we know better! He's good friends with Bollan and several other plushie creatures, and now recides happily on our bedroom shelf.

Woodlouse:

Meant as a friend for The Boll, but he's always a little anxious that she'll get hungry and eat him! Poor thing. So far she hasn't touched him, but maybe she just likes to play with her food...

Diego:

A Furby baby, named after a certain (in)famous football player. He mostly sits on a shelf and sleeps the days away. Occasionally he wakes up and sings funny songs for us :)

Home, sweet home

Bollan and the family were looking forward to coming home after the holidays, going back to every day life again. The flight went well, they even got their own seat on the plane, and as always, safety is important!

When they got back to the apartment they discovered that it was almost freezing inside, only 3 degrees Celcius! Poor Glyptodon almost had a heart attack and had to rest on a hot water bottle for a while.

After recovering from that first freezing shock, they were all happy to meet their friends again, and they all snuggled up together to keep warm.

But most important, The Boll could finally relax with a (not so) cold beer :)