When the sun is setting, between dusk and darkness, there is a moment when the light turns blue. And the world stops for a heartbeat.
Last year Santa brought the girls a trampoline. I was a bit worried it wouldn’t be used much, but I didn’t need to worry. Last summer, there was barely a day that girls didn’t go jumping, at least for a bit. Most days, there would be several friends bouncing with them.
We set the trampoline up again today (you have to take it into storage for winter). Thirty minutes later, you could already hear the laughter of four little girls.
Raking is pretty far down the list of my favourite things to do. But there is some satisfaction in having a tidy yard. At least it has been dry, which makes raking easy. Keeping girls at task was harder.
Long time ago, I preferred red wine. However, white wine has always been a summer drink. After I moved to South Africa and then Singapore, I lived in a long summer (comparatively) for several years. As a result, I only really drink white. Intellectually, I know reds are better and more complex wines. White just tastes better.
Stuart doesn’t care about temperature. He drinks red.
Warm milk has been a part of our bedtime routine since… well… since the girls were just born. We transitioned from mother’s milk to cow’s milk and from bottles to sippy cups to normal cups – but the routine stayed. It is a taste of calming down (most nights).
In my family, escape rooms are a thing. We regularly go with my siblings, their partners, and sometimes include our parents. The girls have tagged along for a few times as well – and keep begging to come again.
So this Easter, I built them their own escape-room-style egg hunt. They had to solve puzzles, break codes, search for clues, and even reveal invisible writing. Along the route they had to uncover boxes and find matching keys or number codes.
A few of the challenges were quite hard, but the girls managed to locate all of their eggs. Apparently, it was more fun that our “typical” hunt, so I have a feeling we may have started a new tradition.
A great addition the already existing tradition of spending the Easter in our summer cottage with my parents
Our house is in a nice suburb just next to the seashore and several small forests. Therefore, there are nice walking, cycling, and adventuring routes all around us.
Now it just needs to stop raining.
My sister has a parrot, a yellow-naped amazon called Niki. Occassionally, when my sister and her husband are both travelling, Niki comes to stay.
98% of the time, Niki is a very easy – and quite fun – houseguest. The only two exceptions are the times she starts loudly (and I mean loudly!) protesting for being excluded from the flock activities (eg., if she can’t see the dinner table from her cage) and when she needs to be moved.
For some reason, Niki does not like men. Any men. Even my sister’s husband is smart enough not to try to touch her. So, getting her from her “visiting cage” to her tiny travel cage is my problem. And Niki typically does not want to go into the travel cage.
Over the years we have become good enough friends, so she does not seriously try to bite me anymore. But it is a delicate balance of cajoling and being firm. And bribing. And in very tough spot, bribing a bit more.
Ps. My sister can handle her well. I guess Niki and I still lack a certain bond…
I adore the Finnish tradition of Easter blessings (virpominen). It is such a joyful thing to do. I firmy believe one should make an effort, which is why we take care with both decorating the willow branches, and dressing up as traditional witches. These witches then go from house to house, blessing the home and handing over a decorated branch in exchange for chocolate eggs or other candy.
In addition to the nearest neighbors, in Finland you can still ring any doorbell and ask for permission to bless the house. A lot of the people in “our route” we only see this for one time a year. But naturally, after doing this a few years, we favor the houses where people have been especially excited to see us.
We clearly left a bit late this year, as almost every house commented they were already worried we would not come at all.
Girls’ birthday always ends up being multi-day affair: the celebration during the actual day with immediate family, followed by family birthday with exetended family, and last (but not least) the party with friends.
The good thing about twins is that you do this once a year.
The girls and I decorated the willow branches for Palm Sunday. The combination of bright colors and cheerful catkins make me happy – especially as we had fun decorating them together.
Projects like this can be hard to start after a full day at work, but once you get going (typically bacause you have to, like now, with no other opportunity before Sunday) they are well worth it!
Blue Moment 