Snapshots From Early November

Emma playing on the playground after I picked her up from daycare. Going inside right away was not popular with little Ms. I Like Playing Outside , so this saved energy.  Editing courtesy of Googlebots.

Granny Ásdís reading for Emma.  We still have a bunch of books in English, but we just translate them for Emma.  No English for her!

My baby-bro Bjarni browsing while dinner is cooking.

On my way to the funeral of the mother of one of my friends. Cancer sucks.

It’s weird to take photos at funerals, because people still smile for the camera. Here are Kristín (who’d just lost her mom), and Adda.

It was a lovely service and reception (erfidrykkja). I left close to dinner time, and just had to photograph the church one more time.

On this Saturday we had a dinner date with Holla and Óli, but the big kids agreed to hanging out at the skating rink for a couple of hours first.

Bjarki doing a good job staying upright.

Since Emma was not skate-able, I’d decided to take her to the next-door family-park for a change of playground-scenery. As we were making our way over there, my grandmother called to say hi, and then decided to meet us there a little while later since the weather was so nice.

Emma walking over a bridge, with the big play-ship in the background. She’s not big enough for that one yet!

Scooting through tunnels is fun!

Great-grandma Hrefna caught up with us, and we sat down at the park-cafe to have some hot chocolate and bread-things. Soon it was time to walk back to the skating rink to pick up the big kids.

Anna and Bjarki were waiting for us outside, which made life easier. Here’s great-grandma Hrefna with the kiddos.  We said our goodbyes, and headed to Holla and Óli’s for a scrumptious dinner.

Getting good at shoveling, but not quite sure what to do with an almost full bucket. Good times!

Yet another google-botted playground photo, this time with an added Bjarki.

Extra pretty sunset, probably due to some volcanic particles in the air.

The kids watching the sunset after a scream-fest. There were tears.

Emma ‘checking the mail’ with her granddad Þórarinn. Finnur’s parents had kindly invited us all to have dinner, and then Bjarki got to stay overnight with them.

Finnur was due to arrive the morning after, so I spent some time that evening sorting through one of those piles of papers that pile. Mostly it contained art from the kids. But it also contained this overview of what happened when Bjarki refused to put a bowl of his in the sink (like I asked him to, and would have made everybody happy, or at least not-angry, if he’d just done it).  He absolutely and loudly and obnoxiously refused to do what I asked him to, which resulted in a major sulk-fest on everybody’s part. But, to make the point that Bjarki makes his own choices, we’ve found that once we draw up what happened and what could have happened (see buddy, you had to make a choice right there) we can often have a saner conversation about the insanity that happened than otherwise.  He then decided to embellish the write-up a little further.

A totally non-dramatic image of Anna’s.

A potentially dramatic image of Emma’s.

Something Anna wrote for school.