Soccer, Snow-Play & Icicles

2019-01-14Finnur's family, Friends, Us Standard

[Photos taken on 14 – 30 January 2019, posted online 19 July 2019. I seem to be entering perimenopause: insomnia after sleeping for 20-40 minutes is my new nemesis. This is written on three hours of sleep.]

The latter half of January sported enough snow that the sleds got pulled out on a regular basis. Emma also decided that she’d like to start going to football practice, in part because all of her friends seemed to be going to one practice or another on Tuesday afternoons, so there was nobody to play with! Remarkably, Anna also started a new sport, “gymnastics for all”, which she thoroughly enjoyed.

The latter half of January also turned into the exciting icicle watch, as the snow slowly made its way off of our roof! (60-ish photos total)

Monday 14 January 2019

Daddy scored a parenting point by picking Emma up from daycare via sled.
She was quick to ask if she could go out to play in the snow.
Walking off to the hill at the end of the road with a friend.
Mmmm, snooow. It makes the darkness brighter. This is at 5 in the afternoon.
Bjarki practicing guitar on the new guitar he got, as he’d thoroughly grown out of his old half-sized one.

Tuesday 15 January 2019

Emma excited before her very first soccer practice. We managed to dig up Bjarki’s old kit, but had less luck with shoes. The poor thing had to make to with last-summer’s very snug shoes though, since we’ve rarely bothered to own up-do-date sneakers during the winter.
Watching one of the coaches giving instructions. They run a pretty tight ship, with 3-4 coaches for the girls, and as many stations per session. She liked it well enough to ask to go again.

Saturday 19 January 2019

Saturday ritual completed. I’ve dropped the ball on this a bit this summer (too many weekend visits to house #2) but I hope to pick it up again this fall…
I’ve never understood people that dare to go out running when the paths are covered with snow, and possibly ice. This one seemed to have no issues staying upright though.
Post-workout hangout, for a bit of food and photo-wrangling. This used to be a clothing store, sort of in the middle of a residential area, but is now a cafe and a hostel.
Pretty snow.
Mother and daughter about to hit the January sales at the local mall.
Not sure we bought much, but we did stop for a smoothie and a sandwich. I caught Anna in the middle of reply-snapping. 🙂
I think I ended up playing Pandemic at Adda’s & Halli’s that evening.
Snow-art in the shrubbery.

Sunday 20 January 2019

I drove Bjarki to gymnastics practice, and couldn’t resist driving along the lake that is very close by. Found this cute cottage.
Looking over the lake towards the mountains.
There is a cafe very close by, and splurged for the brunch platter. Probably won’t do that again, it was way too much food! It was good though!
This kid was going bonkers inside, so I dragged him outside. Literally.
We walked to the school, which sits under a big hill. He bumped into a couple of kids he knew.
The school.
Looking down the hill, as Bjarki is almost the whole way down.
Phone-photo. The others were taken using the big camera.
The local mall a little ways further.
Panorama of the whole area. Because it’s my blog and I can.
The parting shot before I walked back home.
The trees are getting a little bit big.
One of my favorite features of our neighborhood: A lot of underpasses under the big roads.
Spot the raven.
Winter wonderland.
There were still a few berries left on the trees for the birds.
That afternoon we went to celebrate Finnur’s mom’s 75th birthday!
Guests chowing down.
Selfie-Anna.

Tuesday 22 January 2019

Back at soccer practice! Her shirt still had her brother’s name on it. She was very good about pestering me to get it changed, which we did, eventually.
This time she had on new soccer shoes that actually fit!
It looks like I was responsible for dinner… It was too cold outside for BBQ-ing, so I cooked these babies inside for the first time in recent memory.

Wednesday 23 January 2019

We woke up to these massive icicles lining our rooftop.
The staff-association at work organizes fun events at work, such as this free-fancy-ice cream at 2 pm. 🙂
The icicles were still there when we came home at the end of the day.

Thursday 24 January 2019

The view from the orthodontist’s office.
Adjustment time.
Bjarki’s homework of writing three sentences that evening: The guitar is new. Ari ate ice-cream. Uncle Bjarni dared me to run for 120 meters barefoot in the snow. (Which Bjarki did!)

Friday 25 January 2019

The icicles stayed firmly in place overnight.
The view out of the back balcony.
Fancy hair-do before daycare drop-off!
At work, some of my colleagues ingeniously combined the tasks “deliver praise notes to development workshop” and “buy them a cake” by having the praise notes printed on sugar paper, and put on a cake! 🙂
The whole family at Sushi train for dinner. It was nice as always.

Saturday 26 January 2019

Icicles creeping lower, and falling in towards the house… Slowly but surely!
I dragged Bjarki out sledding to the school again. The hill was busy!
Once Emma was done with gymnastics practice, she joined us. Finnur helpfully went to the bakery and got snacks.
Emma the stunt-girl landing after jumping off a snow ramp!
Poor Emma whined for me to drag her up the big hill, but I would do no such thing. So up she went herself, and slid down.
Myself, squinting into the sun.

Sunday 27 January 2019

Yet another lovely visit to our friends in Reykjanesbær. It’s good to have good friends!
… and ever down the ice creeps…

Tuesday 29 January 2019

Hey, it’s Tuesday again!
Anna began practicing “gymnastics for all” after yule. It’s meant for those who just want to play and get stronger, but not compete.
My cuties. 🙂
Finnur was busy with friends, so dinner at Ikea it was, as there was no time to cook with all those practices going on!

Wednesday 30 January 2019

Anna was invited to check out the junior college of our township, beginning with a breakfast at 8 am. I rode along.
The school being introduced to the kids that were about to graduate from the elementary school (10th grade). We then walked around the rather large school building, which was very interesting.
Icicle status at 5:30 pm. Thus endeth January!