School Ends and Inline Skates Appear

[Written 13 June 2014]

School was formally ended on this mostly gorgeous Thursday.  The formalities didn’t begin until 2 pm, so before the hoopla began, I decided to use the 20% day-long sale going on in our neighborhood shopping mall and get the kids inline skates for summer.

After we returned from the school the kids excitedly put their skates on, and surprised me by staying on them for an hour, then taking a break for dinner, and then going back out to practice in the gorgeously still and mild evening.

(It seemed like the ski lessons they took in February really helped them figure the skates out.  Yay!) (18 images total)

Emma getting some attention from Bjarki and his classmates.

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Changes is Status

[Written 13 June 2014]

While Finnur was in California, I operated mostly in ‘survival mode’ so few pictures were taken.  “Luckily” for me, both weeks he was away only had three schooldays because of a religious holiday (ascension day, yippie!…) which was followed by a staff day the first week, and the second week saw the formal end of school.

I must have been unusually energetic this Wednesday, because a few pictures got taken, mostly of the changing status of things. (6 images total)

Emma discovered our Rummikub box, which was only missing one piece before her discovery. I believe the number of missing pieces has now increased substantially.  (I put the pieces on the stand, she just tore them off.  Like she does.)

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Celebrating Graduations

[Written 13 June 2014]

We celebrated Pétur’s and Signý’s graduations with an american pancake feast, some hot-tubbing, and cakes! (4 images total)

Pancakes by Hrefna, and fruits cut by Jóhanna. Teamwork rulez!

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Gymnastics Spring Show

[Written 03 June 2014]

Bjarki participated in one of the annual gymnastics spring shows this year.  (Due to the number of participants, there were four shows!)

As it happened, Finnur’s brother’s kids were in the same show as Bjarki.  I happened to meet his wife in line when the tickets went on sale, and she was kind enough to stand in line for almost an hour to buy tickets for all of us, and some of the grandparents.  (The company has vowed to make ticket sales electronic next year.)

Having the grandparents there turned out to be enormously helpful because Emma was a squirming worm in my lap, but much calmer with her grandparents, so they held her for almost the entire hour-long show! (3 images total, 1 video)

The theme this year was “toys come to life”, and it was a really impressive show.

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Walking Days

This past week, Emma starting walking more and more, and nowadays she’s hardly bothering to crawl at all. Her big thing has been carrying and pushing things around, such as small chairs and dolls half her size. It’s been adorable!! Here are a few walking-gifsRead more

Finnur Leaves for California

[Written 26 May 2014] Finnur’s twice-yearly trip to California is upon us.  He left early Sunday morning, flying through Boston. He sent this little message back once he’d gotten through immigration and customs: They let me in through passport and customs control here in Boston. The experience with the former was a bit uncomfortable asRead more

20 Year Junior College Reunion

[Written 26 May 2014] Dang, we’re getting old! This past Saturday was Finnur’s 20 year graduation anniversary from the Reykjavík Junior Collage (Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík, MR for short), and he attended a reunion to celebrate.  His old pal and classmate, Ragnar, came to give him a lift, but I insisted on taking a few photosRead more

Books and Plants

[Written 26 May 2014]

Anna’s totally fallen for Japanese manga books, and we visit the library at least once a week to fetch new ones.  Bjarki’s also pretty taken with them, so they make quite the reading team.  Emma, of course, doesn’t want to be left out so she “reads” them too if given the chance. (10 images total)

The readers, with Bjarki somewhat patiently looking up.

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Pétur’s Final Project and Bowling

[Written 24 May 2014]

The Multimedia School (Margmiðlunarskólinn) had its annual final-projects-show in a proper movie theater the other day, and among them was a project my brother Pétur did.

I juuuuust missed seeing it because I was busy shuttling the kids around, but I met up with the gang anyway, and we ended up going bowling!  (3 images and 2 videos total)

Pétur, Signý, Bjarni, mom, and Nökkvi at the movie theater where all the projects were shown.

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Bjarki’s Haircut

[Written 23 May 2014] I took Bjarki to the barber shop to get a haircut.  He exited as TinTin, with a lollipop for a prize.  Not bad! 🙂Read more