Family Bike Ride

On one of the first beautiful days of spring we all decided to go for our first family bike ride. First the boys tried out the bike seat attached to the adult bike. Then we tried out the kids bikes. This house we rented is great. Who would have thought that there would have been bikes for the kids to ride just their size!

Everyone in Finland has bikes and toting their kids along behind them is the natural thing to do. A lot of the families only have one car, so the other parent goes by bike. Many parents drop their kids off at day care on their way to work by putting them in the bike seat and biking to daycare and then to work. During the day at the park you can also see moms and dads with bike seats on their bikes and a bike trailer for two hooked onto the back of the bike. I love the idea! It's great to put Ben on the bike and take off.

Leah is always up for an adventure.

On our bike ride we decided to all go down to the local grocery store so the boys could pick out some treats on our special day.

Ben enjoying his candy after we got home.

Super Mom

I took the kids to the indoor play group again. They have so much fun there that I'm willing to endure the tiring process of getting their and back. This is how you get around without a car when you have three kids. One double stroller and one 5 month old baby strapped to your body! I have to walk like this to and from the bus stop about 15 minutes away when your going like loaded down like this. And would you believe that this bus stop is up and over one of the ONLY hills in Oulu. I would have Ryan walk, but he apparently, so he tells me, only has enough energy to run around the stadium for 90 minutes and then all his energy is gone. Oh well, they do play hard.

Igloos and Ice Cream

These pictures are from a couple of weeks ago when it was a little colder still. Tony and the boys had been working on building a series of igloos on the side of our house. They literally spent hours out there with plastic shovels digging and hollowing out the snow mounds and connecting tunnels.

Ben was screaming for ice cream one day. I wasn't there, and Ryan and Tony didn't want to go inside yet, so Tony came up with an interesting solution.... let Ben eat ice cream in the snow! We had a bought a box of black licorice ice cream to "try." Nobody liked it but Ben so he just brought out what was left in the carton and plopped in up on top of the igloo. Just let me say no mommy was around to approve these events!

My Leah

I meant to post about something else, but I kept on coming across all these cute photos of Leah so I had to put a post together about her. I never get tired of looking at her pictures... and I hope you don't either! Besides it's her 6 month birthday today.

Ryan took this photo.

May Day Celebrations

May Day is a national holiday in Finland. We decided to go downtown and check it out. Apparently so did everyone else in Oulu. I've never seen such huge crowds. On the way down it was standing room only on the bus for the first time, and when we got downtown, there were 100's of people everywhere, dozens of ice cream stands, candy venues, merchants, and ballons everywhere for sale. Our kids loved calling out, " Look at the Batman balloon. "Look I see a racecar one." etc.

My friend Suoma had come over earlier in the week and asked if we were going to go downtown on May Day. She told Ryan that there would be cotton candy for sale. Ryan was so excited. Everyday after that he asked me if it was cotton candy day.

We walked down to the ocean and along the river and across the bridge, and just enjoyed watching the people of Oulu enjoy their holiday.

This is an interesting tradition in Oulu. Each department at the University is given a different jumpsuit color. These jumpsuits are like the ones you would use to do maintenance on your car, but in Oulu they are your party jumpsuits. The college kids wear their jumpsuits and then when they go to different parties they get a patch which they sew to their jumpsuit. You can see all sorts of different colored jumpsuit, but we shot a picture of a guy wearing a yellow one.

Finn Kids Having Fun

Last week I went with my friend Mia to an indoor sports arena. Once a week they let the kids run loose with tons of balls, gymnastic equipment, and a bounce house. The boys were so excited. I haven't seen them this excited since we moved to Finland. Who new that 5 euro could create such an exciting experience. Mostly, they just loved to run in the open space and kick the balls, but they also really enjoyed the gymnastic equipment.

Ryan wanted to come back the very next day. However, the excitement died down as we had to get dressed, walk to the bus stop, and wait. Smiles and hugs were replaced with frowns and struggles, and that is why we won't be going every day! With such a long winter, I was glad that the city thinks of fun ways for the kids to get out their energy.

Nap TIme

There's nothing like a nice long nap...

in a hard piece of plastic storage underneath the bed!

I actually couldn't find Ben for a minute or two. I looked all over the house and started to get a little panicked because I didn't know where he was. I actually had to pull the blanket off of his head. He had gone in there and covered himself up to hide from a diaper change which I guess I forgot about, and he feel asleep waiting for me.

Date Night

We have such great friends here in Finland. They recently became concerned that Tony and I had not gotten out by ourselves since we arrived. My friend Suoma graciously volunteered to babysit our kids and my friend Mia drove us downtown and picked us up later that night so we could experience an evening out in Oulu. We went out to an island that is just a short walk over a bridge from downtown. There was a cute little restaurant in an old log building that serves authentic Finnish food.

Tony ordered the elk meatballs and reindeer stew. I bravely tried one bite of each and went back to my steak. We sat and talked and walked around downtown Oulu and overall really enjoyed the night. The photos are from our phone so they're not the best.

Leah is Sitting

Leah has grown unsatisfied with living life only on her...

stomach...

and back...

and has started to sit by herself...

with some help...

or for a handful of seconds by herself.

The Last Big Snowfall!....I Hope!

These pictures are from a couple of weeks ago when we had another 4 inches of snow dump on us. My friend Mia and her daughter Sophia came over to play outside with us. The kids were excited to build a snowman. We started with one, and then we decided to build a whole family. What started as a project for the kids quickly turned into a mommy project. The snowballs got so big so fast that it took two of us to lift them. We were exhausted by the time we built so many snowman, but it was fun for everyone. Ryan suggested carrots for the noses, and Ben was concerned about getting the eyes on just right.

The Whole Family. From Left to Right: Tony, Sarah, Benjamin, Leah, and Ryan

Me and the kids and our friend Sophia

Fun with snow