Fantastic Snow Stories

1) ‘The Snowy Day’ (Ezra Jack Keats) – A beautifully illustrated story about a young boy discovering snow, and the fact that he can’t keep a snowball in his coat pocket once inside.

2)’Bu och Bä i Blåsväder’ (Olof & Lena Landström) – A funny little story about two sheep, Bu and Bä, who attempt to go shopping when it’s snowing.

3)’Snow is my favourite and my best’ (Lauren Child) – Another one of the Charlie & Lola books, all about why it wouldn’t be good to have snow ALL of the time!

4)’The Snowman’ (Raymond Briggs) – The classic story about the little boy James who makes a snowman who comes to life, but sadly, also melts.

Our Son is Officially Ross from ‘Friends’

In the mid 1990s when Richard and I first met, we used to laugh and laugh at Ross in the TV Sitcom ‘Friends’, never forgetting his ‘Geology Rocks’ sweatshirt.

Unbeknown to us, a ‘Ross’ was born within our very family …

(Stone Museum)

Translation : Try to sort the stones in the yellow pot in three groups into the grey pots

Use of mirror

Sorted and Labelled

Single fossil on chair (& rock guide)

Rock cabinet

Close up

Yes, our wonderful son has turned his bedroom into a ‘stone museum’ .

(Plus a mini art gallery to boot!)

Another Beautiful Swedish Sunset

Indoor Cinema

Complete with homemade tickets, popcorn and juice.

Step By Step Instructions on How to Flood a Room

1. Get a toddler

2. Stand him/her on chair by sink.

3. Turn tap on and squeeze washing up liquid into water.

4. Walk away (be sure to leave tap on).

5. Forget

I blame the man in my life.

Paper Snowflakes on a Winter Tree

Slightly belatedly, we have turned our autumn tree in the playroom into a winter tree.

Leon was keen to show us how to make paper snowflakes …

Draw round some circular objects

Cut out each paper circle

Fold circle in half

And in half again

Cut out small shapes along the edges

Open it up and see what's inside!

We decided to make the snowflakes in white, pale pink, pale purple and pale blue – this also sparked a conversation about ‘cool’ and ‘warm’ colours.

We stuck the snowflakes on the tree

And then made a little snow scene down below!

Sledging in Alby, Tyresö

Another day of sledging!

We first attempted the hill in the below photograph …

And although both Leon and Maya bravely went down a quarter of the hill once, as we watched people being thrown of their sledges onto the hard frozen snow below, we decided to move on to a calmer, somewhat smaller hill….

At -10 degrees C , the snow had refrozen and turned extremely icy and slippery. Here you can see Leon and Maya climbing up the hill, desperately trying not to lose their grip and slide all the way down again!

It has to be said that Maya was the star of the day – pulling the heavy snow racer up each hill alone, and bravely taking each hill and turn alone, without an ounce of help!

And later it was into the resting house …

… by the open fire …

… with saffrons bullar and hot chocolate …

Latest Toddler Activity

Alfie has discovered kitchen cupboards and the ability to control objects and move them around. This is what our living room looks like now days …

Gingerbread Monsters!

Yesterday we visited Stockholm’s architecture museum where they had the annual gingerbread competition. The idea is that anyone can enter the competition, as long as your gingerbread baking goes along with the annual theme. This years theme was ‘monsters’, and most of the entries were fantastic!

Robot monster

Ghost in the wardrobe

Shadows of the skyscrapers

Giant snail

Vaccination monster (very topical!)

Frankenstein

People Eating Monster

These were just a few of the fantastic creations!

The museum also had some other exhibitions, one which included  a life size car, with hundreds of toy cars underneath – just placed there – but not to touch. Alfie’s nightmare come true.

Don't touch!

And a model of a real bridge in Sweden – made for the wild animals – to enable them to cross the road safely …

Ahhh. Such ecological people.

And a knitted bike cover (in rainbow colours) …

Useful?

There’s also a nice little children’s area where the kids can colour and build a paper gingerbread house …

Icing first...

Make

Or perhaps climb (or build) in the little architectural area …

Play!

Inside

An English Christmas Day

And so as not to forget my roots, and to be sure the children get a little English culture, we have to celebrate Christmas the English way too…

After the opening of the Christmas stockings at a ridiculously early hour (chocolate coins and tangerines included), and the playing of new gifts, it was outside to make a few snowmen …

(Of course this wouldn’t really happen in England as we rarely have enough snow), but anyway, it was then time to watch Raymond Briggs’ ‘The Snowman’ on DVD. Never miss it on a Christmas day – it’s beautiful! Being in Sweden, we sadly missed the Queen’s speech!

Christmas isn’t Christmas without a true Christmas dinner – turkey, sprouts and roasted veg!

And the on-site cracker puller …

And party hats …

Plus last and not least, and possibly most important, the Christmas pudding. However small it may be …!