Story Time and Soccer

Last night, Soren was up a little latter than normal, so he joined Einar for story time.  As you can tell, both of the boys like to read.

Einar is coming to the end of his soccer season.  He really enjoys playing and running around.  He even scored a goal this year (not that we're supposed to keep score).  Here are some action shots and a team photo.

We have also had a good time visiting the Heritage Flight Museum, here in Bellingham.  All of the airplanes are working, flying machines.

Soren is also having a great time teaching his cousins Odin and Lars how to play the piano, driving trains, and baking pies at his preschool.

Soren also enjoys eating the pies (for breakfast).

Summer Break

Jared had his summer break from school, which resulted in some adventures for the family, both at home and abroad.

Papa, Einar, and Soren on the I-90 bridge to watch a Blue Angel rehearsal

Einar and Soren in front of the Mt. Baker tunnel.
The boys received a lot of call outs for their good choice in T-shirts.

Blue Angels doing a fly-by

Einar demonstrating his kayaking skills

Einar holding a really big socket wrench from John's truck

Einar and Soren get a turn to operate the crane.

At the Northwest Washington Fair.

Soren demonstrates his helicopter flying skills.

Jared and Einar go for a hang-glider ride.

At the Squamish Railroad museum.

Taking a break from ringing the bell on the No. 2 engine.

Einar and Soren in front of a really big steam engine.

Einar and Soren at Lake Alice Provincial Park, B. C.

Strange looking black slug by our camp site at Lake Alice Provincial Park.

A giant dump truck outside of the Mine Museum in B. C.  Einar took this picture from our moving car.

Einar has started soccer and is demonstrating his skill at not turning the game into bunch-ball.

Soren helping to do some clean up around the house.

Papa and Farmor visitEin

Papa and Farmor came to visit for the past couple of days, so they could enjoy watching a couple of Einar and Soren's swim lessons.  On Thursday afternoon, they also joined Karla and the boys for a trip on the Bellingham Speeder Train.  It is a short trip on a disconnected line close to our house.  There was also some kite flying on Thursday.  Or more accurately, a kite from tree removal session, of which there are no photos.  Soren, next time, don't let go of the kite.

Einar was able to figure out how to use
enough refrigerator magnets to hang the
Lego vehicle that he proudly built.

Emergency Room Visit

 It was a busy evening for us on Wednesday, because we were at church cooking for the weekly barbecue when Soren, somehow, cut his head on the sliding glass door frame.  We rushed over to the hospital where Soren received 10 stitches.  He was really worked up at first, and then slept while the medical staff worked on him.  Everybody seems to have recovered and Soren will have his stitches out on Thursday.

In unrelated news, there was a deer sighted on our street one morning a couple of weeks ago.

The Best Mother's Day Gift Ever!

At the age of three, Soren has given me the BEST Mother's Day gift ever--no more diapers to wash!!!!!  Sunday was the first time that he went the entire day (including church and going to a movie in Marysville) wearing underwear and not getting them wet.  Today he again went all day dry.  The days of diapers are over!

Since February we've let him know that he will need to be wearing only underpants to go to preschool in the fall and it became even more imperative when I signed him up for summer swim lessons.  The rules at that pool are that you have to be 3 and potty trained for the lessons.  He started to see some value in going around without diapers when we put swimming lessons on the line.  He is really enjoying the lessons that he is taking on Tuesdays and Thursdays and remembers Einar's outdoor lessons last summer.

So congratulations Soren on becoming a "Big Boy!" and entering the world of knowing where all of the bathrooms in all of the public places are found.  We're excited to have you in the underpants club.

Birthdays, Lost Teeth, and a "New" Piano

Happy 40th Birthday to Jared!

Our "New" Piano

HappyBirthday to both Soren and Jared!  Soren turned 3 on March 30th and Jared celebrated his 40th on April 12th.  Lynn and Dennis came up to Bellingham on Jared's birthday for a yummy lamb dinner and then had an overnight so that they could walk Einar to school the next morning and see his kindergarten classroom.  The following Saturday we went down to Seattle and celebrated with more of the family by serving 40 of each of the following: Ezell's

fried chicken, Larsen's pastries, baked humbow, steamed asparagus, vegetables on a platter, cups of coffee, and cans of sparkling water.  All "Jared Foods."

Einar's first lost baby tooth.

Soren's Blue Monorail Cake for his 3rd Birthday Party.

Tonight, Einar lost his first baby tooth.  Last Thursday night was the first time that we noticed that he had some loose teeth and it took just over the weekend for his tongue to push the first of them out.  It happened about 9:45pm, just in time to put in place for the Tooth Fairy.  Shortly after that he finally fell asleep for the night.  He is still very much a nocturnal boy.

They are both very much enjoying their sleep these days in the morning.  One Easter morning, one of those days when you'd expect an excited kid to pop out of bed at the crack of dawn, we had to rustle them both out of bed at 8 so that we wouldn't be late for church.

Celebrating being 3 with the cousins.

We celebrated GUS' birthday too.  GUS stands for  Great Uncle Steve.

For Soren's birthday bash he wanted to have a family party at Grandma and Grandpa's house so we combined one with GUS' since his is only 2 days after Soren's.  He also wanted a blue monorail cake.  I had been planning on getting away with cupcakes for the celebration, yet he kept saying that he wanted a blue monorail cake. It's hard to pass off cupcakes as a monorail.  So I eventually came up with the idea of frosting twinkies and putting them on our existing toy monorail track and I think it

 turned out really cool, if not so tasty for the over 6 crowd.

Here is Steve about to blow out the candles on his birthday pies.  He always wants pie on his birthdays.  Then it was Soren's turn at his three candles.

We also finally got the Bjorklund family piano moved up to Bellingham from Tacoma.  This is the piano that my Grandpa Ed bought for his mom with his paper route money.  My cousin Diana has given it a home for the past many years, but no longer had the space so had offered it to us.  It took a year of pestering a local moving company that had given me a low-ball estimate, but they finally had space on a truck and delivered it on Jared's birthday.  We are all pretty excited about giving it a home, just be advised to bring your earplugs with you if you come for a visit!

Blowing out Three Candles.

Catch-Up Time for the Blog

Making breakfast form Mom.

Einar and Soren have become quite the team lately when they want to make breakfast.  If they manage to both get out of bed before me (not an easy thing for a nocturnal boy like Einar) I can hear stools moving and cereal being poured.  Perhaps I should be rethinking the gallon containers of milk that I purchase when I see Soren hefting out the milk from the refrigerator.  On those mornings I must rush to the table to enjoy my special breakfast and my already milked cereal.

During Christmas break we also got the whole family to Mt. Baker for a day of skiing.  It was the first time I'd been skiing since Einar was 2 and we went to Bend to celebrate with the Ogles.  Soren and I were ski bunnies on the rope tow hill all day and Einar got a couple of runs with Jared on the big hills too.  It was a gorgeous day and I got to enjoy the view even more after Soren finished his last run and said "Go home!"  I convinced him that we had to wait for Jared and Einar and I held him outside on the patio.  He promptly curled up on my lap and fell asleep!  When it was time to go, we took off his rental boots and I carried him over my shoulder to the car.  He slept all the way back to Bellingham.

Let's see, it's been awhile since I last posted.  We have been keeping busy with school, work and general goofing off.  Jared just got accepted into his elementary education program at Western and officially declared his major today as General Science Elementary Education!  Einar is still enjoying kindergarten but has realized that it's not all play and recess and has said that it's a bit too much work at times.  He just got his first report card and we are very proud of him.  I'm back to working evenings again since school began again.  At home we've been overrun by Legos and I even found a lego head in the dish drainer this morning.  I've been impressed at the way that the boys have integrated all of the Legos with the train tracks and trains.  Einar even made a train out of Legos that ran on the wooden tracks.  I think if we were to find tons more Lego wheels, he would construct a huge Lego train.

Last Friday Einar turned 6 years old and we celebrated with his friends and four grandparents at our train birthday party here at the house.  We ate a Daylight Steam engine cake (special request of the birthday boy) when everyone got here at 4 and then we played a memory game, a track building game, a mail sorting game, and pin the caboose/engineer/passenger on the train.  I'm pretty sure that everyone had a good time and Einar came up to me 4x just to give me a hug during the party.  He even said the cake was "AWESOME!"  Awesome is getting lots of use in our house these days =).

All set for the slopes!

Soren getting in on the action at Mt. Baker too!

We hung out on the rope tow slope all day.

We're trying out our new lefse rolling board by making some flat bread.

This is a Dad approved activity while Mom was at work.

Happy Birthday Einar!

Daylight Steam Engine Birthday Cake, as requested.

Einar the goofy scientist.

See my tongue?

I'm ready for science!  

After the first eruption, our volcano was looking "AWESOME!"

Now it's time to add the vinegar....

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Einar and cousin Sammy celebrating Matty's 2nd birthday.