The Christmas Program

The big kids were in the church Christmas program this year. It was a perfect production. There were verses said by different kids punctuated by carols. They had four weeks of rehearsals during Sunday school.

My angel was being a bit of a stinker about having her picture taken.

 Nora had a speaking part and did well, no rushing or mumbling.

Everyone in the play did a great job and it was such fun to watch.We are thankful for the time and effort put in by the adults to make this happen.

Turkey Trot 2013

Cold and foggy and rather miserable this year.

Penny especially did not have any fun.

Aunt Pat visits

It was so nice to have Pat come to visit us! She came with a car full of treasures (art, rock collections, books, dress-up dresses!) and stories and time to spend with us.

We went on several adventures to nearby nature areas that we hadn't visited yet. The weather is definitely colder now, a parka is not unwelcome in shady places or early in the morning.

One of our trips with her was to the McNary Wildlife Refuge. We spotted a coyote in addition to the birds.

 It was a beautiful morning for exploring.

 We are so glad that she could be here with us!

We see the Wienermobile once again

This time at a most convenient location close to our house.

New to us this time were the hot dog cutouts.

A fun little outing.

Field trip : Pumpkin Patch

We set our sights on early October for our pumpkin patch visit in order to try to avoid a cold, miserable experience. And it worked, we had lovely sunny, but cool weather. Liisa was in town and able to join us.
Farm Wife Julie's daughter was the one to give us our lesson this year.

There was a hayride out to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins.

Everyone loved the pumpkin doughnuts and playing on the swings.

Touring Eastern Washington

We were up early to head to the balloon rally, but the balloons didn't launch this year on account of the weather. They didn't get to go up any of the three days. We knew this was a possibility but decided to take the chance anyway (we didn't want to break Helena's attendance streak). After getting the news that it was a no-go, we got back into our cars and headed north to Wenatchee. We had brunch there. After that we went to the Pangborn Memorial Airport in East Wenatchee and saw a replica of the Miss Veedol- the first plane to fly nonstop across the Pacific Ocean.   

Our tour guide was one of the builders and pilots of the replica.

The last time my family was there was about 1990.

We stopped by Snowdrift Cider Co. and they gave us a tour of their facilities. It's a family-run operation and they were very friendly. They let each of the kids have an apple.

Then we decided that since we were so close we would go to Leavenworth. In retrospect, we should have headed home at this point. Once we got to Leavenworth we stopped for a coffee and treat (and to warm up) in one of the little shops. We all wandered around in the rain for a while. It was their Autumn Leaf Festival so there was a Bavarian band playing in the gazebo. Everybody polka!

We drove to Ellensburg and had dinner at the Valley Cafe. And then home, to bed.

Nora on horseback

We have very kind neighbors and they let Nora ride their horse. 

Swim lessons

This year Nora, Henry, and Helena had lessons for the last two-week session at the city pool.

 Everyone had a good time and improved their skills.

Penny spent the time digging in the sandpit or playing in the wading pool once it opened.

Nora and Henry also had one week of lessons just before the pool closed for the year. Henry was in a class of all boys and Nora was the only one at her skill level, so she got one-on-one instruction.

Pool time

We spent a couple fun afternoons at the pool. Swimming, lounging, eating snacks, jumping off the diving board (Nora), going down the water slides.

The kids are clearly more comfortable in the water after all their time in the lake.

Penny loves wearing the goggles.

Blueberry picking

We were the very last customers of the summer at this blueberry farm. I called to ask about coming to pick blueberries and she said that they were closing at noon today. We hustled out of the door and hit the road.

The kids did a great job this year, both Nora and Henry picked a lot of berries. Helena had a respectable amount and Penny spent most of her time eating them I think.

Finland : 4th of July

All the Americans except for our little family went to spend the day in Tallin. We took the rowboat out.

The kids splashed in the lake. The baby scooted in too.

And then our ducks came to visit.

We celebrated the independence of the US with a red, white, and blue fruit tart for our coffee.

We did a little shore clean up. Raija mowed.

Mark removed a few stumps with some help from Milla.

Finland : Living the good life

Most of us ate breakfast inside, but Helena and Iso showed the right spirit and ate on the patio.

Henry was picking strawberries in the yard when he spotted a frog and tried to catch it. He chased the frog to the wall of the house where he captured it in a flowerpot. After everyone admired him, the frog was released.

Helena helped mix up some cake batter.

In the afternoon Mimmu took the kids to the city museum. They had coffee (and juice boxes!) there and were given free chocolates because the museum was going to be closed for a while.
Sauna and sausage roast that evening.

Finland : Muumimaailma

We dithered a little on whether or not to take the kids to Muumimaailma, a theme park about the Moomins, but I am so glad we did. It was a long, fun, day. We left my parents to get some rest and help take care of the baby and Mark, Anja, the four bigger kids, and I piled into Quatchi and hit the road. Helena felt queasy again on the winding highway and did get sick this time, even though we tried all the tricks we could think of. It's almost three hours to get to Naantali. We parked and boarded the shuttle that dropped us off close to the bridge that leads to the island that houses Moomin World. The first attraction is the theater where we watched part of a little play while eating our packed lunch.

The park is filled with places and characters from the books by Tove Jansson. It is really low-key, but charming and perfect for kids. We wandered around their house, posed for pictures with the Moomins, and the kids went swimming.

Stinky is one of our favorite characters.

Penny loved giving them hugs.

The day started out a little cool, but ended up being quite pleasant. We left the park about closing time and picked up some food at the grocery store near our car. After a little food we headed back home.