So school's out...

and S holds his 'graduation' rose that is customarily given out to the students leaving the school.



and it's time to be outside a bit more, although the lure of computer is still there, but DH is making this pretty restricted.

and this is my usual view, of little ones running off, hopefully not to a busy road.

M saw a clip on the Swedish equivalent of Cbeebies on the computer several weeks ago, but somehow managed to construct everything himself from memory, mashaAllah. It involved making a pattern first.
and the finished article, which I must get round to uploading to the TV channel's website. H made the patio, well it was going to be another castle but didn't get to construction stage.

We went on a boat trip organised as a marketing ploy by one of the Electricity providers. Actually we already buy our electricity from them. The kids enjoyed the marketing sweets and windmills provided. I was v scared when the boat went right under the windmill blade. Of course it was completely safe (Sweden takes health and safety v seriously) but I buried my face in Biryani's shoulder while she clung on to me. As Hz and Biryani don't watch much British tv, the chance to exclaim 'teletubby windmill' wa not there. S would've loved it as a little one. Now he was thinking more of whether there'd be any more sweets remaining back at the dock.

and eventually the sun peeked out for a bit.

Hoping for some more activities for the kids, they are really finding it hard to get along this holidays for some reason.

We like purple we do

2 posts in two days, can this be true? Well the little ones are sleeping and I have a few minutes to write a bit. As I said yesterday it's the end of term soon, and things are changing a bit.
S is leaving the current school and is he will not be missing it (maybe the sausage casserole). We've had problems with bullying up to the present and hoping it won't continue in the next school. We've requested that S is in a different class to the boy who's been giving him a lot of trouble who's also supposed to start the same school, and the new school have been sympathetic and granted us the request.
M's 2 main friends in his class won't be around as one is going to another school and the other is staying abroad for 5 months, inshaAllah.
Sometimes we wonder about the choice of school, but recently there was an incident in our local park. M and a friend (neighbour's child) were approached by some young teenage boys and after boasting to them about their girlfriends and their antics, asked them to do something, how can I put it, entirely inappropriate. The friend's mother has addressed this with the teens' school which is our local school and these kids are barely older than S, subhanAllah. We've had to talk about having the courage to say 'no' with the boys and now having to keep an extra eye out when they're in the park, even though this is supposed tobe a safe area.
Hz has started at the childminder's, and I know it's early. In fact he's almost exactly the same age as H was when he started nursery. I would be unlikely to get the place with this particular childminder if I left it until later (she was my Quran teacher) and Biryani will start with her too as her current childminder is stopping at the end of the holidays. He's not happy being left but inshaAllah he'll come to like it. He does enjoy other kids' company, if the boys have friends home he's always happier. It's funny as in some ways he's v independant, running off to explore the world, but on the other hand can be v clingy.

Memories of inside

We're coming to the end of the school year, and the beginning of the summer holidays. The sun has come out these past couple of days, but up until then it's mostly been grey/ rainy.
So here is a selection of how things have generally been recently inside the house.

I haven't been baking so much recently but made a chocolate pie which was a first which also had marzipan in. Sprinkles on top always add to the delight.
Hama beads are always a hit on a rainy day, and I made a number sign for our allotment!
Latest craze is Bakugan, with its terrible cartoon series, but at least they are playing together, sometimes harmoniously and doing lots of mental maths to see who has the most points, or is it ability score? If I hear the words 'Ability card activate, Bakugan brawl' again I shall go mad! Even Hz has his own now (although currently lost somewhere in the abyss of kids' mess) and says 'Gaan, Gaan'
Biryani gets the playdough out now and again, and I tried making it pink with Beetroot juice (trying to find alchohol free colouring) and it did work OK mashaAllah.

We had been thinking to change the rooms around to somehow give more space/ privacy to the older ones. In the end concluded that the sofa is too large to fit anywhere else and really not much can be changed. So I thought the only other option is to get rid of stuff. However Hz thought better and then proceeded to play with the barely usable toy buggy for a good half an hour or so (which is a loong time for him) which he'd extracted from the rubbish box. It's like that when you want to get rid of stuff the kids suddenly see the toy (junk) with renewed interest

'Summer' Firsts!

First dip in the sea, followed by first BBQ on the beach, alhamdulilah, and thanks to a great sister (moreover, her son) who got us to be a bit 'spontaneous'
Needless to say the weather is back to normal, rainy and cold, but Saturday afternoon/evening was a hint of the Summer to come, inshaAllah.

Lots of photos: outside

Looking at the glowing yellow of the labernum down in the park.

and if you now look the other way we have the cherry blossom, currently shedding it's flowers and looking as delicious as candy floss. M and his young friends who live nearby made some 'soup' in a big red bucket of which I think blossom was one of the ingredients. That and a big spoon of gravel.

It really is Spring now as temperatures are above 10 C and we don't need jackets on any longer just to pop down to the sandpit for a digging session.



and Biryani has her twirly skirt on (which today gave rise to Hz trying to twirl as he imitated her (and me). H ended up doing a very peculiar dance which was quite funny. By the end of the day he could actually spin round and now has experienced self-induced dizziness.)



'What are these flowers?' I was asked.
How can I have not taught her the name of these? so we did the classic daisy chain making. However, to make a chain long enough to adorn oneself requires more than the patience of a 4 year old, and I probably was off chasing Hz before I could even complete a bracelet.






and here he is chasing after Biryani, playing duck, duck, goose. This was the only way I could think of to distract him from escaping through the 'child-proof' gate to the car-park. Maybe I should bring this up at the next Housing Association meeting?


'Got you!' It was finally sandals weather, so the everlasting sock-location problem is minimized.


The beautiful colours of the flowers in our flats grounds, mashaAllah. Biryani proceeded to inform me of the different colours and then how many different colours there are. So often she talks as if she's the voice from a pre-school concepts computer game.



and the other half of the allotment, which not to my surprise has gone to seed. It would have been ideal to get these out before, but I've been a bit ill. We did our best to remove them, but I never want to see another dandelion again. I did find a few plants among them, which I think were balm, a sage bush, some reeds, some more chives and different sorts of mint.

Some photos, inside and out.

The beech trees on the way to the main library, aptly named 'bok' in Swedish which also means 'book'.




This is why I don't make many phone calls (although I want to stay more in touch.) The new play material, Weetabix.



Biryani, always willing to give the plants a water. The tomato plants are not doing too well this year. They got, according to my research, sunburn, or maybe they found it too cold at night, or just were in shock at being transplanted. The Spring this year has been particularly cold, normally it's like Summer by now, but you still need a coat on if you're outside for a while.







and Biryani's self-created art exhibition...

Some allotment photos

We spotted lots of dandelions by the edge of the roads as we drove to the allotment, and my heart sank, slightly. Lo and behold we are the owners of a field of dandelions, battling it out with the mint.
If anyone knows what the above plants are, please let me know.
We managed to get some parsnip seeds in, so hoping they'll start to grow.




The boys were not so interested in weeding today, and instead concentrated on creating a water feature.

You know how it feels...

When you have one of those head colds that renders your brain pretty much useless, you have this (above) reappearing 3 times a day with avengence, and you have so many small things to do that it feels an uphill struggle to attempt any of it.
So I blog.


Hz helping with the watering of my chives, and for those of you who have Pakistan connections the the lota is clean, and I've seen 101 watering cans used as a lota.


and Biryani guards the chives from overwatering

Let me out of this madhouse!

We got out.

Small, baby steps

Before...

After...

This was last Sunday's efforts on our new allotment. Rome wasn't built in a day, and this is one out of about 10 rectangles of similar size that will need to be tackled at some point.
We were actually restricted on staying too long as I'd somehow forgotten the water bottle and it was thirsty work and also Hz was home with DH- Once we've got the fence up maybe I'll be able to bring him along to play with the worms and weeds!
It was a nice feeling to see the boys getting hands in the dirt rather than on the keyboard, finding the ladybirds and wiggly worms, running up and down with the weeds to the container and generally getting some fresh air.

Daffodils and new shoots

I ended up buying some daffodils in pots, as I was feeling a bit low on the gardening front. My first batch of tomato seedlings had withered and died when I had tried to plant them in to bigger pots. I suspect it was because they'd been brought up without enough light, they were in my bedroom where there is generally someone sleeping at some point throughout the day. But it was there or risk being plundered by little hands. Alhamdulillah hadn't planted all the seeds so my second lot are thriving as I make sure they get enough rays.
Anyhow my tiny attempts at horticulture are inshaAllah to be scaled up, although whether it'll be this year is another question. On Thursday I got my allotment contract so now I have at least got a 'garden' , and have to be patientand wait for a few more bedrooms. M and H seem quite keen to help me and really I just want some space for us to potter. I am just a bit wary of the rabbits and will have to sort out some fencing I think. Just have to put up with DH calling me 'Arthur' (EastEnders) but then I can always call him 'Pauline' back if he does!
We're on the last stretch of the school year before the holidays. It does feel like a kind of penance of being able to live in Sweden, all this early morning rushing, and tired grumpy kids in the evening. M is plodding a long at school without having to do much homework. H is pretty good at reading and his writing has dramatically improved. We always seem to be behind with his workbooks as he's missed so much school with various illnesses, but I'm sure he's OK with all the concepts, just colouring in the lines is still a chore, although it may be useful as he wants to be an eye surgeon and they do have medical colouring books when you study anatomy....
S has got his place in the bilingual class and also was offered a place in the international school. We went to the latter for a morning and I could sense S was impressed as in the first lesson each student was on their individual laptops doing various projects, and then a boy gave a presentation using powerpoint. We the went to the French lesson which was, ironically the only time the international students speak Swedish. I slinked out after a while as my eyelids were drooping as familiar memories were coming back from my secondary education. In the end we have decided on the bilingual class so that S can keep his Swedish up, although they have let us have the option to change to the international school if later we think it would be more suitable. The students in the international school did seem more mature and commited to their work, but we will see inshaAllah how the bilingual class works out.
Biryani has been going regularly to the childminder, which at the moment is the ideal situation. There are 2 childminders who are also friends of mine and they are in one of their spacious house with a garden. The children are of different ages and they cook nutritious food, do educational activities, go outside a lot. I would like to have her round myself more as this age is very nice (mostly) , but it's also a good age to pick up the Swedish. However it feels like the best place she could be apart from home. I'm hoping it can continue as one of the childminders may start to work at her home instead.
Hz, well they don't have a place for him in the near future (!) . His langage is slowly coming on although I have to translate most words.
'Boo' - boots
'boo boo' lollipop, dog/ animals
'ayn'- orange
'up' - juice(cup?)
'bo' - ball

He also wants to start potty training and is always undressing himself down to nothing. Of course this was not appreciated when we were in the midst of a sickness bug last week. Yesterday it was a vest with lower buttons, dungarees and a jumper on top to stop him taking off his nappy. He knows to take it off just after or maybe just before doing something but the connection between potty and sitting on it to pee etc is nowhere near. It feels like I'd only just put away the potty after Biryani was needing it.
The 2 middle boys have not come back yet from running. We decided that DH should take them running regularly with some friends rather than paying £50 a term for some teenagers to tell them to run up and down at the running club. I expect they have gone for a browse around the toy shop afterwards.