Our weekend away.....

Last weekend we went to visit Sara in Århus. We left Friday late afternoon and this time the whole family came along. We were so looking forward to seeing her again.

The sun was starting to set by the time we reached Århus.

We had a really cosy evening Friday evening. Sara had got everything ready for us arriving - extra mattresses were all over the place. It was lovely being together again as a family.

Saturday we were all up early. I made bacon and eggs for breakfast and then we headed out. Krisitan was going to Århus Classic Race to watch Sara´s Christian race. Meanwhile Sara, Andrew, Leah and I headed into Århus. Andrew had been saving all his pennies and he was going to get a make-over - new clothes and shoes.

The first stop was Sara´s shoe shop. She convinced him to buy a pair of shoes. (Selling even on her day off!)

We had a great time in the town. I really like Århus. I would even go as far as to say, that I like it more than Copenhagen!  We had Subway for lunch - YES, they have a Subway!!! Meanwhile Sara headed out to the track to see her Christian race in the afternoon heats. We continued to shop till we nearly, literally dropped! We then headed home to Sara´s apartment.  Andrew gave us a fashion show of all his new clothes.

After the race we all headed over to Christians (Sara´s boyfriend´s apartment) We ordered Chinese and spent the rest of the evening together watching TV and stuffing our faces. 

We were all rather exhausted and so around 9pm the Rasmussen family headed back to Sara´s and we all crawled into bed. I crawled into Sara´s bed and we spent a bit of time lying there chatting - it was so cosy. 

Soon Sara, Kristian and Andrew were asleep but Leah and I wanted to see Eurovision. Sara doesn´t have a TV so we had to watch the show on line, via our computers. Denmark won!!!  So the big question is.....who is coming to Denmark next year to see the show live??!!! 

Sunday morning we left for the long journey home. 

Monday we were off work and so we spent the morning working on the garden. So many weeds to dig up, but we had fun. Still a lot of work to do to get it all in shape, but we are so enjoying ourselves.

The grass was full of dandelions and Kristian got a lot of them dug up.

The plants outside our front door were dead. We decided to just dig them up. We will have to find something else for this area.  Now we want to change the fences but that project will have to wait until next year!

On Monday afternoon I headed over to the old peoples home to visit my old lady friend. There was a concert, a trio singing old Danish songs. We put in a couple of hours listening to them and had a lovely afternoon complete with tea and chocolate cake!

All in all it has been a lovely few days!

Celebrations.....

On Thursday we were all off school and work. I celebrated the day by getting some clearing out done. I know we only moved a few months ago but it is amazing how much stuff we gather together. Also, I wanted to get some of my Sunday School material organised...it desperately needed it.

I also got my studio cleared up and all my paints organised.....

 And I found some "old" friends.... (Rhona I haven´t forgotten that Freddy is yours!)

Thursday evening and the place looked like a cat home!! Kristian and Leah seem to attract all the cats in the area! Suddenly there were 4 cats in our house on Thursday evening - Shadow(our cat) Bert (Laura´s cat) Mille and Charlie (our neighbour´s two cats.) Finally I kicked all the cats out along with  Kristian and they had a great time playing outside.

Friday was also a bank holiday for us. It was just wonderful having two days off!! It was spent doing a bit of gardening and clearing up....(as well as some shopping.)

 So much skvalderkål which I think is ground elder in English. Kristian used a fare bit of time on this little bit. I continued with it Sunday afternoon and we are now half way through!! 

Saturday we went to Mia´s confirmation. It was such a lovely day. A lovely church service followed by great food, fun and laughter with her family and friends. 

My lovely wee hubby looking all smart in his suit and tie :-)

On Sunday morning we could´t get to church. The roads out around us were closed until 2.15pm. There was a bike race and it was going right past our house so we (Laura and I ) decided that we would make a picnic lunch and serve it outside the house, complete with ghettoblaster and Danish flags to cheer the bike riders on. 1800 bikers passed by. We had great fun! We got all our chairs lined up outside the house. The guy that lives above us also joined us and we cheered those bikers for all we were worth. 

When it was finished we all went home to Laura and watched "Wild Hogs" - just love that film! (Plans are now in the pipe line for a girly road trip!!!) 

 After another little bit of gardening I made dinner for us all. Laura and Mia then went home and we all went to bed early after a very eventful few days. Once again I feel so blessed to have so many great people in my life. 

One year older.....

.....but not any wiser!! haha

My birthday was this week. I turned 44!!!!!!! (I am now thinking of counting my birthdays from the time I came to Denmark and started my married life....so that makes me only 23!!!!)

I had a wonderful day and was spoiled rotten by my hubby and kids.

The presents were over in my wee studio...

Canvases to paint on, from my hubby....just what I wished for:-) Happy!! Happy!! Happy!!

Face cream and shower gel from Leah and perfume from Andrew. I was very impressed that he picked a perfume out for me that I actually like!! He went himself to the department store and picked one that he thought was my smell! haha  

He picked right, I love the smell, not too much, just my type of smell.:-) 

Sara called and told me what her birthday present to me was.  She has been dying to tell me for days now, she has a hard time keeping a secret! Well, she bought me shoes from her shop. She saw me looking at these particular shoes last time I was over  and so she bought them - isn´t that sweet. So I will get them next weekend when we go visit her.

To celebrate my birthday some of my friends came to dinner. I have 7 close friends that I see every so often, I try to meet up with them every 6 - 7 weeks which means I usually see a friend a week.  I have never had all these friends gathered together but this week, for the first, time they met each other. Anne, Jette, Laura, Audry and Samantha came for dinner. Unfortunately Rhona and Genny couldn´t make it - you were missed.:-(

I found this bra attached to my car window screen when I went to work on the morning of my birthday. Laura had been up to her tricks!! So I got my huge underpants and stuck the whole lot on for them arriving:-)

Anne sure LOVES her food:-)

Kristian did a fantastic job! He served us all evening with a smile on his lips. He endured our teasing and silly conversation and all our girly laughter.  He had total control of the kitchen and was not at all stressed!  (Tak min skat!)

 

 Laura had brought instruments for us all to play when we sang Happy Birthday.....amazing how a few instruments can set us of into fits of laughter....

Laura baked a delicious birthday cake for me......Yummie.... it was fabulous! 

It was a great evening. I felt so blessed by the end. Blessed to have such a great husband who just took joy in doing this for me. Blessed to have great kids and blessed to have such wonderful friends who really do light up my life and bring me so much joy. 

Now my next plan is to get all my special Irish firends over here to meet all my special "Danish" friends. (Danish in " " as only two of my close friends are actually Danes....all the others are foreigners!haha)

Turning a year older is really not so bad when you get to spend it with people you love!

A successful weekend......

.....that started with a Mother and Daughter day out. 

We decided to head out for brunch and then do a bit of shopping. I needed a new dress for Mia´s confirmation and Leah was going to help me find something. I hate shopping for clothes, the styles in Denmark are only for tall, thin people and if you are a little on the larger size, they only have baggy clothes. 

 While we were gone Andrew was out trying to get a tan! The weather was fantastic...really sunny and warm!!

Brunch was delicious......

Then it was off shopping. Already after the first shop I was getting depressed.....however in shop number 2 I found a dress that would possibly do the job.  I tried it on, liked it and was delighted to see it was on sale and was actually below what I was willing to pay (and that wasn´t very much!!) so I was VERY happy.

The rest of the day we spent just going around looking at stuff without any stress. (In the whole of the town I didn´t find another single thing that I liked!!) But we had fun window shopping and dreaming.

It was late afternoon when we got back. 

When we arrived home Laura was working in the garden and so we got to chatting. We ended up deciding to eat dinner together again. Kristian was away on a go-kart weekend and so us girls decided to hang out together.

After dinner we went a walk down to the lake. It was such a beautiful evening. I just feel so blessed to live so close to this wonderful lake and be surrounded by such beautiful nature.

Leah and Mia came too....

We ended the evening watching a film together, home at our place.

Today after church Leah had to work and I went and visited my friend Rhona. She had an old school friend visiting from England that I wanted to meet. I spent a lovely hour with them. Orginally I was only meant to stay 15 minutes....but time flies when you´re having fun! Her friend was such a lovely person, so glad I got to meet her.

Then I made a quick trip to Ikea. We are off work this coming Thursday (bank holiday) and so I want to get a lot of sorting out done. I needed to get big cardboard boxes to put stuff in, when I start my sorting, come Thursday.  Since all my afternoons are booked between now and Thursday I needed to get them today. I had a lovely hour walking around, although they have changed a lot in our Ikea since the last time I was there and not all of it is good!!! Umh......maybe I should get a job in there!! Get things sorted out!  Just imagine getting paid to go there!!!

Just as I got home, Kristian arrived home too. He suggested going for a bike ride. My first bike ride this season.....or maybe its my first bike ride in the last 2 years!! Boy it was hard!! haha

Then this evening we BBQ´ed. I think we have BBQ´ed more here in the last two months than we did the last two years at our apartment. We are loving this outdoor life!!