Samu and the planets

CALM and CREATIVE

After an exhausting and productive work week, we had a very calm weekend.

Here are some pictures from one of our lunch breaks when we took a brief walk along the Charles River behind the School of Education.

 

 Sofia was sick this week and stayed at home for some days. Thankfully, she did have enough energy to play with Samu though.

 Sick day art by Sofia

 Two little visitors in Hanna's office.

 Saturday started perfectly with freshly baked mini buns and breakfast in the sun.

 Samu's highlight of the week was getting his new textbook. It's a little advanced for our taste, but he is so proud that we hardly dare to mention our general dislike of this overfocus on academic skills.

 We exercised in the park next to our house.

 Sofia collected moss ...

 and Samu collected sticks to build a big stick house with Marko.

 We followed the foot prints of ducks and geese...

 and also, very carefully, stepped on the frozen river ourselves.

 Back at home, we built a solar system from marzipan to satisfy both Samu's love of planets and Sofia's love of sweet things.

 This was followed by a whole planet-themed arts session.

 On Sunday, we decided to celebrate the balmy, spring-like weather by discovering another hiking trail in Dedham. Cutler Park was a lovely spot. Walking around the lake brought back lovely memories from Minnesota.

 Back at home, we made the spontaneous decision to turn our guest room into an arts studio. We are not expecting any more guests anyway, and if they come, they will have to participate in creative work. ;-)

 The kids loved it!

 The first project was painting a new box for dress-up clothes.

 We can't wait to use this space every day!

READY, SET, GO!

Samu explains "Oh wie schön ist Panama" to Elli the elephant.

WATER and SNOW

Winter has definitely arrived in Boston. So far, it has been wonderfully sunny, snowy, and mild.

But then, on Saturday, it was so windy and grey that we decided to go on a little excursion that would cheer us up: to the Coco Key Waterpark in Danvers, 40 minutes from our house. It turned out to be a  paradise for kids: slides and fountains of numerous kinds, pools, lights, water toys, and endless opportunities for water games. Managing water, kids, and camera was too much for us, which is why we only have pictures of the place without kids. Just imagine two blue-lipped tiny people with huge smiles, the smaller one jumping non-stop into all kinds of pools while shrieking with joy, the other one swimming a little more carefully but beaming with pride about mastering even the bigger slides.

 At some point, Sofia got really, really tired...

 and was immediately cheered up by Samu.

 Sofia hated the ride along the "river" in the water tire. She clearly wanted to swim by herself, not sit on a floating device!

 Driving home, we got into a small snowstorm, which slowed us down quite a bit. Thankfully, Marko learned how to drive in Finland.

While much of the US Eastcoast was drowning in snow, we only got a few inches. A perfect winter morning awaited us the next day.

 The first snow shoveling of the season.

 After that, we went to Millenium Park again to get some sledding time in.

 We also did some snow writing.

For Marko.

 Marko taught Sofia how to swing by herself...

 while Samu and Hanna did some climbing and running.

 It was a wonderful, action-packed, energizing weekend. It was so interesting to see how differently our children behave in different environments: While Sofia is still a bit suspicious of snow, she fearlessly swims, dives, moves, and splashes in water like much older kids. Samu is very careful in and around water, avoids getting his head wet, and stays close to the edges of the pool. In the snow, however, he knows no fear: Uphill, downhill, no matter what tool, toy, or transportation device, he is game. The best thing is that they benefit from each other's caution and courage.
The parents also learned an important practical lesson in all the water and snow action: We will definitely invest in a drying closet in our new home.