a new blog to visit

sabin is involved in a new blog. it's a modern day penpal story and it's also a bit inspired by the Flat Stanley book. she and a girl in minnesota, who is also 8, also in the second grade and also a twin who lost her twin are (with a little help from their moms) blogging and learning about how it is to be 8 and in the second grade on two different continents.  pretty cool stuff. come and check it out by clicking here.

happy birthday to sabin

our pooka turned 8 yesterday!  in putting together this post, i realized what a lot she did over the past year, especially for one who was only seven years old. and now she's eight! it sounds trite to say that i can hardly believe it, but i can hardly believe it. i am more amazed at her every day. just as an example, last evening, she played a card game in the whist family (davoserjas in danish) with five adults and she won. fair and square and by playing smart. she's just so cool. 

sabin's year in review:

she climbed down to møn's klint (and back up), twice.

february 2008

and january 2009

she made a snowman at easter:

she went to barcelona together with her parents and big sisters:

she endulged her entrepreneurial spirit and made a little stand to sell her parents handmade rubber stamp erasers, tomatoes and muffins:

she explored nature:

she went to munich and got to meet some of the mad cousins:

she ate meatballs in ikea (several times):

she spent time in an idyllic place with a good friend:

she took a mini-cruise to oslo:

she relaxed in the gold lounge before flying all by herself to chicago. she also joined SAS's frequent flyer program on that trip (because they finally opened it up to kids):

she did jump shots with her cousins at navy pier in chicago:

she ate strange things that turned her tongue black:

and drove halfway across the midwest (and back) with her cousins and aunt monica:

she swung at countless pitches thrown by grandpa:

got extraordinarily dirty on the 4th of july at a fishing derby:

attended a huge family reunion:

swam in the missouri river:

went to the omaha zoo with her grandparents & cousins:

REALLY learned to swim at swimming lessons in iowa:

logged far too many hours playing mario on the DS:

got her first mac:

helped with the building project (at least the lunch part):

hostessed an extremely successful halloween party:

made all kinds of creative projects:

ate sushi every chance she got:

lit sparklers in the house:

leaped off a WWII german bunker:

left 3 candles burning on her birthday cake

but had a great birthday party with her class:

and opened presents at the breakfast table yesterday morning:

we're really looking forward to seeing what her eighth year holds!

merry christmas to all!

...and to all a good night.

scenes from the autumn holiday

last week was the kartoffelferie or "potato holiday" in denmark--it used to be the week that kids were let out of school to go home to assist with the potato harvest. today, kids think potatoes come in a plastic bag from the local supermarket, so it's much more about rushing around, doing all sorts of fun things. we were supposed to go to istanbul to do that rushing around, but husband had some meetings come up at work that he couldn't miss, so we didn't go there. once those meetings were over on tuesday, we drove around denmark and did things like visit an old mill to watch wheat being ground to flour in the traditional manner and we took a little ferry over to langeland (a small island) and we went to legoland and to the west coast of jutland to see the north sea pounding in on the beach (and an old german bunker or two). here are a few of the highlights:

trying out the hand grinder

looking for skippable rocks

in the straw bale maze at tivoli

seeing whether the north sea bites

it does

playing in the sand dunes

watch out for old german mines!

sights of amsterdam in legoland

check out the bridge rising up to let the boat through!

someone's getting tired...

you can't go to legoland without getting some lego!

parenting 101

why, oh why, have we spent a small fortune on legos when all it takes is a couple of cardboard boxes and you have hours of fun....

the view from poppelvej

this has been the view from poppelvej for almost a month. child playing DS lite, mother trying to engage her via skype. tomorrow, she'll be home!!!  yippee!!!!

if you too would like to make free calls from computer to computer and really, really, really inexpensive calls to phones all over the world, you too can have skype. http://www.skype.com. it's a free download. nachtigals love free. go, get it now, and ping me on my 'puter.

although i wasn't there...

monica loaded up the whole batch and met the grandparents in omaha at the zoo last weekend.

doesn't she have a fabulous camera? even tho' it's not a nikon. :-)

travelin' shoes

this small person is packing her bags.  in two days, she will board SK943 bound for Chicago. on a big adventure all by her little 7-year-old self. she's headed for summer camp at Aunt Monica's house. there she'll have swimming lessons, do arts and crafts, tie dye a t-shirt, go bike riding, show her cousins how to really play with Lego, and attend the Nachtigal family reunion. we are hopeful someone puts her on a horse while she's there.

she is convinced that the 7.5-8 hours to Chicago is a short flight, which it is in comparison to 13 hours to manila. she will be looked after onboard and escorted by one of SAS's Sexy After Sixty flight attendants through passport control, helped to get her baggage and clear customs, and be delivered safely into the hands of Aunt Monica at terminal 5 in O'Hare.

her parents are trying not to worry. it's going to be awfully quiet around here for the next month.

these boots were made for walkin'

just ran onto these pix of a very small sabin.  those were her first little cowboy boots ever. she's much bigger now, but still loves a good pair of boots. 

news bulletin

small person with long hair on the right coming soon to a family reunion near you.

shore leave in copenhagen

gisel, sabin and the little mermaid. you guess which one is the mermaid.

cousin gisel had a few hours of shore leave in copenhagen today, so sabin and i took our bikes on the train and went in to have lunch with her. it was a beautiful, gorgeous, sunny day in copenhagen, so after a harrowing bike ride with gizzy on the back of my bike and then even more harrowing with me on the back of my bike and her riding, we settled down for a lovely lunch and then a nice walk.

we'll go down to munich in a few weeks and meet her again when she's taking megan and jenni on their first big european tour (which seems to really be pretty much their first big tour of germany). i'm sure it will also be good for sabin to continue the lessons gisel started today in being a proper nachtigal.