Lego People / Halloween 2012

 Nate's idea!

 Elin was the only one who didn't want a yellow face.

 Perhaps my most favorite photo of all time.

 Nate ordered the yellow hats from amazon and I found yellow gloves for a buck at Michaels. 
I made the shirts.
Inside the girls' hats are little round cardboard boxes to make the little Lego nubbies (Viggo's has a foam hockey puck).

All in all . . . I think $8 per costume.
Not bad!

Viggo enjoyed walking around like a Lego person.
Actually he and Svea have been walking around stiffly for the past couple of days, practicing.

 I'm not sure how into this Elin was, but she was totally excited about the pile of candy she came home with.

 Svea made 11 drawings of Gandalf (from The Lord of the Rings, of course) to give away to the first lucky eleven trick-or-treaters.
Kids would come to the door, I would hand them candy and then a picture, saying, "And this is from my 5-year-old daughter, it is a drawing of Gandalf!"
When I explained this to our next-door neighbor and his daughter when they stopped by, he said, "Sweet!"
I mean who doesn't love a free picture of Gandalf.

Happy Halloween!

Post Sandy: reactions from Svea and Elin

{This post is dedicated, as promised, to Sara W., my sweet serf camper!}

So here is a bridge in southern Delaware that we travelled on once upon a time.  It's not looking so good after Hurricane Sandy :(  (Click on the photo and it will take you to Fox News and lots of Sandy photos - for now.  Headlines change fast, so I can't guarantee how long that will last.)

We were watching the storm pretty closely as it progressed - the eye went right through where we used to live in Delware, but from the reactions of DE friends on facebook, thankfully everyone seems to be okay, with minor damage to the city we lived in.

Svea and Elin were looking at the slideshow and their reactions were very sympathetic.  Elin was especially concerned about the damage and wants to go out east and see it for herself.  So these are their little-people reactions to Sandy.  We have already prayed quite a bit for the people there, and they included everyone out east in their prayers tonight at bedtime.

Elin kept saying, "This is unterrible!"  (She likes to improve words to make them more meaningful by adding arbitrary prefixes.)  Yes.  It is very unterrible.

Be safe, east coast friends and family!

Home for a bunny.

What shall we do, indeed?



I bought this cute little guy at the Bluberry Festival in Ely, MN this summer.  He had been living an unappreciated life in my top dresser drawer for too long.  He needed a home.

A home in a terrarium.  Where all ceramic bunnies wish they could live.



I ordered the biggest glass jar I could find, which coincidentally turned out to be the exact same one in the book.  I almost bought a slightly cheaper one at Wal-Mart, but it was smaller . . . and had a dark plastic lid, not a clear glass one . . . it just wasn't doing it for me.  We all agreed the bigger one was much better.



So, now that we are terrarium experts, we will walk you through this step by step.

First, after you acquire a suitable jar and cute children to help you, the directions in the book said to get clay pebbles.

Where can one find clay pebbles, I asked myself.  I went online, and found there was much controversy about what clay pebbles are the best clay pebbles for terrariums.  The purpose of the clay pebbles is to absorb extra water and then the soil in the terrarium would absorb it when need be.

I decided to side-step the pebble drama.  We broke up an old terracotta pot instead, which would meet the absorbtion need just as well.  We went shopping in the shed for the old pot, which kind of felt like it was free (more or less).

Everyone took turns pounding it with the meat tenderizer.



Then we carefully laid the broken pieces, overlapping them, on the bottom of the jar.

Next, we put in activated charcoal (find this by the fish section or a pet store).



Svea wanted to know what the charcoal does.  The best way I could come up with explaining it is that basically it's like deodorant for dirt.  It keeps the dirt fresh and happy.

Next came the dirt.  We used potting soil.  If you want critters (real ones) to live in your terrarium, it's best to use soil from your garden.

So I bought two plants, which turned out to be one plant too many.  A 5-liter jar is not as big as it sounds.



Then the book said to fill up 1/3 of the jar with dirt.  I did, and it felt like way too much, so I ended up taking some out.  I'd say 1/4 is perfectly fine.

I put one of the plants in, it is a Rainbow plant, and the dirt looked pretty naked.  So I went to the front yard where we have some moss growing by a brick border and harvested some of that.  It really helped the terrarium look cozy - a must for a bunny.

The bunny seems pretty happy in his new home.  So far he hasn't complained.

The terrarium steams up when the lid is closed and the water vapor condenses.  So I leave it cracked open.  So far, it's been a few weeks since we potted this (I wanted to make sure it would survive before I blogged about it!) and I haven't even had to water it yet.  The broken terra cotta pot seems to be doing it's job!

Welcome, Cupcake!

 Meet the newest member of our family - Cupcake!

 Svea got to pick out a hermit crab of her very own.  Cupcake is living with Viggo's crabs, Hermie and Shermie.  Hermie is hibernating or whatever it is you call it when they molt. Hermie buried himself in the sand/dirt mixture.  He will shed his exoskeleton, eat it (hey, it's a good source of calcium), and then at some point we will get to see the big reveal of the new and improved Hermie.

Hermit crabs are a social creature (not quite sure why they're called Hermit crabs . . . ) and Hermie's been buried several weeks.  Nate was worried that Shermie was getting lonely.  So he thought an addition was in order.

Shermie was trying to get to know Cupcake the day she came to our house but she was feeling a little shy. So far they've been coexisting happily in Viggo's tank, though.



Cupcake can barely squeeze into her shell, so there are a few new ones sitting around the tank for her to choose from when she decides to move.



Svea is proud of her new pet and is so careful with Cupcake.  We are glad you're so happy with her, Svea!

We visit Svenska Chica Alpacas!

This weekend we took a drive through central Minnesota to make some new friends.



Really hairy, cute friends.

 Nate's cousin Britta has an alpaca farm, so we made the trip over to say hello.

Feeding the alpacas . . . they were eager to eat, and Svea was eager to feed them.

Then we got to go into their pen to hang out with them.
Cousin Bruce supervised us.

This is Sir Douglas, the baby.  He is one month old.  And he is zippy!

 Elin had to be held the entire time, although she did warm up right when we were leaving . . . so that wasn't so handy, but at least she'll be comfortable the next time we visit! 

{She called the alpacas "umpacas".}

Sir Douglas up close.  His eyes are so beautiful.

 Viggo really enjoyed the alpacas.

We decided that he kind of looks like one.

And they thought he was one of them too.  Probably the hair color.

Now we know how to make some extra cash!  Just shear Viggo.

It was so fun just being with them.
Alpacas are super soft but do not want to be hugged and cuddled (shucks).

 Debbie and Britta observe Viggo observing with the alpacas.

Then we got to see what happens with the alpaca fleece.  Svea helps card some.

In case you, like me, aren't sure what carding is, it is aligning all the alpaca fleece in the same direction using a . . . a carding thing.

Svea was pretty good at carding!

 Then Britta showed us how to remove the wool.

Elin tried it out too.

 Being a little taller might help!

 Svea was addicted. 

After carding Britta demonstrated how to spin the wool.  I was so impressed!

There are foot pedals to make it happen.  This was very intriguing and I have to admit tempting, but I think we can all agree the last thing I need is another hobby.

And yes, this is all from one alpaca.

We had such a great time!  Tack så mycket, Britta!!