The Minnesota Noices

Category: KidFun

  • Seventeenth birthday adventures

    Seventeenth birthday adventures

    Ebba’s friend, a neighbor from the Berkeley days, came to spend a week with us. It was a whirlwind of travel and adventure mixed with lots of down-time for gaming and catching up. For a variety of pesky reasons, the eldest Noiceling and I missed a lot of the fun but luckily Bryant was able…

  • Sommartider hej hej

    Sommartider hej hej

    Summer has been slow to arrive but today is the first really hot day, by my standards, at 84 degrees. It might even qualify as a heat wave, which in Sweden is 3 consecutive days with a high of at least 77 degrees. Because the infrastructure is built to reduce heating costs, there hasn’t been…

  • Saint Paul, Solo

    Saint Paul, Solo

    January flew by with a quick trip back to Minnesota. Though not a popular time to travel, the January trip offered a chance to fill prescriptions, restock some favorite products that we can’t easily get in Sweden, and catch up with friends and family. The kids were busy with the start of a new semester…

  • All about Autumn

    All about Autumn

    Fixardag (Fix-It Day) happens 2x per year- the residents in our building gather to help do some of the communal chores such as clean the laundry room, trash room and courtyard. Ebba and Isabella (both go to Katte but in different programs) took on the job of patching. I did lots of weeding and pruning…

  • Lundabo Life

    Lundabo Life

    Lundabo = a person residing in Lund. With all of the recent changes in our family life, I think it will be good to establish a new routine. Next week I resume Swedish studies at Malmö University so I’ll be going to Malmö at least once per week. Today marks the end of two weeks…

  • Canoe Camping in Åsnens

    Canoe Camping in Åsnens

    We went canoe camping. Yay! In the search for a Swedish BWCA rather than the average Swedish trail camping spots we found Åsnens National Park. While not quite the same as northern Minnesota, it came pretty dang close! The mosquitos were huge and extremely annoying, the water was calm and very rocky, and the trees…

  • Day trip to Hamlet’s Elsinore Castle

    Day trip to Hamlet’s Elsinore Castle

    One of my favorite family adventures so far! Seriously good tourism, right in our own backyard. On Saturday I was able to check an item off the bucket list. So simple and satisfying was it that I’m amazed it took this long. Three years ago my friend Lisa shared with me her brilliant twist to…

  • Easing into Autumn

    Easing into Autumn

    The days are getting shorter and cooler but the fountains are still bubbling as we try to soak up the sun whenever possible. Sofia’s visit during her first break from her school in Sogndal, Norway, where she’s spending a gap year, was super fun! It felt like old times when the girls played together between…

  • The Graduate’s Ball

    The Graduate’s Ball

    There was lots of last minute drama and running around, but our eldest had a really great time at Katedralskolans ball! I accompanied her to the “student castle” at the university to serve as shoe assistant (she was late and could not run in heels) and discovered that all the parents were dressed up and…

  • A milestone birthday

    A milestone birthday

    18! An adult but still a teenager… here’s a birthday montage of our firstborn.