May 29th

Seriously a big day.

First and most important was Davíð's birthday. Now that he is 28 we can be the same age for a week, before my birthday.
Naturally we spent the day and night out at his parents feasting and soaking up the sun. Good times.

Next was Eurovision. Decent show,and I liked the winner, Germany


And last but not least, it was local election day, but by the results I would have to guess that the residents in Reykjanesbær like waiting hours to see a doctor, the 2 hours between buses and the lack of recycling. Stupids. But everyone else has blogged this to death, so I wont bother.

cultural studies

In North America people never take off there shoes. That is why they have carpet in the house, because it hides the dirt and mud better then other flooring, so then don't have to wash the floor.

Seriously, that is what Kasper learned in school today.

Don't worry, I did correct him. Everyone I have meet in Canada, and people from the states, take off there shoes at the door. And they still clean the floors.

This is probably another one of the stupid reasons that people do not want to move out to the old base, they think it is dirty in the apartments, because no one ever took off there shoes.

Puss in boots

While they both look very cute with those beautiful eyes, these looks are deceiving. Leópold causes as much trouble as this cat, any day.

Leópolds first haircut

Before

After

Even if it seems a little cruel to take the clippers to a 7 month old, that hair was always matted with food. It had to go.

Dating

Kasper, my oldest, was wondering what was the point in getting a girlfriend. What were they for?
He discussed it with a friend and came up with a list of good nd bad things about having a girlfriend.
Good:

1. People dont tease you for not having one.

Bad:

1. You can never do anything fun again because you have to spend all your time with them.

And that about sums up the idea of dating to 9 and 10 year olds. But, they told me there was no hurry. They had until grade 10 to get a girlfriend.

I should also mention that they referred to it as owning a girlfriend, like something you bought in the shop.

Open to all

While chatting and catching and gossiping at the store today I heard the best rumour ever, and I seriously hope its true.

Some people are saying, since the base is basically empty, that they opening it up to everyone.

They say that to start they are letting people, who have finished there school, stay.
Great, really, because although Davíð is in school now, we were already thinking about ways to be able to stay, but it looks like everything will be fine.

Rumour also has it that they will not be taking the appliances back for a while longer, again good news.

This is all gossip, hearsay, but I hope its true. 

Finishing Up

These pictures didn't really fit anywhere else.

Here is Julie, a couchsurfer who stayed with us a while back, and Rósa keeping her hands warm while she tries to type.

Leópold, like all little boys, loves his toy car.

Kasper and Einar

In pictures like these, I think Leó looks like his cousin Matt in Canada.

Davíð made that drum when he was a little guy, now it is one of Leó's favorite toys.

Sneaky Guy

Davíð, my husband, has started his 1000th Blog! OK, that might be a slight exageration, but it is not an exageration to say these things are everywhere now.
Theres bits of Davíð all over the Internet.
But this is the latest one
http://dafydd.blogg.is/
that he didn't even tell me about, it is only because of my serious amazingness that I found it.
This will probably cause him to ditch this one and start another one, we will see.

Father's Day

What better gift for Father's Day then a Jar of Ash, seriously, I am trying to talk Davíð into letting me buy one for my Dad.

Summers here, so here is the zoo

please note that the zoo in Iceland has very special rules, like no animals can be here that could not live here alone. Thats right, nothing exotic. But the baby goats sure are cute.

ADD

After Davíð sent me articles reminding me that the baby should not see any television until he is over 2 years old, he caught me teaching him Wiggles dances.
Television causing ADD, and took pictures as incriminating evidence for later.
This way, if Leó ever has problems in school, he can blame me.

kool-aid life

The other day a lovely gift arrived at my door, an envelope full of Kool-Aid packages, all flavors and colors.

Customs had clearly been suspicious because the envelope had been torn apart and covered in tape to put it back together. But I got it!

Now the lessons had to start.

I actually had to read the directions on the back of the package, it had been so long since I made the stuff.

Then I taught the kids how to make it.

Then a bunch of neighborhood kids had to have a taste. 

And now we are rationing the magic to one pack a day.

death of a pet

My dog is only three years old, so I had not done any actual planning for her departure. I hope I never have to.

But then yesterday Kasper was out with a friend doing some building and came home with a huge wooden cross.

Both boys were really proud of themselves, they made Rósa (our dog) a cross for her grave. The friend, even came with the useful advice of freezing the dead pet before you bury it. I dont know why.

After a long talk I hope they understand that Rósa is not dying anytime soon, we never put pets in the freezer and most importantly, it isn't nice to plan on them dying.  It can hurt feelings.

The Hat Party

The school had a dance with a crazy hat theme, lucky for Kasper, his Dad collects crazy hats.
This one is a long way from Vegas.

Birdhouses

There was a stage in my life that I was crazy about birdhouses, in fact I still really like them, I just stopped buying books of pictures of them.
But I still like to stop and look, and take pictures of the really cute ones.

Favorite Toy

Leópolds favorite toys are all wooden toys, making the doll house hours of entertainment.
He is also becoming a thief of chess pieces. Now that he can pull himself up to the table he often grabs a chess piece before crawling away.
This is causing some difficulties in playing the game.

Playing together

Kasper builds a track, shows it off the the monster baby destroys the town.

Ashy Ashy

This is probably the most common picture from the volcano ash situation in Iceland, and I wanted to upload it earlier but I couldn't and it took forever to figure out why.
Blogger says I used up all my free space and now Ill have to pay 5.00 a year.
Small price really, and now I have a lot of pictures to upload!

Two teeth

Is it a coincidence that two weeks after Stefán looses his 2nd tooth, Leopold grows his second tooth?
They make a great pair right now with Stefán missing 2 teeth and Leó with 2 new ones in the same spot.
This certainly helps confirm our story of the toothfairy.

Not my favorite surfers

Today I said goodbye to 4 couchsurfers that stayed with us over the weekend.

They were from Poland but have been living in Iceland for nearly a year.

Now I have to say that they were not really bad or anything, just not nice.

They showed up very late at night, stayed up drinking wine, hardly talked to us, laughed when Kasper asked then if one could help him with something on his play station, helped themselves to tea, went through my book shelf and basically treated the house like there own, while ignoring the people who actually live here.

Probably nice people, but guess they do not understand what couchsurfing is about.

Most guests contribute in some way, by making us a meal, doing housework or even just taking the dog for a walk, but not these ones.

Now I need to leave a reference and I am not sure what to say. I don't want to be negative, but...

Like Davíð says, They came, they stayed, they left. End of story.