RISK and Couchsurfing Mania

This is a picture from a great night that we actually had 11 couchsurfers, 4 from Austria, 3 from Poland, 1 American, 1 German and 2 from Finland. With homemade wine and board games, it was a night to be remembered, by many, for a long time.
We actually went out to Davíð's parents last night an Davíð, with his sister and mom, stayed up all night playing RISK. They called a truce at 6 a.m.
Then Kristína (Davíð's sister) took the board back home with her. Fair enough, but Davíð says we stole it from them fair and square, but it was hers.
That said, I am in the market for a game of RISK now, if anyone is wondering what to get me for Christmas :)

Family

Here it is, and it took a couchsurfer to capture it. Me in a picture.
Camera's and I do not get along.
But Leó and Davíð look great.

Stefán

This is a nice picture of Stefán, my middle son.
Nice because he looks identical to his father.
So cute.

risk night, again.

As many couchsurfing nights do, this one turned into a night of homemade red wine and RISK.
Things are getting pretty serious around here.

Clement and Anne flo

These great couchsurfers cooked us two French dinners, while staying with us for 6 days.
The food is too good. I think that if I lived in France I would be gigantic.

The beginning of a long headache

Stefán got his first musical instrument today, this year they will be learning to play the recorder.
When I heard the first squeal (Davíð actually wanted to try it out) I saw the long evenings of practice ahead.
But I look forward to the day he can do fun stuff like this:

New Routines

Today was the first full day back at school. At last, 5 hours a day of freedom.

Last night I was worried the kids would not go to bed. All summer they have stayed up until 11 or 12, sometimes later. IT is hard to go to sleep when it is not getting dark. The last week I have managed to get them to start going to bed at 10, but last night I wanted them in bed for 9.

I told them I would be waking them up very very early and if they did not get a good slkeep they would be tired for the first day of class.

They both fell asleep almost instantly.

Stefán even slept in his own bed. This is nearly unheard of.

I woke them up at 645 this morning and they were in such good moods. They ate, got dressed and packed snacks with no prompting from me.

No arguing or anything. IT was amazing.

So at 730 I sent them off on the bikes to school.

Now Leó and I are alone.

For lunch today, Kasper and Stefán will be eating what all the other school age kids in Iceland are eating, a large healthy hot meal.

This is one of my favorite parts about school being in, I dont need to cook nearly as much. The boys have such great lunchs with fish, chicken, vegetables, fruit and breads, that they really only need a small supper.

This will make the grocery bill much easier to handle.

But I am tired from waking up at 645. Maybe I should have went to bed at 9 as well.

Excuses, excuses

I know I have not been updating anything.

I am also a few weeks behind on emails, but here is the excuse:

My computer broke. Not really a big deal, we actually found it outside last year and it has been going great for a year now, so I can not complain.

But still. It was so easy to type, blog, up load photos ect. when I had a functioning computer in the living room. This meant I could keep an eye on the older boys coming and going while watching the baby play.

Since it has broken I have had to use Davíð's computer, in his office, a very un-child-friendly place. Not to mention that it is the last room in the apartment, so you might as well be not home for all you can hear from there.

But now I have a couchsurfer working on the problem, and determined to fix it, so with any luck I may be back at things in the next day or two.

Terrible family photos.

The last set of pictures taken before the camera batteries dies never turn out how you want them too - but I tried.
This is our last visit with the cousins before they left to go back to Canada,

Chuck It

I really tried to find a picture of this thing on line that was not copyright protected, but failed, so you will have to deal with my terrible description.
It's a stick that holds a tennis ball on the end and helps you to throw it really far, the ball that is.
It is great for me because I am not much of a pitcher, and my dog needs the exercise.
IN Canada I saw them a lot. IN the Edmonton river valley dog owners would spend sunny after noons laying fetch with there dogs.
In Iceland people think I use it to hit my dog. Or something like that. Lets just say I get a lot of strange looks.
Then this week I have had a couchsurfing family from Sweden here and while they did not buy a lot of Icelandic souvenirs, they were dying to buy one of these ball throwers. They have a dog at home. In fact, they actually spent the last half day searching pet shops for this amazing toy.
And it is amazing.
Actually, I know so many amazing products that if I had any sort of ambition I would set up shop and introduce Icelanders to the best of the best stuff. To me at least. And I am sure this dog toy would be a huge success.