Easter weekend in Oslo

A long Easter weekend deserves special plans, so we packed up some wine and colored eggs and headed north on Friday to Luke and Nikki in Oslo. We made it a leisurely drive and visited a Norwegian framebuilder on the way to check out his workshop and visit. Truls has a pretty nice setup, and builds elegant mountain bikes.

Upon arriving at Luke and Nikki's we got to take a gander at his new (old) too, a beauty. Three metal lathes in one day, not bad!

But we didn't let the lathe distract us too long. First Hans rode up to Tryvann, a 500m climb, and met the ladies for beer and hot chocolate at the top. Then we came back down and got ready for dinner and cocktails at a hip new taco joint, but first stopped at the opera house to run about on the roof.

Our hosts arranged for us to stay in a guest apartment of some acquaintences of theirs. A small little place  on the 8th floor with a kitchen, but see that left shoulder on the Geneva building? That was our 30m^2 terrace!

Luke's twin brother David was visiting too, and we took advantage of the nice weather Saturday to have a bit of a picnic.

Sunday morning Bea awoke to find the Easter Bunny had hopped all the way up to the 8th floor!

Then we dressed her up as an "Easter witch" and went to the park for a bit before brunch...

..which we were hosting on our amazing balcony. Here are some of Luke and Nikki's new international friends in Oslo, Francesco (Italian) Claudia (German) David, the twin brother, Elena (Lithuanian) and Madeleine and Hans.

We just had a little bit to eat.

Afterwards we all took a walk in the park.

On Monday the weather was even nicer, if one can believe it!

Hans and Luke rode up to Tryvann again, and the rest of the crew met them up there for another picnic.

...And dinnder was yet another picnic on the way home...

...at the Vitlycke rock carvings in Tanum. Bea had a great time running around looking for the petroglyphs.

Easter week

So Bea's school was closed this week, leaving lots of time for fun springtime activities, and playing with friends. We've found activities to fill every day.

On Monday classmate Hilda came over.

The enjoyed Bea's favorite lunch of tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. (Bea has concluded that just about anything with melted cheese deserves a place at the top of her list of favorites.)

Afterwards they filled our courtyard ("the roof") with graffiti.

...which was later complemented with the lines provided by this gadget. (Thanks Gretchen!)

Wednesday was eggdying day, first with the Nowlins...

...and then with Maya.

Today Bea and Hans left Terrie back at the kennel, and stopped to buy some lumber for Bea on the way home. Here was her first project with today's haul: a wooden doll giving you a wave!

Bea's workbench

After school today Bea and Hans put together a workbench for her. We had drawn up some plans earlier and carefully marked and cut our lumber, and then screwed everything together.

A sturdy workbench made from salvage for Bea to work at.

Hanging birdhouses with Flaggspelet

Bea's class took a field trip today to hang birdhouses in Slottsskogen. Hans and Terrie came along in the drizzling rain.

First week of April

We were treated to a nice high pressure system this first week of April, with sunny days and clear, cold nights. Spring is here!

Bea and Erik had a "loppis" on the front stoop. (But didn't succeed in selling anything.)

Bea made some jewelry in the workshop...

...and helped prepare some nice fresh radishes while wearing some old glasses she found.

Her class took a special field trip to the park this week and got to mill about with some of the animals. She took Hans and Terrie there on Sunday to look around, and this peacock must have recognized her.

And Hans also spent some time in the workshop practicing his joinery.