Girls Girls Girls

This weekend totally had "bring-on-the-chick-power" theme to it. Girls Unite. High Heels forever. Pink rocks all the way kinda weekend.

And it felt amazing, completely what I needed given that Teglvaerksvej 15 has been my main party place since Olivia's birth. Not that I don't like hanging out in Nivaa you know :)

So Saturday we celebrated Ditte's last few days as a "free" woman and had her bachelorette party-day extravaganza.


Seven wild woman together, that's just bound to mean trouble. Be worried. Be very worried! It started very nice and good-girls like.




Cosy brunch at Ditte's home, yummi food, nice champagne.....and before you know it, it was completely out of control, and here we were, racing on toilets. Yep, you heard me. Racing on a toilet, litteraly. When I woke up that day, I did not think I would trying to beat with my sister-in-law-to-be on a potty. Heck.






But you would have seen us on these toilet-moped, screaming and cheering, and crashing into each other, and acting like these races where a Formula 1 Grand Prize. We were all confident that we were born to win these races - and we did whatever we had to do to win with our toilets...even if that means playing dirty. Toilet. Dirty. ha funny, get it? We were the remake of MEAN GIRLS, toilet version. How badass.

uhm uhm. Can't say that the girls were that confident when came the time to ride horses though. THAT was a different story. Wanna stick to riding toilets, ladies? The fear didn't last though thankfully, and we had the most beautiful ride around the park in Lyngby - which is, by the way, one of the most beautiful parks I have ever seen I have to say. The ride ended with everybody completely shivering from being so cold though. You would think that riding a horse for an hour in May without gloves should be no big deal - that one fails in Denmark!


So we hurried home for some much needed "hygge" time at home with the girls. And I have to admit, I don't know what part of the day was Ditte's favorite, but I know that was the highly of the day for me. There is just nothing like Mexican food, loud music, make-up sharing, high-heels skipping and giggly chat to bring a huge smile on my face.






Ohhh it was good. As good as pyjama parties when you are ten, but better - because when you are old, guess what, you can top it all off with mojitos. And really, you can't beat that. No you can't.




Getting ready to go out with girls, I had not done that in years - and the excitement of meeting up with the boys like the old days when we were dating.



Hedi's Bier Garden is where we spent the rest of the our evening. It is where Asbjorn and Ditte first met, and that's where we ended the night, boys and girls together to finish the day "en beaute"! It was special to them, and I have to say, the Bier Garden totally rocked last night for me too. We were singing and shouting and dancing - and for some of us, also serving bier in Bavarian outfits also.....and danced the waltz:D

Haaaaa Ditte - can you get married again, let's say next year? So we can have another Bachelorette party? Come on!

And then, there is the other girl girl girl part of the weekend: my first mother's day with my little Olive. My tiny tinymus, ma ptite puce. And I just can't yet express how special that feels to be the mamma of the sweetest of little girls. I still myself can't grasp it all most of the time. All I know is that this morning when I woke up, the first thing that I wanted is to go pick you up. You and you big morning smiles, you just steal my heart every time.

Je t'aime ma ptite puce.

Meet Oslo!

I have always loved discovering new cities. It's a bit like meeting a new friend, in a way. Going from the airport in a taxi, first moments and first impressions: the city is giving you her elevator pitch. And then comes the time to get to know her better.

Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, no connection can be made. It is just lost in translation. Other cities you meet, you are not quite sure you will be able to be friends at first. They are shy, these cities, and with their tougher skin they are a bit hard to get to know. They keep the best buried deeper. But for those who look for it and work a bit harder at it, they soon become the most wonderful of cities.

And then there is the cities you look at and right away you know you are going to be great friends. You can feel their pulse, their contagious energy, and it just electrifies you. You can just let them guide you through streets and hidden wonders. You get yourself lost with them because you trust them to just be good to you. Soon you find yourself sharing secrets in small coffee shops as if you knew each other for years.


This week I made a new friend, her name is Oslo. From the very beginning, she was very sweet to me, welcoming me with open Fjords and her smiling blue sky. Right away I knew that we would enjoy each other's company.



Surrounded by beautiful mountains, she reminded me a lot of two old friends I miss dearly, mister Tucson and miss Seattle. Because of that, Oslo felt familiar to me right away - that, and the fact that she somewhat resembles her cousin from the south, Copenhagen.

While Troels spent most of his days at the advertising conference, Olivia and I had a lot of time to walk around the city. Her small pedestrian streets that somehow all seem to be leading to the royal palace. Her inspiring statue park, Vigeland. We have a lot in common, Oslo and me. She loves art. And apparently she also likes statue PDA as much as me :)






And guess what Oslo also likes? H&M stores! H&M is to Oslo what Starbucks is to Seattle. I am pretty sure I saw one of the Swedish stores every other block....oh my oh my! However, I have to admit that I was quite happy to find these stores though given the price of things in Norway. Oslo is not a cheap city, oh no. It has good taste and will make you pay for it. So many interior decoration stores that had my heart go boom boom, boom boom. But helas, my wallet had to stay in my bag. It is ok, I still got a brain's worth of ideas out of them. Thank you, Oslo, for reminding me of my teenage years, when my allowance only allowed me to buy a magazine here and there - you reminded me of these good old times. Or when Troels and I realized the price of beers at the bar: 100NK, or about $20. Yeaaaahhh....how about sneaking in a one or two beer cans in our bag instead and heading to the park like we used to during college?

Obviously, Norway doesn't need tourism to be well off.


Also inspiring where these stores displaying traditional Norwegian outfits. I don't think I have seen a country that still has so much pride in its traditional clothes and sells it in regular stores. I even found some for kids. If Tinymus was big enough, I could have totally dressed her up Norwegian style...she will probably thank me when she is bigger though for not doing it!

I think Olivia also enjoyed her new friend - lucky little girl that she is. She was all smiles and cuteness the entire week- well that is...most of the time, like all babies :) It amazes me to see her becoming more and more in tune with the world that surrounds her.






Thank you Oslo for the lovely time this week. Who knows, maybe we will see each other soon again?

Grabbing it all

These days there is a lot of "grabbing" done around for our little family.

Grabbing with her little hands. Her little hands have been getting busy these past few days, working really hard to hold on to...well, just about anything she can find in front of her. With sounds of encourage from her mamma and her daddy in the background, "oohh-s" and "haaaa-s" and "hurra-s"...we are not sure it actually helps her make progress, but it sure makes us happy and also look silly, which we like around this house :)




Grabbing moments of pure cuteness.Snap. Snap. Stealing these moments away with my camera, before they are gone forever. She is growing so fast already, and I want to remember it all. But like we say in French, I don't have a "memoire d'Elephant", so pictures are going to help. And let me tell you, there's quite a lot of cuteness around our house these days...so I'd better get busy if I want to grab it all!

Like these two playing together.


Or when she is just "hanging out".



Or when they read a nice little fairytale the newspaper together :)




Grabbing opportunities to learn. One more maternity shoot. I had taken pictures of Kath a few weeks ago, in this post. Last Saturday it was the turn of her sister NIcholine, due in about 3 weeks from now. Thanks Nicholine for giving me an opportunity to take some pics of you.




Grabbing opportunities for "outs". Troels and I went on our first real date on Saturday, and Olivia spent the night at her grand-parents. What a weird feeling that was to wake up only the two of us in the room and not hear a little girl cooing in her bed, ready to be picked up for some morning cuddles. But we had a fantastic date in the Tivoli Gardens, so that was worth the sacrifice :) Highlight of the night? Oh the pirate ship...we are worse than kids!

And since we are on the topic of pirate ships and outs...we are also out on our way to Norway as I am writting this! Troels has a conference in Oslo all week, so we decided to take the ferry up the Fjords for a last minute fun little trip. Norway here we come.

Land A'hoy Captain Tinymus!


Knus, Audrey

In 'n out...and out.....and out...

Once upon a time, traveling abroad was a big deal. Long travels by boat or train. Straining farewells between husband and wife, the woman waving her soaked lacy handkerchief at the boat that was taking her husband away from her for god knows how long.

Last week I felt like that woman - without the lacy handkerchief, I am not that classy :D The erupting volcano in Iceland took us a few centuries back, leaving Troels stuck in London and us little girls in Nivaa longing to have daddy back home.

Note to self = avoid living near a volcano.

Thankfully, we weren't *completely* back in time, Skype helped make this unexpected adventure a little easier on us. Actually, rather pleasantly, it reminded me of the first few months when Troels and I were dating long distance - having "coffee dates" via the internet, sharing moments of talking and laughing together... and often, not saying anything. Just listening to each other, just enjoying each other's company - reading a book and knowing that the other one was just "there" if we wanted to talk. Bliss.

So wile daddy was stuck in L-town, Tinymus and I hung out in Nivaa.

Among other things, we made bubbles....A LOT of bubbles.


Tinymus also spent an incredible amount of time trying to charm me. Little cutiepie she is.



During the spring showers when I couldn't be out fixing our mess of a garden, I stay inside cozied up in a blanket and made a few more baby presents - because guess what, it seems like everybody is having babies around us and I am just loving this. More and more friends for Tinymus! The below is for Anders and Kath's little girl. Should keep her warm this winter.


And....I am ashamed to admit to it....but that week I had dessert for breakfast a couple of times. Not that having cake with my morning tea made me forget that Troels was missing in the house....but as close as I could get to it for a few seconds :) Gotta love that extreme sugar high at 7 am!


We're also lucky to have many thankful friends and family members who called and came to check on us, invited us over for some food or just to hang out - "hygge", a Danish favorite. It was such a nice feeling to feel this network of people around me!


Heidi and Isabella "hygging"

But making bubbles and coffee dates on Skype got old pretty fast, let's admit it. So with we *strategized* (all our friends know that we L.O.V.E *strategizing*) for the "Getting-Troels-back-to-his-Kroellemus-and-Tinymus" Mission. After many failed attempts, it resulted in Troels having to take five different trains and a ferry boat, and among other things hang out with druggies in the Koln train station and sleeping with suitcasse and bike on the train to Hamburg. Fun. I don't think he will complain about having to be in "monkey class: in a plane ever again after this journey :)

But oh - being reunited. Most. Wonderful. Thing. Ever.