Today we had rain. And snow. Luckily the snow didn’t stick. The boys were up early, and had no problems getting the bus. I started thinking about selling the house this summer (if the refinance falls through) – but I’m tired of moving and that would create its own stresses. More on that later.

I downloaded a WordPress app for the iPhone a while ago. I couldn’t get it to work at first. But the new version seems to work.

This morning I started my journey home. We had to get up early to take the 7.30 bus from Storvik to Gävle. I was going to catch a 9.15 regional train to Arlanda. When it didn’t list a track, Susanna asked at the ticket counter. Apparently it was cancelled; they gave me a ticket on an earlier X2000 train instead. It is a much better ride on the X2000.

I had a wonderful week off. I got lots of time to relax. We had good food and ok wine. But damn Sweden is expensive. The exchange rate doesn’t help either.

I have plenty of time at Arlanda for a coffee and some reading (as well as playing on the iPhone).

Saturday was a big family outing.  The outing was all planned by Susanna; which of course is nice for me (not having to plan).  Our trip centered around watching a play at the Oddfellows Playhouse in Middletown, CT.  The play was only for one hour (I think it wound up being only 45 minutes or so), so we planned to visit the city and the children’s museum there as well.

We drove up late in the morning, giving us plenty of time for lunch before the play.  We parked on the street next to the playhouse (and even saw the fire hydrant that Susanna got a ticket in front of the previous week).

The first stop was to walk to Main Street and find a place to eat lunch.  We walked by a toy store, and of course had to stop and look.  I told the boys that they could only look (we weren’t there to get toys).  That doesn’t keep them from begging to buy a toy (“It’s only 7 dollars, I’ll pay you back when I get home…”).  But we managed to get out of there with no new toys and not too many tears.  We had a wonderful lunch at Javapolooza Cafe on main street.  The boys even got a free doughnut for dessert, and had their favorite drink ever, root beer.

The next stop was back to the toy store…. where the boys got a toy tank (they were very good at lunch without me even promising them that they could go back and get a toy).  We had a few minutes for them to stop and play as we waited for the start time of the play.

After stopping to play we walked up to the playhouse for the play.  It was an original play put on by a group of 10 year old children.  The play was about the other side of the story – how maybe the villains in the fairy-tail stories have never had their side told.  It was very funny, and everyone enjoyed the play.  Even if the boys did get restless a bit (Will definitely had trouble sitting still, and even Ben was restless and bumped his lip on the chair in front of him – don’t ask, I’m still not sure how he did that).  It was fun to visit the playhouse that Susanna has been working (volunteering for school – she needs to observe/teach for a two 7 week internships – one of which she is doing here) at for the past couple of weeks.

After the play we walked across the street to the Kidcity Children’s Museum. The boys thought that was the highlight of the day, and didn’t want to leave when it was time to head home.  I thought it was maybe geared for kids that were a little younger, but it had lots of fun stuff for them.  It is certainly bigger than the children’s museum in Niantic.

After the museum we all headed home (a tired family) for quiet time and dinner.

Here are some more pictures from our trip:

Here is a picture from last summer.  I took it on one of our beautiful days outside when we were living in Taftville.  I had hung the sheets out to dry on the laundry line, and William posed in front of the sheets.  I then took the picture and made it a sepia toned photograph using GIMP.  I think this is one of my better pictures of William.

This next picture was from around the same time as the one before it.  It was an adjustment living in Taftville and being a single parent half of the time – but I think we made the best of it (of course it was a difficult summer for all I am sure).  Here is Benjamin showing his best smile (something he doesn’t always do for pictures).