Busy Weekend

Last weekend, we had a very busy Saturday. There was a neighborhood yard sale that we found some books and things for the girls and that occupied our early morning. Then, it was Armed Forces Week and there was a party going on at Fort Meade at the National Cryptologic Museum. They have several planes nearby the museum and Karina loved running around them. The best line of the morning..."Wow! Those planes are even bigger than me!"

After that, we made the trip down to a park on the Maryland/Virginia border to celebrate the Bicentennial of Norway's Constitution with the Norwegian embassy and some local Norwegian organizations. I had gotten excited that the food might be fancy since it was a 200-year anniversary, so I was secretly hoping for some grilled salmon.  Unfortunately, they served Norwegian hot dogs, which didn't taste any better than American hot dogs in my opinion (Tanja thought they tasted much worse because the skin is thicker).  Karina and Lydia filled up on the popcorn, so it worked out.

Tanja had warned me that everyone would be dressed up, so the girls fit right in with their bunads that Tanja had worn when she was a girl, but we were somewhat underdressed in jeans and nice shirts. She had also warned me that Norwegians were very punctual. The festivities were supposed to start at 1 PM. We pulled into the park at 12:53 and the music from a local brass band had already started. Oh well.

Here are our two beautiful Norwegian princesses.

Lydia showing off how well she can stand:

We had a hard time getting Karina to stand still long enough to take her picture since she wanted to run around and play with all the other kids that day. But here she is being funny and having a good time.  The traditional silver brooch Karina is wearing was her great-great-grandmother's (on Tanja's dad's side)

They had a few games for the kids to play and Karina did a good job trying everything they had planned. Here she is in the sack race trying to jump (she really liked this one):

Being extremely cautious carrying her egg on a spoon:

And the ultimate...the tug of war! I was really proud of her - I was concerned she would be trampled by the bigger kids, but she held her own and laughed as she tried to pull on the rope. In one iteration, they had the kids dressed up in their Norwegian outfits on one side vs. the kids dressed in shorts and T-shirts on the other. I don't imagine most of the parents were particularly thrilled with the prospect of scrubbing grass stains out of the fancy clothes - fortunately, Karina stayed relatively clean.

Here are Tanja and Lydia enjoying the beautiful day.

Our second attempt on Sunday trying to get good pictures of the girls dressed up (they wore the bunads to Church too) turned out a little better than the first. This little rocking chair was one of the purchases at the community yard sale.

Lydia being cute:

Karina and Dolly rocking back and forth in the rocking chair:

The big news lately is that after a month or so of waiting, Lydia is regularly walking. I think her record so far is about 22 shuffle steps, which she just did today, to include a change in direction, before falling down. She seems to enjoy the freedom her new skill gives her, though she is still faster when she is on all fours. She also loves climbing the stairs and usually makes it all the way to the top without any help. That would be great except that once up there, she thinks it is so fun to play with the child safety gate and it usually can swing back and forth over the edge of the stairs carrying little girls with it. She hasn't learned how to go down the stairs safely, so we may need to accelerate those lessons if we don't want any major tumbles.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend everybody!