Just in time

My last post about the mild fall was posted just in time. The same night it was freezing.
When we woke up the next morning, the ground was covered in frost. Stunningly beautiful!
And the funny thing is it lasts!
We went for a trip today and somewhere even the mud wasn't that gushy any more. It was half frozen and sort of hard.

We walked around Stavsjøen - a nice little lake. The kids love the little bridge at the very end of the lake. They love balancing on the railing.

We made fire and cooked for lunch.   A bit cold but not winter cold any way!

Not winter yet

This time one year ago, we'd already had lasting snow for about a month. But not this year. It's still sort of warm weather. We wear regular sneakers and shell jackets every day.

It feels like the fall has lasted for a decade - that's a lot longer than usual.
Don't get me wrong! I love the fall - this is one of the most beautiful seasons, and it's wonderful not to freeze too much all the time. I love the possibilities for hiking and little trips that comes with the leaf covered grounds. I just wish I had more time for loving the nature, more time to spend outdoors.  But working some fifty hours a week on average and lots of weekends doesn't go too well with being an outdoors person. Sometimes I even have to come home from work Sunday night and just look at the pics from one of the family trips I was not a part of.
There has been no canoeing this fall and no camping so far, but i still am hoping for a camping. Maybe this weekend - I don't work until Sunday morning this time.
After setting our clocks to standard time again days are becoming shorter. No doubt the winter draws nearer, but so far I enjoy the fall as much as I can. This really is great!

Scout trip

The one I told you about - well, here are a few pics:

Happy Halloween!

I've had a day off today!
Halloween in Norway isn't as Halloween in the US. Most people here aren't very happy about all the kids begging for candies.
We used to be like that our selves!
But this year we invited 6 girls and 5 boys over for a Halloween party.
We started decorating the house on Friday. But Saturday morning we left for a scout trip (I'll tell you about that part later) and then, Sunday right after we came home our girlie and her choir had a concert. (That's going to be a blog post too.)
So I spent the whole day picking up the house, doing the laundry and cooking for these 14 kids - a girl party and a boy party.
On the menu:

Starter: Candy...
Main dish: Mummies
Drink: Dragon snot and Witch blood

Dessert: Spiders, ghosts, soil and worms, fingers (still warm) and more candy.

Spiderweb was everywhere inside the house and also on the porch. Bats, cats and spiders were our best friends tonight.

We all had a great time!

Happy birthday, hubby!

This afternoon I was teaching until 4.30 pm. That means hubby picked up our youngest and her little friend from the after-school-program.

When I came home I seized the kids, pulled them into our bedroom, showed them the presents I just bought for their dad and shoved them out of the room again.
The boys got changed for soccer practice and they all left the house only minutes after I came home.

The kids and I had planned the menu for the celebration, and our daughter and I started wrapping gifts and cooking once the boys were out of sight.

Well, everyone who knows me just a little bit, know I only do basic cooking, as do my kids :)
They ordered tacos with ice-cream for dessert. Thank God for understanding kids!
So the two of us did the frying and the chopping, set the table and lit the candles (only two).

Once she heard the key in the lock our daughter leap off her chair in excitement. As soon as they were all back in the living room, the "happy birthday" song echoed off the walls.

It's just amazing to see how excited the little ones can be about a birthday!

We ate enjoyed dinner and dessert before dad ran off to his job dinner...

Happy birthday, hubby! I just can't recall if there was time to say that before you left ;-)

Today we haven't been to far from home, but most of the area I haven't seen until today. There were tons of grey alder. I think I haven't seen that many in one place before.

Here is a picture of some of the cones we found.

 

The kids are checking out the view at what they call the meeting point.

More hiking

Trying out new places dashing around in the beautifully colored nature is actually a good treat for body and soul.
Here are some photos from our last trips.
Three different hikes:
To the top of Geitfjellet  - a nice little mountain for a view of the city.

Around Stavsjøen (a lake)

In the area of Saksvikvollen.

Splashy wet hikes but good anyway! Did you see the rainbow, by the way?