A surprise night out

I watched a documentary about a South African Gospel Choir a couple of months ago. The choir founded its own aids orphans foundation and their foundation supports families and organisations that receive little or no government support in South Africa. These destitute families and children rely on Soweto Gospel Choir to sing all over the world for very much more than their supper. Their mission and and beautiful voices touched my heart, and later that evening I told Shawn about the choir and that I would love to see them perform one day.
Well, last night Shawn had arranged with babysitters for Noah and he brought me to Perth Concert Hall. He had two tickets lined up to the one and only performance held in Perth by...yes you guess it, the Soweto Gospel Choir!!! What a great surprise!

Swedish Midsummer Weekend

• In Sweden, Midsummer is arguably the most important holiday of the year.
• Midsummer's Eve and Midsummer's Day are celebrated from the eve of the Friday between Jun 19 - 25. The main celebrations take place on the Friday, however here in Perth, the Swedish Club celebrates on the Saturday.
• The traditional events include raising and dancing around a huge maypole.
• Before the maypole is raised, greens and flowers are collected and used to cover the entire pole.
• Raising and dancing around a maypole is an activity that attracts families and many others. People dancing around the pole listen to traditional music and many wear traditional folk costumes.
• The year's first potatoes, pickled herring, sour cream, and possibly the first strawberries of the season are on the menu.
• Drinking songs are also important at this feast, and many drink heavily, not us though... :-)
  

So what did we get up to?

Friday: IKEA Perth had a promotion on for Midsummer Eve: "Be one of the first 50 people to come to the store wearing a flower wreathe headpiece to win a $50 (=300 SEK) IKEA gift voucher! " So at 7 AM on Friday I got up, took the scissors and went out in the backyard to cut some greens. Since it doesn't really grow wildflowers here and we hadn't had time to go to the flowershop, we used what we had (and we had plenty): WEEDS! I made 3 "beautiful" headpieces, and we headed down to IKEA one hour before the opening to line up, with all other people who were keen on a voucher. We thought maybe only Shawn and I would get a voucher but since Noah wore such a cute headpiece, he got one too! $150, not bad IKEA, cheers!

8 am- In the line outside IKEA

Inside IKEA with our $150- happy faces!

Saturday: The Midsummer celebrations with the Swedish Club commenced around 1 PM. A miniature maypole was dressed and raised according to traditions. People had brought their own picnic bags with goodies and enjoyed it under a clearblue sky with accordions playing live in the background. The dances took place a little later, just as it should, and of course, there was drinking! However, since we live here in Perth and people don't want to make complete fools of themselves in front of the Australians, the event was slightly more civilised than if taking place in its origin country :-).

The pole:

Ava & mummy Moa with bub number 2 on the way

The eating:

Hanna & Hamish digging in

Anette with her two girls

The drinking:

Shawn with fancy headgear

The dancing:

The Swedes going wild

The playing:

A true little Swaussie- Nathan

Helen with her Emma

Ava

The chatting:

Gossiping with Anneli & little Nova

...And Noah:

"Hey guys, since I'm too little to eat, drink and dance, I want a cuddle instead!"

Just sitting, playing

Well, the little man has been working on this for the last couple of days. Today was the first time he managed to play at the same time as practicing his sitting skills :-).

Pimp my Ride

Noah's first ride in his car. Thanks heaps to Nooshin for this cool ride, Noah loves it!!!

Leisure time

Family picnic at the lake, what better way to spend a Saturday afternoon..?

Noah's crib

Since Noah has moved into his own room, we thought we should post some photos from his crib.
He loves it in there, especially at night when he gets to cuddle up in his cot with a bottle and listen to Bamses godnattvisor (Bamse's, his comfortblanket, lullabies). He is out like a light by the second track :-).

~Happy Sverige Day 6 June 2008~

The best date ever

We are back in Australia since last Tuesday. It has been a very relaxed week as we had to recover from the flight and jet lag. We've been asked by many how it feels to be back in Perth and we have mixed feelings about it- as much as it's nice to back in our own home and we can kick back, it's also really sad to have had to say goodbye to family and friends. Thanks to everyone in Sweden for making our holiday truly fantastic!

Noah, as you would expect, doesn't remember our home here in Perth but seems quite happy with all the toys that he now is surrounded by. The other night we decided to move his cot in to the nursery and it has gone really well so far- the little man sleeps very good in his own room and last night he slept from 11.30PM to 7.30AM- HALLELUJAH!

This morning Noah and I had a date and we went to the movies together :-). They run a session in the morning when mums can come with their babies- excellent as I otherwise never would get a chance to go.
Today was the premiere of the Sex and the City movie (free Cosmopolitans for everyone in the theater except the bubs haha!). All fans of Carrie and the gals should be very pleased with this 2, 5 hour wrap up of the much loved series. The movie was much better than I expected it to be.

Anyway, it was lots of fun to have a "cinema date" with Noah! He was so well behaved all through the movie and it was really cosy to cuddle up with him in the theater. We'll be doing this as often as possible until he starts walking... :-).