Month: February 2018

Katherine and Andrew love being in Copenhagen. They love their new school and have made a bunch of friends. The weather doesn’t seem to bother them. They only sometimes mind all the walking. They miss friends and family obviously, but they have settled in better then I could ever imagine.

Katherine is eight, going on eighteen. She wants to be a big girl so bad. Her favorite thing these days is her baking class she takes after school on Thursdays. I don’t know if it’s the sweets, or getting to hang with the cool high school girls that teach it that she loves more.  Katherine loves unicorns, cats, LOL dolls, tacos, silver and purple. She likes to hang out with her friends. K is creative, dramatic, and likes to write in her many notebooks and journals. She can be critical and a bit of a know-it-all. She’s the “but, actually” kid sometimes. Katherine is an adventurous eater and will try anything once but is scared of getting her ears pierced. K loves to read like her Mother. She is super smart and likes to be funny. Katherine likes to be with me all the time and hold my hand when we walk.

Andrew is my sweet sensitive Mama’s boy. He has a great imagination and is constantly creating. He likes to draw and write stories. He loves scary movies. Andy let him watch the old IT, he was so happy. He is a pleaser and wants to make everyone happy. He is cautious and tends to look after Katherine a little to much. A likes things to be fair and can get upset easily at times. He is messy and kind. He hates cheese, but loves cheese pizza and queso. Andrew is very into the Earth. He likes to pick up litter and he makes sure we are always recycling (we are, you pretty much have to here.) He loves animals, Minecraft, burgers, school and his friends. Andrew still loves to cuddle, and he really really misses McDonalds breakfasts.

Andy took them to Fredriksberg Park one day.

Twinning with their iPads.

Halloween (Scream Guy and Zombie Vet)

KRK rocking the high pony and feeling really good about it.

Yeah, my kid likes to sleep in a box sometimes.

xoxo-sk

Good Morning Sweden.

We visited Junibacken, a Childrens museum/play area devoted to Swedish books and authors.

Kids on Pippi Longstocking’s horse.

Andrew took this fabulous pic of us.

We also visited the Vasa Museum. This is probably the most impressive museum I have ever seen. They have completely restored the warship Vasa, that sank in the 17th century on it’s maiden voyage. The Museum tells the story of how it was built, life on the ship,  why it sunk, and how they recovered it. Truly a sight.

Andrew loved it. Katherine is not in any pictures, because she did not.

It’s true. A lot of places over here you have to pay to pee. It’s not expensive, but it’s a hassle.

xoxo-sk

During fall break, we took the train up to Stockholm for a few days. I really liked traveling by train, it was super easy and relaxing. Stockholm is very similar to Copenhagen, very flat, on the water, windy, similar weather- rainy one minute, sunny the next. It does have a little more of a modern feel to me. We walked around their parks, visited the Palace, Museums, shopped a little. Sadly, (only for me) there was no time to visit the Abba Museum.

We stayed at Hotel King Carl in a family room. The Europeans don’t really do suites. If you have kids, you can pay for an extra hotel room, or try to find hotels with bunk beds or sofa beds.

Kids wanted burgers for dinner (shocker.) Food and drinks in Stockholm are a little less expensive then Copenhagen.

The kids may have liked the breakfast buffet most of all. Even picky Andrew loved the rolls and cold cuts, he’s soo Euro now. K stuck with eggs and bacon, so American.

Riksdag, the Swedish Parliament

About to address the nation…

The Royal Palace

K is super into this.

Swedish Katherine.

How can you not have Swedish meatballs in Sweden? Also, I have noticed they love their cucumbers over here, in Copenhagen too. They are everywhere.

xoxo-sk

My babies are eight. Time flies these days. We did a birthday breakfast with Mimi before she had to leave.

Yes, Andrew wanted and got a litter picker upper. My sweet boy is very into saving the planet. Katherine is always happy with something cute and cuddly.

Birthday celebrations at school. I brought doughnuts for Katherine’s class and cookies for Andrew’s. 

We had friends over for a little party at our place. Cupcakes and Dominos. Yes, the have Dominos here, and it tastes pretty much the same here as it did in the States.

xoxo-sk

Kulturnat (Culture Night) is an evening in Denmark where over 250 museums, businesses, theaters, parks, churches, places have special events open to the public. You buy a pass for 90kr ($15ish) and have access to all events and free pubic transport (kids are free.) They have activities and events all over the country. We tried to pack in as much as we could.

One of the places we went to was the Cinemateket. Special effects artists gave K and A gnarly face wounds. Very realistic and impressive. They looked amazing, and it literally took less then five minutes. The kids loved them.

They also freaked my parents out when we texted them a picture.

We also went to Christiansborg Palace. This Palace houses the Danish Parliament, Prime Minister’s Office, and the Danish Supreme Court. The Royal Family has Reception rooms (hence the thrones) at this Palace. The Royal Chapel and Stables are also at Christiansborg.

And a quick trip to the National Museum of Denmark, and then the kids were finished. Off to go home and clean off the blood.

xoxo-sk

We are so excited, Mimi came to see us. Kids were so happy when she came with me to pick them up.

We showed her all around Copenhagen. We went to The King’s Garden.

Katherine is working, very seriously, on her “non-stick figure art.”

 

We all went out to the Meat packing District and ate at Warpigs. It was quite good. Not as good as my beloved Fox Brothers, but very good.

Brisket, Pork, Chicken, Mac. Note the pickles- unfortunately they don’t really do the dill pickle thing in Denmark, it’s all sweet (cringe).

Danish pimento cheese, not great.

Matching lipstick at the BBQ joint, because why not?

While Mimi had the kids one night, while Andy and I went to see IT. The movie theater we went to is attached to a mall, Fisketorvet. The malls are similar to ones in the States, just on a smaller scale. They also routinely have (small) grocery stores inside. We did a little tailgating with our free time before the movie, with our grocery store Carlsberg on the water, right outside Fisk. It’s nice, but windy. So windy.

xoxo-sk

Another good weather weekend means more exploring, and we decided to check out Tivoli. It’s usually a bucket list item for visitors. It did not disappoint. Tivoli has it all- a massive amount of restaurants, beautiful gardens, live shows, and amusement park rides. Tivoli is where Walt Disney got the inspiration for Disneyland.

Much to the kids dismay, we did not ride any rides this time. We explored the gardens, ate dinner, and listened to some music.

The flowers were amazing, so pretty. Boys weren’t really interested… shocker, But K and I loved them.

xoxo-sk

 

It rains in Copenhagen, like a lot. You get used to it. It can come at anytime. You have to be prepared. The kids actually keep full rain gear (pants/jackets/rain boots) at school for this. They go outside no matter what. The Danish believe there is no bad weather, you just need to dress for it.

Andrew and Katherine have made lots of friends at the school. Most (probably all) are fellow expats. A lot of these kids are used to moving around, and everybody is extremely friendly. On that same note, all of my friends are fellow expats as well. The Danish, while friendly at times, are notoriously hard to become actual friends with.

ps. It’s super windy too. I’d actually take the rain over the wind.

xoxo-sk