Me Too You

Swedish Midsummer and Polarn O. Pyret

Photo: courtesy of Polarn O. Pyret's twitter profile

Although I was not born in Sweden and have never been there and am only 1/8 Swedish, the culture of Sweden has permeated my family. Maybe it's because the other 7/8 is hard to identify. Maybe it's because I married someone who is also 1/8 Swedish...which then makes out kids also 1/8 Swedish. Maybe it's because my mother has taken on the big task of pulling together her family history over the last several years and her grandparents were the ones who picked up and moved to Minnesota from Sweden. My mom HAS been to Sweden, on a genealogy trip where she gathered records, took photos, made connections, and even spent time with some of our ancestors' family who still live in Sweden in a typical little red Swedish house. She writes letters back and forth with some of these family members and get them translated into Swedish. She longs to go back and to take us kids with her...to see the "home" country.

In any case, we are now a family of Swedes. We go to Santa Lucia in the winter (think candles on top of a blond girl's head) and to Midsummer in the summer (think may pole). We bake Swedish rolls. We drink glug and eat 7 kinds of cookies. We shop at IKEA...

A few weeks ago, we missed the Midsummer celebration that we usually go to at Sveadal, a Swedish community near Morgan Hill, because we were at Disneyland over the weekend of the summer solstice. So we had a small family makeup Midsummer at my parent's house the following weekend.  A may pole was constructed using the outdoor umbrella and 7 kinds of flowers, a feast prepared (meatballs, sparkling cider, ginger cookies), dancing was performed by the girls around the may pole to Swedish music. I gave my mom a gift of a framed dala horse painting that she had done with Lily in their preschool class this year when we team-taught Swedish day. It was just a little taste of the tradition to keep it going for us. And for the kids. Because even though we are not 100% Swedish, I think it is important for kids to be connected to some kind of culture. And the Swedish culture is the closest fit for us. So we embrace it.

 

Right before Midsummer, I was contacted by Polarn O. Pyret, a Swedish maker of cute (SUPER cute!) baby and children's clothes and asked to review some of their clothes. I received them in the mail last week and they are so well made and colorful and versatile and fun. I love that they are unisex too - for boy/girl twins, like I have, this is really perfect. Lily put this outfit together (the skirt was a previously owned items of hers that she added for a bit of extra flair) and I just love it. Let me say that, having a redhead, I usually would not go for a yellow shirt. But the green is so popping in this shirt, that is just works. She loves the front of the froggy and the back of the froggy - so much that she pretended to be a froggy for...much of the day. Hop, hop, hop. The pants are so nice and comfy too - and they have a drawstring...that actually works. Go figure, that you would have a drawstring pant for a kid (who is ALWAYS growing), instead of something that looks like a drawstring, but is actually just for show.

Polarn O. Pyret has been hip in Europe for a while now, but they are just releasing their stuff in the U.S. (by the way, there are tons of sales going on now for end of summer). They were featured in Celebrity Baby Blog and you will probably start seeing their signature stripes popping up everywhere. I'm looking forward to that first store opening soon...maybe they will have a line of clothes for our Midsummer celebration for next year. I am always looking for things that are hip with a pinch of tradition thrown in - it helps to keep our connection to Sweden fresh and current.

Full disclosure: I received free samples of clothes from Polarn O. Pyret for this review.

Girls Night Out with HP

Ahhh....after a long day with all this...stuff - work, kids, school, laundry, dishes, email - I LOVE being able to leave at 6pm (the hour is key, because I get out of making dinner, my most hated mom-chore, mostly because I suck as a cook) to go out with the girls. I actually, luckily, get to do this a lot. First, there are my long time BK (before kids) friends - friends from college and law school and work. We try to get together when we can without the kids so that we can...you know, finish a conversation. And being on the board of Gemini Crickets (my twins club) and on the board of the kids' preschool means there are many "meetings." Yes, there are agendas and we actually do real work, but we do it, well, how to say this...with...wine. Sometimes quite a lot of it. I have made some of my best friends through these moms groups. Then there is Silicon Valey Moms Blog and the various events that go along with that. More photos being taken and products being examined (as in "I'm totally blogging this"), but, really, these ladies are a hoot. 

Yes, my kids know my "meeting shoes" very well. If the "meeting earrings" go on in addition, they know they'd better not stay up late! So a week or so ago, when HP threw a "Girls Night Out" party for Silicon Valley Moms Blog and other local bloggers, my friend Linda and I said "yes, please." We were also able to invite some other friends, Carla (by the way, that's my Lily on Carla's BabyJIDesign website's front page! Isn't she cute?!) and Melisa.

Checking in at the University Club in Palo Alto at 6:30pm, we were handed a glass of wine from Parducci Wine Cellars, (Hold on...I'm getting inspired. Let me grab a glass. Ok, I'm back.) grabbed a chicken skewer from a passed plate and were off! The theme of the night was Gift Giving. With the state of the economy, I know I am looking at all the ways I can save money and making my own gifts for friends is a great idea. The girls and I sipped wine and ate finger foods all evening, while decorating Cookie in a Jars (here are some sample recipe cards - you can do Hot Cocoa or Bath Salts in a Jars too) and cute photo paperweights. I was able to take some supplies home, because I am one of those people who like to have everything in front of me before I start creating...no really, I was just drinking too much wine and couldn't think anymore. Good thing there are lots of links to the stuff we did: here and here and here. We were able to take home some HP brochure and flyer paper too, so I can print out some more supplies. Linda was really in her element. She worked those tables like her best marathon scrappin' parties she used to hold...before we all went digital.

One of the best parts of the evening was the intimate performance for us girls by singer/songwriter Dana Parish. She is an up and coming star and it was a real treat to listen to her and to meet her. She really reminds me of Sarah McLachlan, who I have been a fan of forever. Dana Parish's album "Uncrushed" is on iTunes and is coming out this Tuesday, October 28. I love her song "Hung Up" and the one about fathers and daughters "She Laughed" made all us mommies well up and, actually, miss our littles ones for a brief moments during our night out. So sweet. She was just on Good Morning America too! Dana is now my friend on Facebook and I'm hoping to convince her to join Twitter too. Feel free to bug her about that...

Until the next Girls Night Out...it was a nice break. Thanks HP!

The gift that just keeps on giving

These lovely saxophones were given to Ben and Lily (and the other 28 of their preschool classmates) as a birthday gift from a little girl turning 4 - at Explorer, for the kids' birthdays, the birthday kid brings in gifts for all his or friends in the class.  Imagine 30 kids bursting out of preschool with these little babies (our babysitter, Jenn, describes the sound like a sick chicken at times...). The teachers saying "Goodbye, everyone. Have a fun afternoon making music. Hahahaha...." The mommies all cringing a bit.

Well, Ben and Lily have gotten quite a bit of use out of these. In the car, it is just lovely. And, it just keeps on going. I wonder if they will ever get lost....accidentally, of course. :)

Green Day...or St. Patrick's Day

We remembered to wear our green yesterday...but we didn't go anywhere so what, pray tell, was the point really? But we didn't remember to wear our green today, when we went to Explorer, as we usually do on Tuesdays. It was the day for the St. Patrick's Day parade. Oops - well, there was enough green in other places to make up for it. I was Art Mom again - I LOVE it when I am Art Mom for holidays - and I helped the kids decorate hats with GREEN paint and GREEN sparkles and GREEN glitter and GREEN...well, you get the point. The art station being right next to the group time area (separated by a heavy curtain thingy), I got to listen as the kids read books about leprechauns and danced jigs to Irish jiggy music. (I love celtic music, by the way, it reminds me of where my sister lives, Newfoundland...so far away - but a very cool place with is quite Irish influenced - they play a lot of Irish music and some of it is quite popular. It also reminds me of Dublin, where my sis and I ran a marathon about 7 years ago, our first event with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training.) The kids had their parade and found GOLD! Actual gold! Well...not really, but they were convinced.