Homemade Chinese dumplings

On Saturday we are going to some friends to celebrate Chinese New Year. Everyone has to bring some food so we decided to make dumplings (which are Carl’s favourite). We thought it would be a good idea to practice first.


Åsa making the dough Then you add some filling Pinch the edges together Starting to look good Emperor Carl the First seems to approve Almost all gone

The dumplings were lovely but we have a few ideas to make them even better for Saturday.

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The masterpiece is complete

Thanks to the wonderful Mr Geert Roovers, I found exactly what I needed to finish the desk. We have now moved back in and Carl is online :) .


Finished

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New desk

While they were over dad and I built a new desk for our office. Now that Carl is online we need more space for our computers. Sadly we were too busy working ot take too many pictures.


Cutting the worktop to fit The first supports are up Just need to drill holes for the cables now

I need to buy a drill bit for the cable hole sso I hope to finish this off tomorrow. It looks ace so far and is solid as a rock! Thanks dad and Tommy who helped so much.

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Old folks visit

Mum and dad were over from N Ireland to visit Carl for the first time. Since we also had Theodor for the weekend and Carl is still settling in, they have been staying with Åsa’s mum but we’ve seen them lots and did lots of fun things…

They arrived on Friday evening so we just hung out at our house and had dinner before taking them over to Kicki and Tommy’s to get some much needed sleep.


Grandma and Carl together at last Carl got tools to help me work around the house

On Saturday morning Kicki and Tommy dropped mum, dad and Lilly off. While dad and I did some shopping for supplies the rest of them played in the garden to tire out the dogs and the kids.


Pilly-hund is the centre of attention Snuggle Theodor throwing balls for Scout Scout and Carl Mum and Theodor Pilly looking bemused by all the activity Carl and Theodor warming up

We spent a large part of Sunday at Kicki and Tommy’s. It had snowed overnight so we bought a sledge and had some fun.


Åsa and Carl take the first run Dad enjoying then fresh air Carl thought it was more fun just to run down the hill Dad ambushes me Carl pulls me down the hill A surgical strike with a snowball Theodor gets bombarded

Then in the evening Theodor went home and everyone came to our place for dinner.


Carl teaches dad all about blocks All the grandparents

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Carl’s new bed

Carl has settled in nicely but sleeping in our bed is just not working anymore. Luckily IKEA is not far away so we went and bought him his own bed that he helped dad build.


Making sure we have all the pieces. Almost done.

Fingers crossed he will actually sleep in it too!

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Walking the dog

After we came home from China with Carl, Scout has felt a bit left out and neglected so we decided to give her a special treat. A visit to the doggie islands at Drottningholm Palace. Both dog and humans had a great time!


We have arrived and are ready to go. The boys are all here. But where is the dog? It's a long climb to the top. Stomping on the ice until it breaks is great fun! We have seen the Drottningholm Palace several times before and decided to go to the Chinese Palace instead, a royal summer home located in the Drottningholm Palace parks. Andrew and Carl reading the information board. All the boys, and Scout of course, outside the Chinese Palace. Having a great time!

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Service time for the car

The car was due for a service so I took it in today. It was pretty cool because I could wait while they did it and they offered free lunch, coffee and web access. Well I had just eaten lunch before I came and I don’t drink coffee but I brought my laptop and played Star Wars: The Old Republic for two hours while the car was worked on right beside me…


Car with all it's parts showing

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New TV shelves

We got a bit tired of our dull old IKEA TV unit shelf so we decided to replace it. It turned out great!


Before = dull! Carl helps with measuring Two shelves up Carl gets some tips from Bob and the gang Just need to clean up the cables now The finished wodnerfull Finished!

All that remains now is to get a new screen. The one we have now is a freebie we got from Åsa’s uncle. It’s an old slide screen that does the job but is getting old. I hope to buy a new one at the end of the month.

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Bad day, good day…

Today started off crappy. Carl didn’t sleep well during the night so was very grumpy. The horrid weather didn’t help at all. Obviously what you do on a cold rainy day is go to an open farm so that’s just what we did and it was great fun…


Åsa and Carl loving the weather Feeding the sheep Psycho sheep These horses stood very still for our pictures Highland cattle

The day then got bad again when I was contacted about my mobile phone. My new and rather expensive Samsung Galaxy S2 died in China and The Phone House refuse to replace it under the guarantee because it has been damaged by moisture. Quite how that happened when it hasn’t been anywhere near moisture is anyone’s guess!

Luckily our insurance company know a lot more about customer service and are replacing it for me. Now I just need to go and buy one. Well done Folksam!

Then we went for another walk to post some more paperwork about the adoption. On the way back Åsa and Carl stopped to play in the playground but we had Scout and she’s not allowed in so I couldn’t go too :(

All in all it has ended up as a good day with some minor upsets thanks mostly to the idiots at The Phone House.

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Happy New Year!

We took it fairly easy for New Year’s Eve as we didn’t want to get Carl all hyped up or panicked. Thomas, Anna, Jimmy, Louise and David came round for a meal, some drinks and catching up on all the gossip. We were worried that Carl wouldn’t sleep or would be woken by the fireworks. He was an angel and went straight to bed after his bath, was asleep inside six minutes and then didn’t wake for the rest of the night even when there were really loud bangs outside.


Carl Lewis? Presents from Nixon and the Doctor Bling dinosaur Thomas and Carl Thomas and Jimmy having fun

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