A great day ’round these parts! Tage turned two years old today and we had a nice little party to celebrate. The first guest to arrive was Helena and it was nice to have a few minutes to chat before I had to go into hostess mode. She’s going to come out and stay over a couple of nights while Olof is gone to Uppsala next week, and I’m really looking forward to it. I’m really going to miss her when she moves back to the States this fall — I told her today that I’m just trying to ignore the looming threat of her move, but it’s not going away. Just writing about it is a downer, but, I digress . . .

The party was rounded out by Olof’s family — his sister and brother-in-law, his parents, his aunt, his cousin and her sambo/live-in boyfriend (I hate that “live-in boyfriend” thing, it sounds so much less serious and more tawdry than the sambo relationship really is in Sweden, but I cringe at just leaving the word “sambo” with no explanation)., and another of his cousins. Oh, and the first cousin’s three-month old puppy, a too-adorable-for-words finsk vallhund (Finnish Shepherd, I guess).

Toy cars, or toy vehicles at any rate, were the order of the day. In addition to a good dozen of those, he got a couple of coloring books, some crayons, a fleece pullover jacket, and a brand-new sandbox–complete with lid–made by Olof’s dad. I made a couple of great blueberry pies and Olof’s mom brought a delicious raspberry cream cake made with raspberries picked from her own bushes. I so want raspberry bushes.

The only pictures we got were of the candle-blowing-out, and none of those is a terrific shot of the birthday boy, I’m afraid. He wasn’t quite sure what to do, and I think we made him a little nervous with our enthusiastic demonstrations (I was so enthusiastic that I accidentally blew out the candle once). In the end the task fell to Lydia, who executed it admirably.