Halloween party II

Walking home from church Sunday morning.  Today began Orgelfest in Trondheim, and it was kicked off with the 11am service at Nidarosdomen.  Some pretty nifty organ playing, but I had my fill after an hour.  I'm an organ lightweight.

He looks so innocuous here.  Don't let him fool you - he is a handful.  And we love him.

After lunch, Dave offered to stay home with Grace and Isaac while I went to another Halloween party with Sam and Katie.  This one was a party for the Yanks in Trondheim group.  Membership is made up of folks and family member of folks who are from the U.S.  

Waiting for the bus.  Katie decided she didn't like her Belle costume and designed her own flower girl get-up, complete with a hat to clear up any question of what her costume was.

On her way to the party, bag of Cheez Doodles in hand

Sam started out the costume contest by parading before the judges.

Katie presents her costume.

On the loft overlooking the festivities 

The dessert spread - complete with a rice-krispies-treat witch hat and a jello brain (at the far end of the table).  

Katie won the costume award for Best Headpiece.

The pinata

Sam puts a couple of dents in the spider.

The kids wait for the first breach into the candy.

Bobbing for apples

Back home again, Isaac built a barn for his sick cow. 

The girls

We tried a new game tonight - Yahtzee!

It wasn't an unqualified success, but we will give it another go.  I didn't do a great job of explaining all the rules.   

Grace loads the cup for another shake of the dice. 

Some of our Halloween decorations, courtesy of Katie

Boo!

Saturday scooting

Out for a walk with Grace and Isaac on Saturday afternoon.  The day was overcast, but it was beautiful autumn crispness.

Isaac has become a great fan of scooting.

Grace uses the tricycle to scoot.  She never wants to use the pedals, but she can keep up with Isaac by Fred Flintstone-ing on the bike.

Discovered this Boy Scout office down the street from us while on the walk.

Note the name of the street on the sign

Halloween party I

Katie post-Art Club 

There was a Halloween party at the international school on Friday night.

Sam and his friend Adrian pose.  Adrian is a ninja and Sam is an army officer outfitted with paper guns and ammunition.

Katie and her classmate Eskil 

Belle and Darth

More face paint 

Grace had a good time at the craft table using scissors.   When we were contemplating coming to Norway for half a year, I was a bit apprehensive about the fact that Grace would have no supplemental therapy, such as she has had in her first three years (physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy).  Turns out, she's getting all of it in a really natural way here.  In her barnehage, she is in a class with 13 other typically developing kids.  To top it off, she is the youngest in the class, so she has lots of good peer examples of typical 4-year old development.  She's held to the same standards as her classmates, and does all the same activities.  Her teachers are great, and she loves going to school each day.

The party was held in the gym, which is lined with these ladders.  Grace spend most of the evening climbing.  

Isaac tried to get in on the fun, but he wasn't so confident on the ladders.

Sam declared that Grace's costume was Chicken Pox Girl (because of the polka dots on her shirt) and Isaac's costume was a Cyborg (because he had robots on his shirt, so he was half man/half machine.)

Isaac handles an unmanned light saber.  There were at least three Darth Vaders at the party.

Cultural Day

Wednesday at Sam, Katie, and Grace's school they celebrated Cultural Day.  Instead of wearing their school uniform, they could wear clothes that represent their culture.  Sam wore jeans and his Butler Broncos t-shirt, Katie wore her red, white, and blue dress, and Grace wore her Texas Rangers World Series shirt.  (Alas, we wish this year's series had ended better for the Rangers.)

At the school assembly, each homeroom group led a different presentation.  Sam and Katie's group led the school in singing the school song, each line translated into a language that is represented by students at the school.  The barnehage kids (Grace's group) recited a funny Norwegian poem.  Another group did dances from the different cultures at the international school.  For the American dance, they line danced - that got the most cheers.

This group is doing a Norwegian hat dance - the Halling.  The fellow is kicking a hat off a stick. 

Grace and her friend Lily

Cultural exchange

Isaac the inveterate big-machine-spotter

Our die-hard rose bush.  This has had blossoms on it since we arrived in August and is still going strong at the end of October.

Our living room through the eyes of the iphone.

Dave is always deep in thought.

360 degree view

Atop Storheia

Jared took some great pictures from his hike with Dave on Saturday.

From the summit

That's the Trondheimsfjord in the background

Some panoramas taken by Jared's iphone 

Plenty of snow left 

But mostly mud