All the school children in Trondheim wear these backpacks.  When they are out on fieldtrips (which are frequent), they all have them on, and the kids sure stand out.  Of course, the phrase printed on the backpacks makes us chuckle.  "Senk farten" translates to "slow down".

  

The action on our end of the street tonight

And at the neighborhood playground

The weather has been gorgeous this week.  We had a sunny 10 minute rain burst this afternoon, but otherwise it's been lovely.

Here you can see an example of a fire escape on a neighborhood house.  It is that white, vertical, metal shaft running up the middle of the side of the house.  You pull a pin at the top, and it folds out into a ladder.  Trondheim has a history of devastating fires, so they take fire safety pretty seriously. 

One of my favorite things about Norway is the crosswalks.  First, most crosswalks don't have a light at them.  They are simply marked by the alternating black and white stripes across the road.  If a pedestrian steps into the crosswalk, the cars all stop.  If the crosswalk has a light at it, like the one above (in front of our local market, the Bunn Pris - it means Lowest Price), when the walking man light turns from red to green, you are good to go.  When the green walking man starts flashing, you'd better not enter the crosswalk, because the light is changing to red in like 2 seconds.  I love that!  There is no namby-pamby middle ground or decision-making necessary.  No "maybe I can make it across the street before the light turns" like it is in the US with our long amber lights.

Shopping in the market.  Dave had two helpers.

On the way home from the market tonight, we ran into Grace's friend Mathea, who is in her class at her barnehage.  Mathea lives just down the street from us.  She has an electric jeep that she tools around the neighborhood in - didn't expect to see that in Norway!

Petting Mathea's dog

Grace got a chance to hold her 

Riding in the jeep - Grace doesn't look too thrilled here, but she loves it.  

Sam and Katie had a reading festival out on the trampoline.  Fresh library books today!