Fun with Pippi! (Longstocking, that is)

The past week had a little bit of a Pippi Longstocking theme.
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Sofia's neighborhood friend, Kaleb, came by to have some fun in the backyard and they ended up soaking each other with the garden hose and so needed dry clothes. Don't they look like 2 little rascals in matching Pippi shirts and jeans :-)Later in the week Sofia let me do her hair in Pippi braids. I managed to do it real quick while she was sitting still coloring, otherwise I wouldn't have gotten near her hair!Here's my two little cutie girls on our new living room couch that we got from http://www.freecycle.org/. Love, love, love, freecycle and love, love, love this new comfy couch! What a great way to re-purpose things and pass it through the community. Sofia's photo skills are being honed everyday! She loves telling us all to smile and say "cheese".Kajsa is ready for baby yoga! She loves chewing on her toes. I didn't whip the camera out quick enough, as a second earlier she had both toes in her mouth!!! :-)

Sofia feeds Kajsa!

Sofia is such a big girl now. Here she is feeding her little sister, Kajsa.

2 girls having fun!

Here are some pictures of Sofia and Kajsa from the last week:

Sofia likes to play peekabo with Kajsa when she's eating. Kajsa is now eating pureed veggies and rice cereal - yum!
This is the first time that Kajsa got to join Sofia in the tub - they had lots of fun and Sofia was doing a great job showing Kajsa what bathtime is all about.
This is the beautiful quilt that Raina, Carl's girlfriend, made for Kajsa. We love it! Kajsa is wearing a knit cardigan that my dad (morfar) wore when he was a baby. Handmade things last forever! I hope that Kajsa can pass down her quilt when she becomes a mom :-)


Sofia is becoming quite the little photographer, didn't she do a great job with this picture!

Easter Fun

On Sunday we celebrated Easter at Gramma and Grampa's house with an egg hunt, Easter baskets and a yummy lunch with paninis, pasta salad, and fresh fruit.
Isn't Sofia adorable in her Easter dress! She was all about finding lots of eggs, she was super excited about "found another one!"
Kajsa wasn't as talented as Sofia at hunting eggs, she enjoyed being snuggled instead :-)
Sofia got a really neat fish bubble wand in her Easter basket. She was blowing a whole bunch of bubbles all by herself.

A visit to Gilroy Gardens

On Sunday we spent the day at Gilroy Gardens in Gilroy, CA. It is a beautiful botanical garden and it's also a little amusement park for young kids. Gramma and Grampa came along too. Sofia had a blast riding all the little rides and was really a lot braver than her Mamma and Pappa thought, even riding several twirling fast ones all on her own!

Spring Blossoms!

We did a car ride tour of the Fresno Blossom Trail for the second year this past weekend. Lots of different gorgeous blooming trees including plums, cherries, and more. The flower petals on the ground made the orchards look like they had a fresh dusting of snow, however the temperatures were in the high 60's :-)

Fun in the Sun in the Bahamas!

All four of us just came back from enjoying a fabulously relaxing two weeks in Treasure Cay, Bahamas with my parents. We were spoiled with great food, perfect weather, and lots of fun in the sun! We can't think of a better vacation destination considering Treasure Cay is like paradise!

Kajsa and Emma in the swing on the patio at sunset.

Sofia eating a picnic lunch in the boat. She was a trooper and even napped on the boat!

Uncle Carl gets to hold Kajsa for her first foray into trying solid foods - mashed bananas!

Sofia and Ryan are beachcombing for treasures. Ryan became a pro conch shell hunter and Sofia was thrilled to go treasure seeking for all sorts of fun stuff.
Sofia on Windward Beach. We went to the beach at least once a day!

A nice little art spot for Sofia on Mormor's deck. My friend Maria made this adorable shirt for Sofia and Kajsa has a matching one :-)

Another beach adventure, this time on the Treasure Cay Beach, which has been rated by National Geographic as one of the top 10 beaches in the whole world! It's 3 miles of amazing white soft sand.

My mom made this fantastic Valentine's dinner with every course featuring either red or pink food! It was pleasing to both the eyes and the tummy :-)

The Kalmbachs Visit Sweden

On August 17th, Sofia's 1st birthday, we arrived in Sweden to spend 2 and a half weeks seeing friends and family and enjoying a little international vacation. We had a great time staying on Emma's parents sailboat in the Stockholm area and surrounding archipelago and also had a chance to rent a car to go to the south of Sweden to visit Emma's Mormor (grandma). During the first part of our trip we also attended Emma's friend since birth Helena's wedding. Emma was the Maid of Honor and almost didn't make it to the church in time since our ride was stuck in traffic!!!
We met Johanna's son Alexander for the first time and attended his baptism/christening. It was a very busy visit with everyone - we enjoyed our trip immensely with sailing and sightseeing and great dinners with many of our friends.

Midsommar Fest in Fresno

We celebrated Swedish Midsommar at our house on June 24th. Unfortunately, it was too hot to be outside to partake in "Kubb", so instead we danced the little frog dance (sma grodorna) around the living room and made wreaths to wear in our hair for the ladies! Everyone enjoyed Swedish delicacies such as meatballs, pickled herring and aquavit! Skal!

Camping!

Over the 4th of July weekend Carl came to visit and we headed up to Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Parks to see BIG trees, mountains and to explore new trails. Over the weekend we hiked to the summit of Little Baldy (elev. 8,044 ft), hiked along the Kings Canyon River Gorge and hiked around a mountain meadow surrounded by Sequoias. Camping with a baby for 2 days was a little trickier than normal camping but Sofia is already a camp princess, preciding over bark, rocks and dirt - loving every moment of it!

Fire on Hwy 152

I was driving home from our Salinas store this evening and had just gotten over the top of the pass on Hwy 152 when traffic came to a dead stop. I then noticed some smoke over the hills in front of me. At the same time I saw two airplanes circling rather low. As we inched forward I could see ahead what appeared to be a blackened hillside next to the road. Right then one of the planes swooped down and dropped its load of fire extinguishing stuff (orange) just ahead of me over a hill that bordered the road. At this point I was talking to my brother on the phone so he could check the caltrans website for reports. As he told me what it said, I encountered it. Fire in the road, burning cardboard in the road. Our eastbound traffic crossed over the gravel divider and entered the oncoming lanes. Fire and smoke and burning debris was blowing everywhere. I witnessed three tanker planes drop their load on the fire that had spread on both sides of the road (and was in the divider in spots as well.) Made for an exciting drive to say the least. It appears a truckload of cardboard overturned at some point. Still not sure what set the fire ablaze.