Vappu

Vappu is a holiday celebrated in Finland on the 1stof May, which means May Day.  From what it I u understand Vappu is  a mixture of celebrations; labor day, university student's holiday and celebration of Spring. Everything closes down for the day and many people head into Helsinki to picnic and enjoy the day. The celebrations start the night before,Vappu eve, and go throughout the day. 

This morning we had two very nice moments. We had started our journey into Helsinki by loading up the crew and headed out of our place. We turned the corner and all of the flower beds from the night before in front of  the store fronts below our home had been ripped apart from some late night vandals. Vandalism happens quite often in our area, but the difference today was two little girls about 8 or 9 years old were placing the plants back into the flower beds. Serenity began to pick up the plants and put them back as well. So we all began to replace the plants. It took us only 15 minutes or so of our time, but the thought went through my head if those little girls had not been there would I have picked up the plants or would I have just walked by? I noticed as we were replacing the plants others that walked by picked up one or two and replaced them as well. I even noticed people picking up garbage that had been poured out from the night before. It was nice to share that moment with others around us. In a weird way it makes me kind of grateful for the vandalism for the experience that we had this morning. 

The other nice moment we had was Steve received a phone call when we had just gotten off the bus to Helsinki from a stranger that told him he had his credit card. Steve had left it at the booth where you refill your bus pass. He told him that he was heading towards Helsinki and that he would bring it to him. Within 20 minutes of the phone call Steve met up with him and was able to retrieve his card. One act of kindness from a stranger. 

So on with our day. We headed out rolling in the stroller. We have now downgraded to a single stroller, so that we can actually fit in elevators, buses, stores, etc.. We have also upgraded it with a skateboard attached to the back. Serenity is in heaven. haha.

I hope I never get used to looking at the sea here. It is so beautiful.

Some of the flower beds in front of our house. Alex is very proud of her picture taking.

Bubbles were the hit of the day for the little ones.

I was trying to get some building in the background with these two. We were surrounded by some pretty amazing places. Picnicing in the park. Such a beautiful day.

So many people were out today enjoying the weather and the celebration. Ezra was looking for the bubbles.

Balloons were a big thing for the celebration today. They were everywhere. They also had things like they do for new years like hats, party whistles, string confetti, etc.....

It was really not that cold, but the girls had to carry the blankets from the picnics.

Money was burning a hole in Josie and Alex's pockets so Josie bought herself a panda mask and Alex bought snaps.

These girls were actually getting along today. Very nice day. If you look in the background the hat the girl was wearing I think is a graduation hat. So many people were wearing these hats today. I am sure it is a tradition to wear these hats for the celebration no matter when you graduated.

Can't get enough of the bubbles

Trying to be discrete. just taking more pics of the white hat.

Ez is messy and loving it.

There were so many street performers out today. These guys were amazing.

Josie cracks me up. Making gangsta signs while rocking the chocolate.

This dude was pretty cool. I think Steve needs to get himself an act.

This boy was rocking out with electric guitar. He was making bank. I need to teach my girls to break dance or something.

April 25th 2012

I think officially for me today this has been the nicest, warmest, absolutely beautiful day in Espoo. The sun is out. We only had to layer once to go out. I took some pictures of the shops that are around us right now. They have varied since we have been here. I love the location where we live. I have always thought it would be fun to live above a shop, so that everything is just right there. The long winter has made me appreciate the warm weather we had today even if it is only 11 degrees(52 degrees F). I am so excited to go exploring this summer and see all that Finland has to offer.

This is taken from my balcony. They have put out seating now since the spring has officially arrived. It's a little sandwich shop called Picnic, it's a little sandwich shop.

 

This is the view from the other direction. The little stand down there is selling strawberries, blueberries and green beans. The store behind it is Stockmann. Very nice department store. It also has a grocery store. Very expensive. Just window shop here mostly. haha.

Growing a jungle

So as a family we have decided that we are going to plant a balcony garden this year. We decided to start growing indoors first because it still gets pretty cold outside at night (oh and during the day. haha). We have about 5 books about gardening that we have collected over the years and we finally began to thumb through them. About 10 minutes later we realized that we have no clue about gardening. So with a lot of seeds and faith we added dirt and water. Over the weeks we have seen our mini jungle form and have been so excited about it. I realize now that we have over planted and am so sad to have to sacrifice some of these plants so that others can grow. I am so excited to have our mini garden and will update the progress for it. We have started it inside because it is still cold outside, but hopefully it will warm up soon.



This is our little strawberry plants. Which I didn't think I was going to see because the seeds were so itty-bitty , but they surprised me and started to sprout.




It is now November 15 and our garden has not really bloomed but it does have determination and that is why I have not given up on it yet.

We did get a mini green pepper. Some mini tomatoes. If there was a contest for best mini garden I think we would win. :)

Top ten reasons to ride the bus/ not ride the bus in Finland

TOP TEN REASONS TO RIDE THE BUS IN FINLAND

1.SAVE ON GAS MONEY
2.MOMS RIDE FOR FREE WITH STROLLER
3.DON'T HAVE TO WARM UP YOUR CAR OR SCRAPE WINDSHIELD
4.NO CAR PAYMENTS OR INSURANCE PAYMENTS TO WORRY ABOUT
5.ALL YOUR FRIENDS CAN FIT.
6.OCCASIONALLY GET THE BUS DRIVER THAT LOVES THE 80'S
7.GET TO MEET ALL KINDS OF PEOPLE
8.KIDS LIKE TO RIDE THE BUS AND PUSH THE STOP BUTTON
9.THE BUS TAKES YOU ANYWHERE YOU WANT TO GO EVEN IF IT IS A FEW TRANSFERS AND A LITTLE WALKING.
10.YOU CAN TEXT, READ, SLEEP, RELAX WHILE RIDING.


TOP TEN REASONS TO RECONSIDER RIDING THE BUS IN FINLAND.

1.SOME BUSES MAY SMELL LIKE URINE.
2.YOU MAY GET RANDOMLY FLASHED
3.LONG WAITS IN BETWEEN TRANSFERS.
4.KIDS PLAY MUSICAL CHAIRS WHILE THE BUS IS GOING
5.CAN'T DO BIG GROCERY SHOPS OR YOU ARE HAULING IT ALL HOME.
6.MOST BUS DRIVERS DON'T SPEAK ENGLISH(WHICH IS FINE IF YOU SPEAK FINNISH)
7.LEAD FOOT BUS DRIVERS(ALWAYS PUSHING YOUR IMAGINARY BRAKE)
8.FORGET BUS PASS
9.FIGHT FOR STROLLER SPACE(THROW DOWN)
10.KIDS LIKE TO RIDE THE BUS AND PUSH THE STOP BUTTON(EVEN WHEN ITS NOT TIME TO STOP, OH HOW THE BUS DRIVERS LOVE THAT ONE)

904 square foot home!!

As I began my post I decided to figure out what 84 square meters is in square feet and I realized that my family and I are living in a 904 square foot home!! At first I was a little apprehensive to sharing walls again with neighbors and the size of the "flat" made me a little nervous, but I really enjoy it. Many things I don't have to worry about. Heating costs, yard work, only have one bathroom to clean, when I clean the house it does not take very long, but it does get dirty fast.

Space is limited, but I have found that this is the reason they have created Ikea (pronounced ick-E-a in Finland). Today we bought a pan rack so that I could have a place to store all my pans. I can only keep one room clean at a time it seems here so I will take pictures one room at a time. I love my kitchen it is my little sanctuary. (those who know me would not believe it), but I have learned to love cooking for the moment and am happy that my food turns out as well. I am not saying it does all the time, but it has been more often than not. I want to post more pictures of my house when I get the other rooms a little more organized and get some pics of the place I live. We picked this place because we ride the bus everywhere. We decided to do this to save money as well as it gives us a nudge to explore more and get to know Finland better. Below us is a department store, grocery store, pharmacy, playground, etc...., so we feel a little spoiled. The snow came again today and I am hoping that it will stay. Finland is pretty, but it is so much prettier when there is snow covering the trees and the ground during the winter.

Christmas in Finland

I have no idea how to be a better blogger. That is one of my new years goals. So for now it will have to look very disorganized. I wanted to talk about Christmas in Finland. I am not sure we experienced the full Finnish way of doing things, but we did find some fun things that the Finnish do during Christmas. For instance Santa since he lives in Finland comes door to door to visit the children and brings them their presents Christmas eve. The next thing we were able to do was partake in all the amazing pastries. I made rolls a few weeks before Christmas and they actually turned out. (Bread never really works for me). I then thought to try making their cinnamon rolls they do here and they turned out!! So I went to the bread the make called "pulla". Wow I have been impressed with my ability to make these things. I really think it has a lot to do with the altitude here, maybe no humidity(like Georgia), and maybe they have some magic dust they put in their flour here. I do not want this streak to end so until it does I am going to continue making breads and pastries until my luck runs up.

Steve came home one day with a Christmas tree and surprised us!! It was beautiful and I wish I would have gotten a better picture of it before it died. I hope to one day grow a green thumb, but this year we were only able to keep our poor tree alive for about a week.

I felt sort guilty that the Christmas tree was cut down just for us to only survive a week, so I thought what could we do with it to show how much we appreciated. I looked up online and was able to find a potpourri for pine needles. We boiled them and let them simmer and the whole house smells like a Christmas tree. Very lovely.

I know my pics are random but hopefully you see why I posted most of them for the Christmas blog. Santa is cute here he likes to dress a little old fashioned and his reindeer go wherever he goes. We went out for a night down town during the holidays to see the lights in Helsinki and came upon the Lutheran Church around it was little shops where we got hot chocolate and Steve bought a reindeer brats. Looking forward to another Christmas here and hopefully we will see some snow next time.

I should probably mention what Steve and Josie are doing with the telescope. Josie was asking for a telescope all year and Santa had a very hard time tracking one down in Finland apparently they don't have many here, but he found one and when there is not a cloudy night you can see Josie looking through her telescope. I love it when they use the things they are given. Ez loved his train he got and knows exactly the right noises to make while it goes along the track. Every year seems like I am blessed more and more and am grateful to be sharing this experience with my family.

This is the Lutheran church in Helsinki Finland. It is so huge and beautiful. There are a lot of other amazing things around this area. I will take more pictures later. It was too cold outside for the kids and so we couldn't stick around very long.