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It's really been snowing the past two days
I don't think I've ever seen this much snow accumulation in Seattle, it's kind of nice.
The weather here definitely reminds me of the southern part of New England (Connecticut, New York) with dominant maritime climate and occasional snow/accumulation.
Malcolm and Susan had fun building a snowman, and I shoveled the 'driveway' (such as it is) and the walk.
Festelavn dress-up day at Malcolm's day care today. He went as a lion which makes two lions in the school today :):
also some birds and bugs
I finally got my "good bike", a Rivendell Atlantis, back up and roadworthy this weekend, and sorted out Susan's Atlantis and the generator lights on the Christiania for good measure.
It felt great to fly around on a fast bike again! It was warm on Saturday so I ran errands on the Atlantis. It feels very free and safe to ride here w/no helmet as there are seprate bike lanes everywhere (although I'll still wear one for longer trips). I also put clipless pedals on my Atlantis, which are awesome. Wish I'd done that years ago. I'll start commuting to work on this bike, soon...
On Sunday it was considerably colder (low 30s) but we wanted to take a ride so we put the child carrier seat on the back of my bike and set out for a brief spin... too cold though, my feet were quite cold by the time we returned, and the wind was cutting.
Festelavn is sort-of like a Danish version of Halloween where kids dress up.... we had a couple of kids (teenagers) @ our door looking for candy today. At Malcom's school they're having a Festelavn thing on Monday where all the kids dress up. Malcolm wanted to go as an astronaut but all we could do on short notice was a Lion, so Lion it is. He came home on Thurdsday already decked out:
Like many holidays Festelavn has pagan origin:
"... The Danes do have a holiday similar to Halloween called Festelavn, but
it involves banging a cat and takes place in May. Like Halloween, it is
derived from a pagan ritual. It was believed that the cat had evil
spirits and you would put it in a barrel and bang on the barrel until
the evil spirits came out of the cat. My guess is all it did was drive
the cat bananas. Nowadays, the kiddies just imagine that there is a cat
inside. "
So they basically hit a pinata with a stick and get candy, much to the relief of cats everywhere and us!
Malcolm had his first full day at the Montessori Børne (Child) Center in Birkerød on Monday. It's a nice school with a relatively small number of kids - mostly Danish, a few Chinese and one African-Danish girl. The ages range from < 2 to 6 years, with several close in age to Malcolm.
It seems like a very nice place for kids. The owners Marianne and Frederick are courteous and mindful of the fact that Malcolm only speaks English right now... the lessons and daily activities are in Danish but they speak English very well and can help him communicate until he picks up Danish.
There's music instruction every Wednesday (using a Melodica), lots of stories and songs, the raising of the Danish flag every day and of course lots of outdoors play. Danish kids are virtually always outside! That's why you always see them bundled in snowsuits like little Michelin tire men :).
Fridays are half-days and they all walk down the the Birkerød Svommehal (swimming pool) as a group for swimming lessons!
