She does love a good princess dress…

You know she really does love a good princess dress…despite the forest and the boots and the dirt and the bugs.  Which is why she couldn’t have been more excited a few weeks ago to attend a “princess party”, hosted by one of her classmates, last week to celebrate a birthday.Princess Birthday Party -2I wrote about uncanny marriage of the forest school persona and the princess before, but their peaceful coexistence continues.

I used to be afraid of the princess thing, thinking that even if we got too close to the glittered and sparkled tulle that it might catch on like a wildfire, or a virus.   But I have to say I wholeheartedly don’t mind anymore.  I even bought her this particular dress (and the wreath and the matching shoes to go with it). I’m an enabler now, I suppose…Princess Birthday Party -1And she’s not the only one… one of the things I’ve noticed is while the girls at the school love to get dirty, and throw sand, and make mud pies and play with dump trucks and you name it, there is still a bit of natural gravitation towards all things delicate and sparkly.  Not all of them, and not all the time.  And frankly, I’ve seen some of the boys run around with a head wreath on with the best of them too….it’s okay to make space for some of those feelings.  After all, who isn’t drawn in by a little bit of magic or a little bit of fairy tale ? I don’t think it’s sad that girls – or boys – want to be part of them…I think it’s sad when we stop believing in them altogether.

The Ultimate Guide to Summer in Denmark…

The guide of what to do in and around Copenhagen, Denmark for the perfect summer!

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a summertime guide to Denmark, specifically if you are in and around Copenhagen.  While it’s not exclusively for children’s activities, since this is Denmark, most of them are indeed child friendly.  If you think summer days in Denmark or Copenhagen are on the menu for you this year, take a look – maybe it will give you a few fun ideas !

It really wasn’t supposed to be this quiet…

It wasn’t supposed to take so long to get posts up…and it really wasn’t supposed to be so long between the last post and this one….Sometimes I really have to ask myself where the time went…Rundetarn Copenhagen 1-1

But the truth is, there’s been a lot going on; it seems that way anyway.  Work-wise, the day job is in full swing and it’s the time of year where we are nearly busiest and so for this mom, between trips here and trips there for  big clients and the daily grind at home with my smallest clients, there seems like there isn’t that much time left over.  I always seem to be one step behind.

And behind all of that is the also the realization that while the Scandinavian summer days are drawing out their length in the amount of sunlight hours (it’s not actually “dark dark” until past 11 in the evening!), the number of days that we have left here keeps getting shorter. It’s bittersweet to say the least.  I’d even say more bitter than sweet.  It will be wonderful to go home and have a new adventure, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that our hearts are breaking just a bit to know we will have to leave behind the home that we’ve built here.  It’s the deal…with our lifestyle, we know we can’t stay forever, but still even so, it’s always a bit of a surprise when the tab comes and it’s time to pack up.

This is the first time that we’re doing the move cycle with a child that’s old enough to understand, although not fully.  And she’s old enough to have her own emotions about it.  So as tickets get bought, and movers come to do surveys, and we tick off good-bye events and graduations and farewells with friends, there’s a roller coaster ride behind the scenes that everyone here is riding at their own pace, and that’s adding a bit of up and down to everything as well.

Nonetheless, there have been so many good adventures we’ve been on lately and I do promise to share them.  We have six weeks to go here, with forest school continuing to the very end, and we intend to make all of them count!

Just Back from …the Faroe Islands!

I know it’s been a bit quiet on the blog here this month, but travels are finally dying down and we should get back to a regular cadence by next week.  Apologies for the radio silence but we definitely have lots of adventures to share.Toddler Faroe Islands Forest School-1

What’s more, it is finally starting to feel like summer around here – long long days and lots of sunshine which is a very welcome change.  So welcome in fact that it’s hard to make time to sit in front of the computer in the evenings to crank out more posts but promise they are coming.

In the meantime, one quick shot from exploring around the Faroe Islands where we just returned from.  Summer there still meant full rain gear, boots and a wool hat but weirdly, it was still a really pleasant feeling.  Plus, the scenery was just so stunning, it was hard to notice the weather anyway! More to come on that soon!