Halloween

We had a great Halloween this year. Last year Lilja ended up getting sick on actual Halloween and the costume we had planned for last year was for her to be a cat.  She's been talking about her cat costume for over a year now haha so she was really happy when the time finally came for her to wear it. Since she was sick last year we already had her costume, as well as Sofia's. I had some cat ears and a tail that I threw on and all I had to do was find something for Eric. The plan was to be cats and dogs.

The dog costume selection around Santa Barbara and even online was pretty scarce. The only think I could find was a big dog onesie costume. It looks so comfortable though, and I will most likely end up wearing it like pretty much every single day around the house. Maybe even outside of the house 😝.

Here are some pics from our Halloween fun...

Of course we carved pumpkins like we do every year. It's getting to be more fun for every year that goes by as the kids are getting more involved.

Lilja had a Halloween parade during the day of Halloween that Eric was able to come to which was fun.  All the kids were so cute.

My little cat 🐱💖

Someone else got to partake in the Halloween parade festivities and of course the candy 😆

Look at all these cuties 💞

It was a busy day with Halloween trick or treating that night. But oh so fun! We're so lucky to live in the same town as Eric's sister with kids, and we normally trick or treat together. Our kids and their kids are like siblings and they love to hang out. We're blessed that they can spend this time together and share these amazing memories.

I just can't with these two 💕

I mean....

How cute is little V as Dorothy 💓

Hope you had a great Halloween!

The Coziness Continues

Yesterday was really mellow. We ended up hanging out at the beach for a while and then when everyone transitioned to the campsite we decided to go home, Eric stayed behind.

I was so stoked to be back home to be able to enjoy the fall weather inside. The girls and I decided to do a movie night with popcorn, ice cream and treats. 

Then when the girls went to bed I proceeded to watch my show that I'm currently addicted to "American Horror Story." Eric is really disturbed by the fact that i enjoy those types of television programs and never wants to watch it with me so I always end up watching it by myself. That's fine though, I rather watch it by myself than hear someone complain about what their watching every 5 minutes. 

The fall weather continues today and will continue throughout the week and I couldn't be happier. 

This morning me and the girls went to church. Eric was too tired from the previous night 😝. We ended up meeting a couple of friends there which was fun. Then we ran some errands and are now back home for some coziness. I have a pot roast cooking in the crockpot and I'm gonna make some raw balls in a minute. 

You know that extremely healthy treat that everyone talks about? Gluten free, sugar free etc etc. My friend had made some the other day and I got to try some and it was absolutely delicious. And then you don't have to feel bad about eating it!! It's a no brainer.  I'll have to put the recipe up on the blog for you all to try too if you haven't already. 

I just posted another blog post from the past (hehe) trying to catch up (but it no particular order). It's about our trip to the Zoo for some Halloween fun. You can read about it here. 

Foggy & Cozy

Today we woke up to a completely foggy sky. Thank God!! We've a heatwave here in CA for quite some time now with temperatures in the 80s and 90s. Almost hitting 40°C for all you Euros out there. It's been WAY to hot! According to the iPhone (not very reliable info it seems like these days) the weather is supposed to cool down next week to then the following week involve RAIN!! YAY! The Swede in me is screaming for some Fall weather.

Today we're gonna head up to El Capitan camp site to celebrate a friend's birthday during the day. But as of right now I'm still in bed (highly unusual these days), enjoying a warm chocolate croissant with some coffee and looking out at the cooler weather and foggy sky.

I hope you are all enjoying your Saturday out there.

I just did a post on Lilja's first day of Kindergarten. Click here to read about that. I'm gonna need to back track quite a lot to add some posts I don't wanna leave out of the blog. Gotta get on this!

Boo at the Zoo

Every year it has become a tradition for us to visit the Santa Barbara Zoo for their Halloween celebration, Boo at the Zoo. This year it definitely didn't disappoint. But I have to say that there were way too many people. I've never seen it so packed. And this was on a Sunday! Boo at the Zoo goes from Friday-Sunday so I thought we wouldn't have to be stuck in a crowd, but I was wrong. We had to park blocks away and walk to the zoo and stand in line forever for tickets. Next year I'm definitely buying the tickets online.

The zoo puts on a great show, with trick or treating, disco dancing, spooky surroundings with amazing zoo workers who dress up as ghouls and ghosts, princesses and other creatures. They even have a Haunted House but our kids were too scared to try that. Maybe next year. 

The same day before Boo at the Zoo we made Halloween cookies and decorated them 😀

A mommy cat with her kitty and puppy 💓

Hur fina är inte alla!!!

Otroliga, helt hemmagjorda kostymer a la Susanne.

      

Fall, Harvest, Halloween, Thanksgiving...

Fall has become one of my absolute favorite times of the year. Unfortunately we are dying from heat here in Santa Barbara, so it doesn't feel very "Fally." But I've been refusing to adhere to the heat, blasting the AC in our house and making soups sweating away while eating it, putting on cozy warm clothes, lighting candles, drinking my fave Pumpkin Spice Lattes (with way too many calories) etc. 

As we all know the US are the Kings of the decorators around the world. They go ALL OUT at ALL TIMES around here, and Fall décor is no exception. I've been trying to add something new every year to my Fall décor and hopefully within 20 years or so we'll have a full set 😜. Right in time for the kids to move out hah.

One thing that I've been a little insecure about is the timeline for putting your decorations up, in what order exactly and do you remove some at some point and then add others? As a Swede in the US these are all real questions that need answers. 

So the other day I was over at Home Depot trying to find a Harvest doormat. But when does Harvest start and when does it end? First day of Fall? Which this year fell on September 22nd. Maybe it always does? So I decided to ask the cashier some questions and then I ended up googling it and this is what I found out: 

• First off, according to Google it sounds like people put up their Fall decorations at different times. I think it may depend on in what climate you live in too. But most seem to put them up around mid September, beginning of October.

• Then the Halloween decorations come up starting beginning of October. I think it's ok to leave the Fall decorations up and just mix in the Halloween ones. 

• After October 31st you remove the Halloween decorations but you can leave the Fall décor up. 

• You can then add Thanksgiving decorations (if you have any) with the Fall decorations. 

• Then after Thanksgiving they all go down and you can rush off and get your CHRISTMAS TREE. YAY!!! Which is what we'll be doing. 

Please let me know if I'm completely off here or missed something. Cut a foreigner some slack 😅.

Here are some pics of our Fall/Halloween decorations...

PS. A friend of mine thought that it would be better for me to write my blog in English since I do live in the US and since all the Swedes know English anyways. There is a translation button on the website but the translation is absolutely terrible. Sounds like I'm a kid trying to write 😝. So going forward the blog will be written in English. Hope you all understand and don't mind.