Week 35 - Last week in Finland

This was our last week in Finland this summer. The weather was really nice the wholeweek. On Monday we did some shopping and on Tuesday had a pick nick in the Katariina park by the sea. We do like picnics and I think there are so many nice picnic parks and places in Finland. A few of Daniele's friends from Lovisa play football here, so Daniele took the bicycle and went to see them training. On Wednesday we had a riding lesson in the nice riding school we have found here. On Thursday we had lunch in a little restaurant called Villa Aurora. It's beautifully furnished and very nice, but my children didn't like the food. Actually they were a bit unlucky, because even the desert happened to be a coffee mousse, so it was nothing for children. The last two days we spent visiting friends and on Saturday we partecipated in a little club competition at the riding school and said good bye also to the horses. On Sunday we flew back to Rome.

Back to summer photos - Week 34

We have been back in Italyfor almost a month now and it's time to catch up with my week photos. It has felt a bit more difficult than usual to settle back here and I really miss summertime and especially Finland and everything there, but slowly I'm filling my days here and trying to make the best of it.
Our second last week in Finland was full of happenings. I really tried to do most of the things from my to-do in Finland list.
As schools started in Finland the weather had become less summery and the nights already very cool. On Monday there were some rain showers in the morning, but in the afternoon it was sunny and Carlotta suggested a picknick. So out we went for a late afternoon coffee to the beach. Carlotta took a swim, too, but the water was really cold and the air was cool and windy. On Tuesday we went to the nice swimming pool in Kotka. For the first time Carlotta was able to swim with us in the big pool outside without any problems. The water was warm and as schools have started here it was very empty - only us and a few Russians. There are quite a few Russian tourists in Kotka as it isn't so far away from the border. On Wednesday we got our lazy teenagers to the Santalahti camping site. The thing that convinced them in the end was the Mini golf course. Carlotta and Sofia took a swim, too. On Thursday we went to Hamina, the nearby town where we hadn't been this summer at all. There is a very nice cafè. On Friday it was our last chance to go to Kaunissaari, an isle about an hour from Kotka. The boat traffic to the other isles had stopped already, as lots of things stop as soon as the schools start. Daniele went to spend the week-end with his friends in Lovisa and me and the girls spent the day at the isle. We had a pick nick basket with us and also swimming suits, but didn't need them, because it was quite windy and the cold sea water didn't tempt us. On Saturday it was a really warm day again. We went to Lovisa where there where the old houses' days. Many families who live in the old wooden houses had had opened their homes and you could walk in and see how they had furnished them and renovated them conserving the old style. There were garden cafés and flea markets everywhere in the town. My brother and his wife also came there, but we didn't have so much time to spend with them because we had to get home to take my mother and her friend to the bus that took them to see a ballet. On Sunday we had managed to organize a lunch with some of my relatives in Santalahti. It was a very good choice as we were able to spend the rest of the day there swimming and playing mini golf.

Week 33 - Rain, sun and a birthday picnic

When we came from Stockholm we stayed one night at my friend's house before going back to my parents. I have no photos of the next two day because it was raining and I had to finish some work. On Wednesday we went riding and it rained a lot. On Thursday we baked blueberry white chocolate muffins because we were going to have a picnic the next day. Carlotta remembered her birthday picnic from last year and wanted one also this year, but the weather hadn't been so good or we had other things to do. Now it had stopped raining and we went to a new park in Karhula by the river. It's very nice. There are many beautiful parks here now and I love picnics! In the afternoon we went to Laajakoski to have a little swim, but it was so windy and cool so I didn't swim. The girls did.
On Sunday we went to visit my brother and his family. When we go there Carlotta always wants to play a board game called "The star of Africa", so after dinner and coffee we spent some time playing it. This is one of the best board games I know. Simple enough for quite small children to understand, but amusing for adults, too.

Week 32 - Summer cottage and Stockholm

This was the week when we had four lovely days at the summer cottage we had rented with my parents. Back home we went on a picnic to Kumparepuisto, a nice park a couple of km from my parents' house. Carlotta was able to go there by bike and it was so nice to go on a little bicycle trip together with her. In Finland the bicycle roads are so good and it's safe to go by bike also for small children. Unfortunately it's not like that in Rome, although we live in quite a green area.
Then we went on a trip Stockholm where we visited our friends and spent two nights on the Viking Line ferry.

Week 31 - Sofia's summer camp

In the end of July Sofia went to a horse summer camp to the same place where she went last year. The only problem was that it was all in Finnish and Sofia only speaks Swedish and Italian, of course. As long as they did something with the horses or went swimming I think everything went quite well and Sofia also learnt to understand lots of things they said to her in Finnish, but then in the evening as the girls went to bed and of course chatted a lot in Finnish, she felt quite lonely. On Thursday they organized a a little competition that we were invited to watch and when it was time for us to leave and come back to fetch her the next day she said that she wanted to come home with us. So she stayed 4 days instead of 5.
On the second photo Carlotta is choosing books from the library. We often go there to borrow books and films. The libraries here in Finland are so nice.
On Wednesday evening we decided to go to The Maritime Centre Vellamo. They have free entrance every Wednesday evening. It's a museum telling about the maritime life in Finland and as the sea is very present in Kotka, its position by the sea is very good. Daniele was in Lovisa at his friend's house, so it was only me and my parents with Carlotta. She only liked the interactive part of the museum and didn't find the rest of it too interesting.
On Friday we went to the summer theatre in Lovisa and saw My Fair Lady. The actors are really good and we had a nice evening. My husband came to Finland for a few days. His mother has been staying at our house since June since she isn't well and can't live alone anymore, but she stayed at a relative's house for a few days so Armando could get a few days off to spend with us. We had a nice lunch at Kalastuskievari, a little restaurant by the rapids of Korkeakoski.

Trip to Stockholm

We did a small trip to Stockholm last week. One night at the ferry, spent a day in Stockholm with our friends who live there and again a night at the ferry and back to Helsinki. From there we went to my friend's house where we spent one night before taking the bus back to my parents' house. So it was a nice couple of days meeting friends.

My friend met us at the ferry terminal in Stockholm and we first went to their house for a coffee and cakes and then walked around in the Gamla stan, which is a very nice part of Stockholm. We have got to know each other quite a few years ago on the internet at a site for Swedish mums abroad when our children were small and Carlotta still wasn't born and have kept in touch since that. That's really nice! Now all our children are so big.

Stockholm is a beautiful city and it's nice to visit it together with friends. The weather was better than expected, warm and sunny when we came there and only a couple of showers in the afternoon, when we went inside a caffee to have something to eat.

On our way to Stockholm we had a good dinner at the buffet and when we came home we bought perfumes and sweets from the tax free shop. It's kind of a tradition when you take the ferry to Sweden where the selection of sweets is huge, so it was a paradise for the children. I also bought some swedish books for me and the girls in Stockholm, so I had something nice to read in the bus on our way back home while the rain poured down. Schools started in Finland and it has been very rainy and cool, autumn in the air already.

To do list for the summer cottage

Before going to the summer cottage the girls made a list of things they wanted to do there. I think we did them all.
Go fishing. They did, or at least Armando and Daniele did. This year we didn't find any worms for the fishing rod, but they put out a net and a fish trap and got a few small perches and one bream and although they were quite small they grilled them and made a small fish soup and said they tasted delicious. The fishermen were just a little bit afraid of killing the fish they had fished.

Pick blueberries and mushrooms. It had been too dry for mushrooms and most of the blueberries also were very small, but we got enough for a blueberry pie, which also was on the list.

Grill marshmallows. We had a barbeque night one evening grilling sausages, fish and marshmallows.

Go out with the boat. There's a little rowing boat and we sure used it every day.

Swim and go to the sauna. Yes, every day! Carlotta also learnt to jump from the jetty into the water.

Drink hot chocolate with marshellows in the evening. The girls did it.

Play cards. Yes, we did it every day and we also played Yatzy.

Make cinnamon rolls. Sofia had learnt how to make them at the summer camp and we made some one evening. They were yummy!

I could add to the list beautiful sunsets, reading books and magazines and time without internet and I got it!