Tomorrow!

Only 1 more night and we are starting our journey:)

Today we are packing, I know, always on the last day, but that is the way it works best for me/us. The girls are going to my mom for the afternoon, it will give us time to organize and check everything. It is much easier to go this year compared to last year.

I cant believe how much Liina has grown these last few months, I had her try on some summer clothes and everything is too small, easy to pack her bag, it will stay almost empty:) ... we have to go shopping new clothes for her immediately on tuesday when we arrive in Johannesburg.

On sunday morning we will meet our first group of the season:) Before that we have many friends/family to meet and a few things still to plan for the tour. And as the girls are not joining us on the tour, they will stay with Nicos mom and dad for the 12 days, difficult for me to be away from my princesses,but I know they are in good hands.

Time to carry on with my duties of the day, so I will say goodbye and write again when we are in South Africa:)

Take care all of you!

Love,

Jannika

1 more week

In a weeks time we are leaving the cold weather behind and will have some lazy days in the sun ahead of us....maybe not lazy, but at least it will be warm:)

I know I will miss christmas time. Christmas never feels the same somewhere else, especially not if it is 30+ outside and sunny! To get the real christmas feeling it needs to be lots of snow on the ground, -10 outside and snowing,dark, christmas songs,decorations, christmas stars/ lights in windows and streets that lights up the darkness, family...That is christmas for me:)

But we will try our best to make it feel like christmas, bake ginger cookies, get a christmas tree , decorations and all that.

Liina is talking a lot about Santa Claus and asking if he will come to South Africa, and she has also a little St Claus wishing box, where she has collected all paperclips of dolls, baby prams, baby clothes, baby this and that....cut out of magazines, all what she wants for christmas is in there( she already once packed all the papers in the suitcase).

In 2 weeks time we are starting our first tour, the heat in Botswana can go up to +40 in November, especially in the Okavango area where we will travel. The rain season in Okavango is about to begin in November , so we might get some nice , fresh showers:) And animals starts moving around much more because of the rain, not only staying close to waterholes. Other areas we are visiting is Chobe Game Reserve, having over 120 000 elephants, so our changes to see some elephants is better than good:) Victoria Falls will be the highlight for many, we will spend one day by the falls. Don´t worry , I will put in plenty of pictures after the tour for all of you to see, of animals, sceneries, and Victoria Water Falls. Vic Falls original name is ´Mosi- oa-Tunya , in english `Smoke that Thunders´, it was Livingstone that named it Victoria Falls after the queen in 1855.

Girls are packing already,our suitcases are being dragged from one room to another, and lots of fun they have with them, makes beds out of them, good hiding place, puts all their toys in there.

My new website is up running now, it is not yet ready,keep that in mind, but have a look and feel free to give me feedback of what you think, you can use either; www.jannikaiafrica.com orwww.jannikaiafrica.net. I still have to put in much more pictures, and work with the translations, it is a lot of work, but Im getting there:)

Have a wonderful sunday, me and the girls are going out to play in the little snow we have on our yard, maybe we can build a small Santa Claus:)

Love,

Jannika

Landrover& clothes

Yesterday Nico finally got his old Landrover he has been dreaming of for the past year, it is HIS!!:) And it will keep him busy for the next few years, fixing. Ít is not a beauty yet...but will be one day.
Men are good with cars, but when it comes putting right clothes on right child, it is a different story( I know you will read this my love;)...). Today when I picked up the girls from dagis it had happened again, Liina came running towards me, having on Viivis boots and gloves, and of course Viivi had on Liinas boots and gloves ...I will name mark all clothes to solve this problem, It looked a bit funny the other day when I picked up the girls and their jackets where switched...hehehee...Liinas sleeves ended just below her elbows:)
And about the girls, they love olives! They see a can of olives and they could finish it like candy( actually they like olives better that candy I think)! So today they got to munch on olives. And after dinner I sat down to eat some sushi, and realized my toppings ( salmon, crabstick..) and a few sushi pieces where missing....Liina loves sushi and she saw my plate while I was busy doing something else, so she helped herself to a few pieces:) Expensive tastes these girls have! Luckily we are going to SA in 2 weeks, there sushi is cheap and we eat it at least once a week, a big plate of 30 pieces costs about 15euros!
Ít is very windy outside....and as I write we just got a power failure...girls a bit scared as everything is pitch black, time to find some candles and be close to the girls.

Take care,

Jannika

Sunny saturday

After a late evening yesterday( the girls stayed up until after 11pm!)..it was a hectic morning today, as Liina had balletclass at 10am, and it was a performance for us parents today:) So off we went in time, and as I drove I realized I had to put petrol in the car...and then a bit closer to town I realized I forgot the camera, but no time to turn around to get it. So I though I call my mom and drive by their house and get her camera..just to realize I had no phone with me! But after all running around and getting the camera we made it!:) And enjoyed Liinas ballet performance( will put in a few pics later)..

Here is a few photos from our photoshoot some weeks back:)

Enjoy your weekend!

Jannika

This morning

Just have to share the first bit of winter/snow we got. From our wild back garden:)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Hugs Jannika

2 weeks...

..and a bit and we are leaving for South Africa. I must admit, I start feeling a bit excited, and also a bit stressed, how will I get all done before we go? Always when I think I have everything under control, I get a new tour to plan, and Im busy again. It is a bit chaos at the moment. And when we really need good sleep, the girls have decided they are both going to sleep in our bed! Last night Liina came crawling into our bed about 2am, and then an hour later Viivi comes with her teddy bear!And there they stayed until this morning. No need to say how I slept in my little corner of the bed..! And I can feel it today, my eyes feels heavy and my head is in a cloud, and my mind&body is waiting for the evening and a good night sleep.

Thought I put in a few photos of paintings Nico have done, he is an artist and loves to paint, hopefully he will find the time to paint more in future, maybe in South Africa:)

These painting where painted for a house exhibition held in Finland every summer:

And now they are hanging on our walls at home:)

And a blue painting

Lets see if we get a snow storm coming in tonight, I do hope so:) The sun is still shining outside.
And what did my 4 year old do the othernight when I was not at home...she locked herself in the bathroom, on purpose, she told she was busy sitting on the toilet, but what she actually was busy doing was going trough my make up and trying on everything, by the time Nico got the door open , she was more than colourful in her sweet face! And I must admit I have a memory of doing something similar when I was around 4-5 years old.
Have a nice day!
Jannika

Stay in shape in SA

For maybe 15 years ago I did a course in golfing, but at that time it felt too slow& boring for me. Back then I used to run 50km a week, but that was then and this is now. As I do not have time or energy to run that much anymore,but still like to be outdoors, I think golfing could be something to give a new try, especially when we spend so many months in Cape Town, surrounded by the many wonderful golfcourses . More and more people come to SA for their golfing trip,combining great golfing, wine and safari:) So , that is a plan, to play golf!

Last time we where in South Africa we also joined a gym, planet fitness. I must say that the children care they have is a big bonus. Our girls really liked to come with to the gym, so now we all can enjoy the time spent there, girls happy, mom&dad happy:)

As we will stay in Cape Town I will try to get a routine and do morning runs along Cape Towns beachfront , with a beautiful view of Table mountain on one side and the Atlantic ocean on the other.

That is how we will keep in shape next 6 months:)

The weather is changing and getting colder every day, and can you believe,we might get as cold as +3 and snow next week! For the girls sake I do hope we get snow, just so they have time to enjoy and have fun in the snow a few weeks. There is something magical with the first snow,to wake up in the morning and see the white world outside.

The weekend is coming up, tomorrow evening we are going out with some friends, it is fashion weekend in Vasa. My dad will spend the evening with the girls, and usually he lets them do anything and everything...should need to book a cleaning service for saturday:)!

Hugs to all of you and enjoy your weekend!

Jannika

Sunday Evening

We have just sorted out a LOT of clothes! Girls gave a helping hand , if it helped is another story:)The whole living room was full of piles of clothing. I think it is time to take a few boxes to the red cross, and of course as we do every year , take some clothes to South Africa to give away. Always someone who needs something. Reminds me of the time we lived there and I was about to throw away my Asics running shoes. Our maid Emzen, saw my shoes, tried them on and after that she wore them with a smile for a long time:)

On friday the kids from Liinas daycare came over and stayed a few hours. In the evening my dad came over again, as always on friday evenings,and on saturday it was ballet for Liina. She hasnt really showed much what they learn there, but in 2 weeks time they have their first performance:) Can´t wait to see that, I will take some photoes!

On saturday afternoon we where booked for a photoshoot at Nicos workplace( he is working at a photo studio until we go to SA), a relaxed photoshoot of us all as a family, and of the girls alone. Tomorrow I will see how the pictures turned out, hope they turned out good! Thought about making one whole wall in our bedroom of a picture of the girls, black and white...maybe it could turn out nice?

On saturday evening my mom made food so we went over for dinner, nice to have someone else make food, feels like I cook so much during the week for the girls , it feels like holiday when someone else makes food. I would like to get that spark again to be creative with food, I had it at one stage, but that is years back...but all in good time! Now it is mostly healthy food for the girls,luckily they love carrots and broccoli and are not too fuzzy with food.

Today we went for the first time all of us to the movies, we went to watch`Mumintrollet och kometjakten´. It was actually quite scary at times, and I thought Viivi would be afraid, but she handled it fine and liked it.

Now it´s only 4 more weeks until we change fall to summer!

Have a lovely week!

Jannika

Liinas Butterfly Birthday

Lats night we had a small birthday party for Liina, something she looked forward to the whole day, in the evening before she was organizing cups and plates on the table:)

When I put the candles on the cakes yesterday my thoughts must have been somewhere else, luckily my mom asked me`Is it only going to be three candles on the cake´...? And Liina is turning 4! We moms probably do not want our children to grow up:)

Here she blows out her 4 candle:) It is the only photo we have and of course it turns out blurry!

A tired girl at the end of the evening, having her new ballerina dress on.

Liina has invited her group from daycare to come today, the `sharks´( hajarna), so time for me to clean up from yesterdays and set everything ready for the children.

Have great weekend!

Jannika