Our perfect autumn day

The kids and I had quite possibly the most perfect autumn day ever! The only sad thing was that Rhodri wasn't here to share it with us :-(
Our friends Fiona, Karl-John and twins Finn and Magnus came over at 10am to spend the day with us. First we loaded the canoe onto the car and set out for a canoeing adventure. We helped our guests launch the canoe first and we walked along the lakeshore trail until we got to a place where Karl-John could pick us up (after dropping off Fiona and the boys on an island). Here are the troops happily scampering along the forest path, with Tryfan giving me his homie sign (not really - he was telling me that he got to eat "a LOT" of M&M's).
We spent our day out on the small island that we had visited a few weeks ago (on our very successful canoe outing as a solo family). This time, however, we packed a great picnic and collected firewood along the way for a true Norwegian outing. Here is our picnic site.
All four kids were so good and fun to be with! They played with sticks in the water, drank hot chocolate and ate our yummy lunch without incident. Of course they each fell down at some point but nobody got hurt or even really wet! All of this was happening around midday which is normally when Tryfan is napping, so by about 1:30pm he came over to me and said "Tryfs sleepy guy" and wanted to curl up on my lap. We didn't have a good place for him to sleep, so he just had to hang in there. Here is the campfire that Karl-John built for us to cook pølser on. It was quite windy, so we used the canoe as a windblock.
We decided to head back home around 2pm before things went horribly wrong, so all of us piled into the canoe and we set off. Fiona and Karl-John paddled while I sat with Tryfan in my lap and the 3 big kids sat in front of me. We made it back to our launching site with just a little bit of whining which was quickly remedied by the stash of gummy worms! Sugar treats are just so useful sometimes. This is the scene that Fiona saw as she turned around to see the rest of us in the boat.
When we got back to the house, Tryfan went for a sleep and the 3 big kids played outside: climbing trees, sliding down the slide, riding bikes around the deck, and playing with rocks. Fiona, Karl-John and I sat in deck chairs in the sunshine and drank tea/coffee, just relishing the perfect afternoon with our kids playing so purely and happily together.
After they left, Rhiannon and I did an art project with autumn leaves and then Tryfan woke up so we went for a walk around the neighborhood. Rhiannon loves riding her scooter and she wanted to go really fast on a flat path, so she rode her scooter, Tryfan ran after her trying to keep up, and I walked briskly with Bentley trying to make sure that everyone stayed on the pathway and didn't go into the street! I love this joyful photo of Tryfan even though it isn't properly focused.
We came home and then Kristoffer from across the road came over to play outside while I made dinner. There was a tense moment when I heard Rhiannon crying and saw Kristoffer take off running around the side of the house. We tried to get him to come back or at least wait, but he ran across the road back to his house and that is Not Allowed! So I turned off the stovetop and we three followed him home to talk about what just happened and make some rules with his Mama to ensure that everyone knows that they are not allowed to run off home OR cross the street without a parent with them.
Anyway, after this discussion we came home, gobbled up our dinner of ravioli with chicken and vegetables and then treated ourselves to ice cream bars for dessert. This video speaks for itself...

Then after some dancing to Mamma Mia and Tryfan's current favorite song "Super Trooper" (also from the Mamma Mia soundtrack), the troops went for a bath, 2 stories, a song and then sleep. Truly a fantastic day! We are really looking forward to tomorrow when Daddy comes home!