Louloudi and Friends

Louloudi is a little social creature and loves meeting other dogs as long as they are playful. So long as the other dogs are sweet, we often chit chat with the owners and just talk about animals until the conversation turns to human topics which are so passe when you have puppies. 

First beach buddy who belongs to some neighbors who come swimming everyday. A 3 month old jack terrier puppy that is super energetic and runs circles around Louloudi. 

Size doesn't matter when you got speed

Then there is Hector, the retriever mix owned by the Metaxas. We have a feeling these two are related, as they are similar in size, both come from Noussa and act just the same. They will run tirelessly for hours and wrestle constantly. They are about the same size, but about a year apart in age. The second these two get together, the rest of the world is immediately forgotten. 

Beach buddies

Dog play date and swim at the house

In other news, Jen tells me that Louloudi is no longer a puppy, but instead a "doggy", some halfway point between puppy and dog. I'm not sure if I'm ready to let go yet and see her off to kindergarten. :)

Belated Puppy Thursday & Panoramic Saturday

Best present ever

Happy working environment

Wednesday, we went on a boat tour with some friends to celebrate Alexandra's birthday a little early. This is the view sailing along the shore of unmanned island, Despotiko. 

Ketchup & Crayfish

Sorry for the belated post. I seem to be becoming more Greek everyday!

So the Crayfish party has become somewhat of a tradition in this household. After Gunnar and the Ljungdahls learned two years ago that I had not been treated to a proper crayfish party, they quickly went into action to resolve that dilemma. What resulted was a wonderfully silly night with plenty of swedish treats, songs and wonderful people. It was such a success, that a tradition was born, as this neighborhood is so excellent at doing. So soon after an exhausting birthday party, we had set the date so that Helene could join and include a few fellow Swedes before they took off.

Two years later, the second crayfish party came to life. With imported crayfish from Riga, hats and decorations from our talented friends, music and delicious courses from Jen, swedish song sheets from our resident experts; it was a wonderful party hosted by the "kids" for our Swedish heritage members.

As Gunnar would say, a crayfish party is about the three S's: Singing, Sucking, and Schnappsing!

The Paper Hat Station

Sunset appetizers

Crayfish Quality Control

The Group!

LouLou got a hat that she hated

Imported crayfish

Keeper of the Crayfish, Gunnar

Swedes approve of the crayfish addition

Aaron

Ele, Pam, Kat

Ebba, the Mastermind behind the crayfish

About as Swedish as it gets. 

Birthday Party #27

Where to begin on telling of a birthday without sounding too self-centered and over indulgent..? To be honest, there is not much to be said in this case, so let's throw that notion out the window.

I. WAS. SPOILED. ROTTEN.

And I loved every minute of it.

The day started off with an old neighborhood tradition in which everyone nearby comes for a birthday breakfast. Great people, close family, donuts, croissants, juice, bellinis and bubbly make for a delightful morning in which I was put closer in touch with my Swedish side.

Spøiled.

After the breakfast, Helene and Jen did an absolutely fantastic job of arranging a really fun party that everyone thoroughly enjoyed. At first, we thought of perhaps having the party at nearby Magaya and let them do all the prep work, but that was problematic. Then we thought of just having the food catered and then have a party at our house. But as the guest list grew, so did our requirements, but this challenge was met head on by Team Travel 4 Two (and Mom), as we decided to do it all ourselves the old fashioned way.

I was in charge of souvlaki and grilling vegetables. Jen made a delicious orange and beet salad, grated carrot salad, guacamole and lots of appetizers. Helene made a wonderful cake and took care of the seating arrangements. We started with a nice drink and snacks at sunset as everyone came by. We later moved the festivities to the back courtyard and bathed in candle light and a well groomed courtyard.

While good people, food and drink make a great night any day of the week, this was taken a step further.  First, there was a water balloon toss that was enjoyed by all.

A few casualties

Second, Jen made a very cool octopus pinata out of paper mache and a little genius. Then it was filled with little plastic bottles of booze for the adults and lots of chocolates. When the pinata finally broke, all the bottles were quickly picked up and plenty of chocolate left over. I guess that's pretty grown up of us.

Jason loved it

I completely whiffed the first one

British Jon and his ninja style

What!? No Bones?

More wine, cake and lovely conversation filled up the night. At one point the group took turns singing Happy Birthday in the languages present, which included Swedish, Greek, French and of course, English.

Later in the night, there were strawberry tequila shots that I had made and then eventually some beer pong. Getting to teach a few Europeans about beer pong was something quite ridiculous in itself, but they (especially English Jon and French Chris) were actually quite good and ended up beating everyone.

Much, much later in the night, a swim was in order as we invaded the waters sans clothing and plenty of floats. After a good swim, we played our final prepared game that failed to make the earlier evening festivities. Pin the Mustache on Stu was devised in the name of playing with my ever changing facial hair and it was fantastic. Jen printed out all forms of mustaches and we had a print out of me all ready to go a la pin the tail on the donkey. Instead we just goofed off and wore the mustaches ourselves, which proved to be far more entertaining.

A great big thanks to all who came and helped out with the preparations. A birthday is usually a great excuse to get your favorite people together and have a really good time, and this couldn't have been better if I had dreamt it. Thank you so much to Jen and Helene for all your love, you have spoiled me with your compassion and love.

The first light of being 27

I have a feeling it's going to be a good year...

For Julie