Midsummer pictures

We celebrated Midsummer in the traditional Swedish way. It was awesome to be part of such an old tradition, complete with fiddlers in their old costumes which represent their local communities. We were in the small town of Gnesta, about an hour south of Stockholm. The place where the celebration took place was actually sort of like a log cabin village that you might find in the U.S. somewhere, except these buildings were painted red. It is used today as a youth hostel.

First things first: Raise the Maypole! This is sort of like getting your fresh cut Christmas tree to stand up in the tree stand. This is usually a daunting task for the man of the house, but the Maypole went up MUCH easier. It was already decorated with garlands of birch boughs and wildflowers.
Here they are raising the Maypole:



They played old Swedish songs as we held hands and ringed ourselves around the Maypole to dance together.



This fellow was playing a most unusual instrument! Have you ever seen anything like it?



After we finished dancing around the Maypole, the fiddlers and dancers showed us how its really done! Square dancing, Swedish style!



As we watched them dance, the clouds rolled in, the wind shifted, the temperature dropped, and we knew rain was on the way. So we headed over to our friend's house to BBQ and hang out together! We stayed up till 1:00 playing Yahtzee! The original plan was to sit outside and enjoy the midnight sun but instead it was cloudy and rainy!

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Yesterday I received all of my Math U See curriculum. We sat down and watched the first lesson. I think its going to be very good for all of us. I've received everything I ordered now. Its kind of bewildering to look at it all. I wonder how in the world am I going to accomplish everything I hope to? After having my kids in school for several years, I worry about how our transition will go. ~N~ was in school for 5 years and ~D~ for 3 years. They are both very excited about being homeschooled but I wonder what exactly it means to them and what they think it will be like. We've talked about this, about their expectations and mine. I think its good to discuss it, but its hard to envision what it will really be like.

Rejoice, rejoice,
Again I say Rejoice!

Marla