Camp school in Miehikkälä

Last week I was on a short two-day camp school with the fourth-graders of our school in Miehikkälä. There is a camp centrum owned by Lasten Kesä ry. It's an independent child protection organisation which duty is to organize vacational activities for children. Out of the vacation season school's can rent the place for their camp schools.
The place was very nice. On the right and on the left you can see the housing buildings and the white building on the background is for dining. The lake is behind the white building. Here the white building closer and the view from there on:

For Finns it's a necessity to have the camp on a lake. We just can't live without our lakes and any out door activities don't feel the same if there isn't a lake available. During the day children got to go rowing and fishing and in th evening it was time for swimming.



The best part of the lake this time was that we had a water and fish scientist with us (father of one of our pupils). So first children got to do seine fishing with our scientist and then it was time to examine our catch. It was interesting!


So what we got?

We got a water spider, crucian carp and lot's of small fish. Take a look at yourself!

Then it was time to examine the crucian carp. First you measure it's length then it's weight then you take the blood examble. The scientist father also opened the fish and showed all the intestines. Much more interesting than just studying out of book.





You can't have a camp school without makkara (sausages) either. I even ate two even tough we had been eating very well during the day. Well, you just can't count calories when you are around makkara.

All in all I had good time in Miehikkälä. I love being on a lake while I grew on a lake. I got to swim and I had makkara. Still I enjoyed our camp school in Ilomantsi last May more, well there is my home... (In that link there are 5 posts of camp school in Ilomantsi, just click the previous post in the margin)

This view is so Finnish and so beautiful to my eyes: birch on a waterside...

Viivi is ten

You realize how time flies when you look at your children and notice that they are getting bigger and bigger. Our baby is now ten! What a joy Viivi has been for us these ten years. She has an unique personality!
This is Viivi with her favourite teddy bear which she got from Santa. Viivi loves soft toys. She also makes certain that mommy and daddy have a sleeping toy every night. She picks tem up very carefully.

Viivi likes jokes and telling them. She likes to be funny in many ways as you can see.
But there is also a more serious and thinking part in Viivi. She can be very angry at the angent ruler of China for killing so many innocent people and she wonders many things in this life.
As you already know Viivi plays the violin but she also likes to play the piano at home. Mommy is trying to teach her but I'm a lazy teacher at home. This year Viivi has had maybe ten lessons all together. Bad me!
We read a lot in our family. So Viivi enjoys reading too. She likes fairy tales and I still read her bed time stories every ones in a while. I like those moments but unfortunately I'm many times too tired in the evening for reading or just busy.
This is what Viivi bought with her birthday money. Aren't the modern legos wonderful. I wish I would have had thosein my childhood. Both our girls like them a lot and they have lots and lots of these girly legos. I think they are good toys teaching creativity and they also last long. the only problem is that vacuuming is a nightmare because you always end up vacuuming at least one of the tiny diamonds or something like that which are very important and you end up opening the vacuum cleaner and you know what comesof that... Well, that's what mothers do for their children!

Blooming in my home

Everyone who knows me any better knows that I'm a plant killer. It's almost certain that if plant gets into my home it'll be dead soon. This spring I've had a miracle in my home: Plants that are blooming. I can't believe that this is actually happening. I think no one can be happier of her/his plants than I'm of my blooming flowers. I honestly don't know why they bloom since I haven't done anything special - they just do.

This plant was the first one to bloom. Not very heavily but more than ever had happened in my home. When this finnished blooming the others started. Aren't flowers wonderful? I'm grateful to God that He gets me to enjoy these beauties in MY HOME!

Flat Stanley's visit with us

We got Flat Stanley from Virginia to live with us for a while. I really enjoyed that! Especially while the Flat Stanley came from the girl (mother of two nowadays) who actually lived with us at least twice for a month or so in our childhood. Well, it wasn't so much fun with Stanley than it was with them at a time but still it was fun!

Here's what happened:

Stanley lived with the perhe Rehvonen in their home. He had his own room over there. I think he had good time with the family Rehvonen as you can see from the picture. There are Liisi, Olli, Jukka-Pekka and Minna in that family. They did a lot of stuff together. Here they are planning a picnic for the first of May festival but it didn’t work out because of the rainy weather.

In stead of the picnic Stanley spent the labour day (the first of May) with Pörri, teddy Urho and mister Kontio.


Stanley tried to decorate Viivi’s room with serpentine but in stead he stumbled in it and needed help to get out.
















Stanley also found out that on a Labour day people dress into funny costumes sometimes. Especially the children have funny costumes at school on the eve of the Labour day. The labour day is a holiday for everyone. Stanley also wanted to have a funny costume for himself. He tried many costumes. He liked a hat with flowers a lot but it was too big for him. Eventually he decided to dress as a girl because he heard that Jonna was going to dress as a boy at school. So he tried two skirts.

Stanley enjoyed the costumes a lot but he got scared of the gorilla which suddenly appeared to the living room. After a little while he realized it was only Viivi in a gorilla costume and started laughing.

Maybe the best part of the costume play was jumping in the pile of costumes.

One day Flat Stanley went to see the lake Saimaa with us. He really enjoyed the view. On the beach he also climbed in the trees and jumped in the hays. That was fun! He also saw a special kind of ladybug on one tree.











While Stanley was in Finland there was also a national veteran day in Finland. Music classes in which Jonna and Viivi belong to performed in a ceremony arranged for the veterans of Lappeenranta. Stanley’s favourite song was a huoleton reissumies (cheerful traveller). In the lobby of the concert hall Stanley admired carelian art in a Finnish rug.

Stanley also met Viivi’s and Jonna’s grandparents Kaisu-granny and Heimo-grandpa when they came to visit us shortly with an Indian pastor and his daughter. The Indian friends were very happy to meet Stanley and they wished that Stanley could come and visit their orphanage one day. With Heimo-grandpa Stanley read the newspaper. It’s Heimo’s favourite thing to do.

During his visit in Finland Stanley also went to school with Viivi one day. On the bus to school Stanley got to know Liisa. Travelling by bus was fun for Stanley but school was boring for him.
Stanley also went to the music academy with Viivi to listen Viivi’s violin lesson. Stanley was thinking that if he was a little taller he could climb into the violin and see what’s inside of it. The best part of the visit in music academy was eating a Finnish bun.

One day a funny thing happened for Stanley. He got stuck into the bathroom at the home of Rehvonen. When the father Rehvonen, Jukka-Pekka, came home he found Stanley from the bathroom screaming for help. Jukka-Pekka advised Stanley that he needs to push the door not to pull. Stanley’s face looked funny when he realized that the door had been open all the time…

Stanley’s visit in Finland was a success even tough he had to listen rasping on the violin almost every day and be home alone during the days. On the other hand he loved to learn to speak Finnish and to get new friends. He is happy to get home but he will miss good Finnish rye bread and all the new friends.

New coins

On Monday I recieved a nice envelope from the father of my ex-pupil. It had foreign money for my collection. I collect mainly coins and I've got them from over 100 countries. Some countries don't even exist any more (like DDR). I have also a smaller collection of paper money. All the coins I got were new to me which is always a special joy. It's so relaxing just to sit with your coin album and find place for the new comers. This is something I've carried with me from childhood so maybe that's the reason why it still makes me happy.

My collection isn't anything fancy. Most of my coins are from the botton of some pocket. I like it that way. The best way to get new coins is to travel abroad and bring some change with you back home. Those coins are very dear to me because I have shared my life with them. :) I don't do this for money or to impress anyone - it's just fun for me! I know, I'm wierd - but everyone knows it already!