Last Friday was a big day – Olle turned 17 years old, but still had to go to school! We started the day with morning song and presents and in the evening we had dinner at a Moroccan restaurant, Ives, in Tribeca. He also got a lovely cake from his friends at school. 🎂

After dinner, we strolled home and shared our elevator with a young couple and the girl started to talk Swedish to us. Her mom apparently is from Sweden and lives just a block away. Her boyfriend´s mom lives in our building, which they were heading to. Fun trivia. 😂

On Saturday Johan and I power walked through East Village and in the afternoon all four of us went shopping with Olle, he had gotten a gift card at Zara. All four of us even hit the gym on Sunday and also managed a visit at the Guitar Center. Olle is shilly-shallying about buying a new acoustic guitar with nylon strings. 😘

On Monday I got a text from Malin (one of Lotta´s friends we met for lunch last November), asking if we should grab a coffee at La Cabra in the afternoon. We had so much fun and decided to meet up with our families next time, so we will have brunch at Lido in Harlem in a couple of weeks. Also interesting to experience that borough a bit more!

Now, I have applied for Elvira to start Skolhagenskolan in August. Feels almost like when we moved here and had to fight our way into the school system. For Olle, we are waiting for him to receive password for applying to senior high school. Fingers crossed.

This week Johan has a bunch of colleagues over, so he is quite occupied with meetings, dinners and also a trip by train to Washington DC. I would have loved to join! Instead I am going to botanize among my recently delivered painting stuff from Blick, since the online class starts soon. 🙂

I have also been to my hair stylist Hailey this week, and it is so much fun to chat with her. On my way over to Fox & Jane, I took a detour through Chinatown and walked, to me, new streets.

Yesterday, after school Elvira and a friend went to watch a basketball game with the boys´ team from her school. 😊 Olle and I took the opportunity to do some running on the treadmill at Planet Fitness. 💪

We have some problem with our radiators and pipes leaking water, which has resulted in some floor boards bulging upwards and Gabriel, connected to the owner of this apartment, tries to get a plumber here to look at it. But there are always some excuse for not showing up, so I wonder if there is a jinx on this radiator!

Tonight we are going to try a new Italian, Extra Virgin 😉 And if the weather allows, tomorrow Olle and I will run down the Hudson River Greenway at dusk, it is a different ambience to it when it is getting dark. On Sunday Ilze and her family are coming over for dinner and on Monday schools are closed due to Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Finally!! Part I completed…