DH lost his iTouch. The one he had had for about three months. He was convinced that he had put it "somewhere high" in the house, so that the boys a) couldn't see that he was playing with it and b) the boys couldn't reach it. He turned the house upside down. We looked everywhere, high and low. Garbage, stacks of paper, clean and dirty laundry. We had an annoyed Dad and DH in the house for a week and a half. Until one evening DH got a call. Yeah, it had been found. Really high. Like 1 km from our house. The snow had started to melt and a man waiting for his wife to do the grocery shopping had spotted its corner underneath a pile of snow in the parking lot. He had dried it, turned it on and found DH's contact information. DH was happy.
Yesterday I found his sunglasses in the bushes. They had been there all winter. I don't even remember where he said he had put them.
Today I found Risto's keys. They'd been lost for almost a week. And we had looked for them everywhere. Outdoors, indoors, laundry, garbage, the usual places. Tonight I sat down for a minute, thought about all the places where the keys could be and.... TA-DAH!!! Risto likes to go to the balcony and he needs his keys to go there. Could they still be on the balcony door IN HIS ROOM? He promised to give me a kiss if I found them. I got a hug.
Still lost is Risto's cap he bought from Costa Rica. I call it "The Bucket". It's a ridiculously big straight brimmed black cap, but in his opinion he looks "cool" in it. I have a very motherly opinion. Well, anyway, it's lost. He had it on Tuomas' birthday and hasn't been seen since. And (you know the drill) outdoors, indoors, garbage etc. I'm not too sorry if it's lost for good, but he did pay a ridiculous amount of his own money for it and it's important to him. Remains to be seen.
The boys are bound to take after their father (is it genetic or is it behavioural "mom will find it, why bother yourself"), so I'm stuck with 4 boys "temporarily misplacing" their stuff. Though I have to admit that I have a sarcastic answer to questions "where is my X?":
"Fridge, top shelf!".
Any photos?!?!? Oh, they're lost....
Edit: I found a picture! It's from Jaakko's first ever soccer game. Some players are totally lost.
And by the end of the game Jaakko had also lost the concept of the game. I know the photo is not in focus, but that'll have to do.
"I am the eyes and ears of this institution, my friends" 
And by the end of the game Jaakko had also lost the concept of the game. I know the photo is not in focus, but that'll have to do.
Tokyo as seen from our hotel room. The streets were surprisingly empty at 6 am, so I guess the city does sleep for a couple of hours.
We saw very little of Tokyo during our visit. But even the diagonal zebra crossing reflected the number of people around.
These hay poles leaning against the barn wall resemble a slower life style. I prefer that.
I never plan ahead about any themes, but usually by the night before the party get some ideas. It was pirates this time. All three boys have beautiful wooden pirate ships and I used one as a decoration on the table.
It took some time for the kids to realize that the round black things were edible!
Seems like the ship's mice found the stack of cookies on the mast and had a nibble.
A true treasure island filled with candy.
I try to avoid using paper plates and cups. I even put champagne glasses and it turned out ok. Only one glass spilled and another one broke. But maybe next time I'll use just regular glasses!
With 12 kids running around the house (only two girls) the party ended up quite wild. Tuomas and Jaakko bumped into eachother 10 minutes into the party. Jaakko had a cut on his lip, but was 100% after 5 minutes after DH got blood cleaned. Risto enjoyed his role as the oldest child, made the kids do push-ups (!) and was the drummer in the band. It was a fun party, Tuomas enjoyed it, but I'm glad it lasted only two hours.
I'm not able to close my eyes from reality like this cat in Osaka, but now I'm able to put on noise cancelling headphones and listen to my mysic and not listen quarreling boys. It's just me and Andrea Bocelli echoing inside my head (yeah, lots of space there!). Seems like there is actually a void inside my head: this week I was asked how long I've been working at my current job. And I promptly answered: "For a year and a half.... since '98." She can count, too!
This dude was hiding on the wooden gate at Tokyo Imperial Palace. He had a friend, too.
I wish I had more time (and inspiration) for photography. This picture was from the church service on the last day of school in 2009.
Uninspired Jaakko last spring.
We have been asked how we survived the long trip across the Atlantic. First of all, we've done that several times. I think the most challenging trip was to Curacao three years ago when the boys were 1, 3 and 5. Within an hour after take-off from Frankfurt I had changed the clothing of two boys and my jeans were soaking wet from a cup of tea that was poured on my lap. And I didn't have any extra clothes.
Jet-lag takes a couple of days. This raging bull was with us in Florida last year, picture taken on the first day after arriving. As with the trip to Florida, also in Costa Rica we ended up carrying sleeping boys from dinner to the hotel. Oh, I remember Valentine's Day in 2005 on Marco Island, Florida. We had a dinner reservation in the evening. Risto didn't want to eat anything and just nibbled his food, and by the time we had the bottle of bubbly and sword fish brought to the table, Tuomas had a fit so we took turns eating and trying to calm down a raging 1-year-old outside the restaurant. An elderly couple looked at us smiling; the scene had brought back sweet memories from several decades back "You'll smile at this later".
"Ok, boys, you can go down to the beach, but stay out of the water so you don't have to drive back to the hotel in wet clothes." The picture is self-explanatory.
The pool at Una Ola was nice and compact. Perfect for three boys who can barely swim.
Sea shell, need I say more.
"Yeah, definately bigger than dad's!" Ricardo was the best surf instructor, he was absolutely great with the boys and took the not-so-nimble parents into consideration, too. "Ok, Mama, hop on the board!"
Jaakko with his Pina Colada without the rummmmm.
Butterfly, duh!
Jaakko left his mark on the beach. It was washed away by the tide within seconds.
Bubbly water. This time unbottled.
Beach chick. This is about the maximum amount of skin I could reveal even with SPF 50. And I still got an allergic reaction! Oops, forgot to tuck my tummy in....