Finland . . .

I know a LOT about Finland now!

Did a presentation on it for Culture Shock day at the kid's school last week.

Now I want to figure out a way to go there for a month in the summer (even though their average high is about 68 degrees, although, in the Lapland area the sun wouldn't dip below the horizon in the summer so that could be fun, oh, and they have 187,888 lakes to choose from with all that sun hanging around all day and night so that could be fun too, chilly, but fun.  Oh, and we could hit an island or two since they have 179,584 to choose from!)...see, I know a LOT about Finland now!

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 Isn't that absolutely gorgeous??!!

And, can't you see why many Finnish immigrants ended up in the northern midwest of our country?

Oh, did you know that Finland is roughly the size of Montana with roughly the population of Minnesota? No? . . . Well, now ya do! (-:

 Did you know they have a very high number of car accidents involving moose and reindeer?

Yep.  Did you know I had this pic and that fact in my power point presentation for way too close to presentation time when I finally had the sense to remove it since I was presenting to the K-4 set...not sure how many kindergartners needed to picture those cute guys above being splattered by an all wheel drive!  Did you know I took my presentation of Finland for a K-4 set wwwaaaaaaaayyyyyyy to seriously????? (-:  I could easily stop in a one of the local universities for a guest lecture on Finland anytime they call, hahaha!

And, besides discovering that the Finnish word for bunny is pretty much like "poopoo", this pic was probably the biggest hit of the day.  "Angry Birds" they'd all cry in delight! Yep, Angry Birds was developed at a computer company in Finland..."Wow", said me.

Did you know my daughter makes the BEST Finnish pancakes (Pannukakku ) around and was a total trooper when I asked if she'd make four batches!  Sprinkle those babies with some powdered sugar and/or fresh fruit and yum-oh! Probably won't find my recipe online, looked a little bit, but I'll link one that's similar.  Our recipe calls for a 1/4 cup of orange juice mixed in with the batter. Plus, ours calls to mix the batter in a blender, I think that really makes a difference. So good!

So, I have tons more I could say about Finland, but not tons of time...as a matter of fact this post is going merely to delay my heading to the pool.  I have been a TOTAL slacker for probably a month now with swimming and I have a meet on March 10th (where I'm also singing the Star Spangled Banner, oh boy!) and States coming up in April.  Have to get this rear in gear!