tretton37 summer party at Skansen.

The kids took the train to town together and met up with me at the office. We then took the tram to Skansen. (Eric had a restful evening at home instead.)

We had time for a brief walk around Skansen before it was time for the party itself. It was closing time and the whole place was empty. I liked Skansen this way, without all the crowds.

Then we had summery drinks in the sun, and a buffet dinner, and ninja masks and ninja making kits and ninja tattoos.

We’re continuing work on Adrian’s boat-ferry-thing and now attaching the cabin thing to it. The builders working on the kitchen kindly lent us two minutes of their time and cut the parts for the cabin on their power saw, so that Adrian could focus on the fun part, which is measuring and then assembling it all.

Adrian got inspired by the work that’s going on in the kitchen, and all the cool tools that the builders have there, and wanted to build things, too. So now he’s making a boat/ferry kind of thing of his own design, with some help from me.

Power tools are cool, and screwdriver bits are cool, so instead of using nails, we’re drilling holes and screwing all the pieces together. Plus it’s probably easier for a kid’s small hands to tighten a screw than to hammer in a nail straight.

We played “Settlers of Catan”. Eric won with a mile-wide margin. Adrian followed his favourite strategy, which is to bet on development cards all the way.

The old pine floor has gone the way of the cupboards. A trip to the laundry room (for e.g. water) now involves either balancing on the floor joists or walking through peat dust. Balancing is definitely both more fun and more comfortable.

Peat dust is rather icky. It’s very light and spreads everywhere and sticks to everything. Half the laundry room/pantry is covered in a thin layer of brown dust – I guess the door has been open while the builders worked.

But as “compensation” we’re getting new floor joists, which – unlike the old ones – are actually level.

When Adrian makes things, they all tend to turn into weapons. Today he made at least two swords, two guns, and some random shapes that he then also decided were guns.

Ingrid is giving Adrian a master class in skipping rope technique.

All of us like having our feet up when we sit in the sofa. Sometimes we curl up with our legs on the sofa, sometimes we put our feet on the sofa table. Very rarely does anyone sit on the sofa like polite people do, with our feet on the floor.

It just isn’t comfortable! Maybe there’s something physiological and evolutionary behind this, or maybe it’s just me, but I really don’t like sitting with my feet far below me. Even on my desk chair, I often find myself with both legs curled up on the chair in some shape.

It was probably Fortnite. That’s the game that unites them: both like it a lot.

Or maybe all three of us were playing Minecraft together.

Our traditional Easter egg hunt.

By now the sweets in the eggs aren’t that important – the hunt itself is what the kids look forward to. I’d forgotten to buy candy to fill the eggs with. Luckily we had some leftover candy in the cupboard that Ingrid distributed in the eggs.

Ingrid hid Adrian’s eggs, I hid Ingrid’s eggs, and then the hunt began.