Our traditional annual visit to the Ahhaa science centre. In between other attractions, we attended a workshop about blood pressure (and tried measuring each other’s blood pressure, with varying results), and the kids saw a chick hatch. The most fun they had was, I think, the building area, just like last year. Adrian took it very, very seriously.

With friends in Tartu, playing Potion Explosion.

The kids like to do things together with us adults, naturally. But they are not too fond of the adult activities that feel too much like work (such as cooking) whereas I’m not too fond of playing with their toys. I can build with Legos or other construction toys for a while, but when the building turns into playing with what we built, I just feel like I’m going to die of boredom.

I’m glad that both kids are now of an age that we can play board games together. It’s an activity that we can do together and really enjoy, all of us. For some harder games, Adrian teams up with someone else, but quite often he can hold his own.

I recently bought a bunch of new games; Potion Explosion was one of them. It was easy to get started with (the age recommendation of 14 years is ludicrous) and quite a lot of fun, so we brought it with us to Estonia to play with friends here as well.

Due to strong headwinds and unspecified “technical issues”, the ferry was over two hours late arriving to Tallinn.

There isn’t much to do on a ferry other than eat/drink or browse the tax free shops, neither of which we are interested in. The cabins are tiny and claustrophobic. The seats in the lounge areas are all full. At the Tallinn end of the trip, there isn’t even a view to be had from the lounges – just dull gray seas. (Meanwhile at the Stockholm end the views of the archipelago are almost worth a trip of their own.)

Luckily the ferries sometimes convert a café or a conference centre into a play area during summer. This one had a small ball pit, some building blocks, and ride-on cars and ball hoppers.

More shopping today. Ingrid got a pile of new clothes.

It struck me today that she no longer looks like a little girl. All grown up soon…

Catching Pokemons. Best way to get stir crazy children out of the house.

Ingrid’s stay at scout camp was cut very short since she fell and hurt her wrist on the evening of the first day. She stayed the night but was taken to the hospital in Norrtälje yesterday, where the wrist was x-rayed and bandaged. So now the poor girl is at home and bored, instead of enjoying camp life. She can’t really use her right hand for anything so she cannot even play Minecraft.

Packing for a five-day scout camp.

She has a 30-litre junior-sized backpack. That’s the largest model I could find that fits her not-so-tall body. It doesn’t really fit all her stuff for a week. We usually end up strapping the sleeping bag to the bag on the outside, which makes it a bit clumsy.

It’s summer break and Ingrid is bored. The only parts of summer worth having are all the camps and trips. She knows exactly how many days between the first camp and the Estonia trip (eight), and she has precise plans for how much money she will save up for each trip for souvenirs and such.

The rest of summer sounded nice in theory – no homework! – but now that the freedom is here, she doesn’t know what to do with it. She needs people around her, but most of her friends are also at camp or such, and school doesn’t provide any kind of care during the summer for kids her age, so she doesn’t have anyone. She’s been home on her own a few days. The other days I’ve worked from home to keep her company.

• Bedtime story: The Iron Trial
• Favourite foods: drinking yoghurt, Rice Krispies, scrambled eggs, “flat” peaches, peanut butter sandwiches
• A favourite moment: when we go to pick up Adrian at school or summer care. I stay on the sidelines; she goes and finds Adrian. Both like it best this way.
• A favourite app: Draw Something, where you take turns drawing things and guessing what the other player has drawn
• A memorable event: toning her hair pink-purple-blue, mermaid style

For another two weeks, Adrian spends his days in summer care. Too bad grown-ups don’t get 10 weeks of summer break.

Ingrid is too old for that, so she has to simply stay at home. I’m working from home some days to keep her company, and leaving her on her own for some days. Today was one of the latter. She of course stays inside all day, even though it’s a beautiful day. So when I get home, I chase her off the sofa to go with me to pick up Adrian.

Summer care is in a different location than normal school, and it’s a slightly longer trip. Still no more than 10 minutes by bike, even at the kids’ leisurely place.

There is a large, fun climbing structure in that schoolyard, so instead of cycling straight home, we stayed and climbed for a while. (It was large enough to support mums, too.)

Boredom often turns both Ingrid and Adrian into worms who wriggle around on the closest flat surface.