Adrian is a slow and distractible eater. Ingrid used to be the same, but is the opposite nowadays. I think she’s been forced to learn to eat fast at school. I remember in grade 0 she used to get stomach aches because they had so little time to eat lunch. She’d start out slow and then finish at a frantic pace. Now it’s a more even, consistently fast pace.

I believe in family meals taken together, so I encourage her to stay at the table until everyone has finished. She gets rather bored while waiting.

When we went to the supermarket after school, both kids found comics they wanted to buy. Neither of them could wait until we got home.

Kalle Anka Pocket for Ingrid, Ninjago for Adrian.

Ingrid and her friend sewed plush toys.

They have a very different approach to organizing a crafts project than I do… There is stuff everywhere, scraps mixed with pieces they are working on and with unused material; pins and needles loose on the table and the floor. Everyone else stays far away.

We went geocaching in Ursvik. Cycled all the way there with Adrian on the tow bike; it worked great. I’m so glad I bought it.

Of the four caches we attempted, two turned out to be located up in trees. The first one was relatively easy, but did require Ingrid to climb onto my shoulders to get up to the first branch.

We spent a good while on the second one, but finally gave up. It was harder than the first one to even get started on – my shoulders were not high enough and Eric had to step in. First Ingrid climbed up to look for it, but turned back after having climbed to about 8 metres’ height. Then I tried and got to about 10 metres or so before coming back down, for reasons of security. Neither of us could even see the cache. Maybe we passed it; maybe it was still above us somewhere. I am miffed. We will have to go back there and spend more time on reconnaissance on the ground before starting to climb.

Still, a day we will all remember, and both Ingrid and I had fun climbing!

Inspired by Yayoi Kusama’s dotted designs, Ingrid and I painted the rice paper lamp that hangs in her room.

I am tired, and especially tired of organising and managing things for other people, including my kids. But a birthday is a birthday, so I dredge up some energy and do my best to make it a fun day for Adrian. I don’t think he’ll remember it as his best birthday ever.