Today was Petra’s eighth birthday, and the festivities started bright and early, before Olof left for work just after seven this morning. After our girl opened her pile of presents, I went back to bed to rest up for this afternoon’s events, a visit to Leo’s Lekland, the local indoor play-place. Petra had decided to invite her best friend along for that instead of having a party, and from where I stand that was a very solid decision.

The kids ran and played hard for a couple of hours before taking a break for dinner. Their bellies full, they headed back to the fun and games for another hour or so, and after bribing them with slushies and promises of cake at home, we managed to get them more or less willingly out the door and into the car around six-thirty.

Back at home, we did indeed have cake, as well as candles and singing, and they wrapped things up with a movie and chips in the living room. It was a pretty low-key, low-stress day, and Petra had all kinds of fun, so we’re all headed to bed now happy as clams.