Playground fun

Tuesday: Spårvägsmuseet

On Tuesday, we went to Spårvägsmuseet, or the Stockholm Transport Museum. This museum contains the history of public transportation in Stockholm, from horse-driven coaches to today's modern metro system. Two out of Daniel's favorite things in the world are buses and trains (the third being airplanes), this is a perfect museum for him. Part of the fun he had was in the transportation simulators, where he could 'drive' a bus or tram in front of a moving screen. There was also a Toy Museum where he could work a tiny model train, too.

After a long day, Daniel was still not tired, but finally slept after reading from his Russian-English dictionary to his mother.

Monday: Junibacken!

On Monday all of us took a trip to Junibacken, a childrens museum dedicated to the work of Astrid Lindgren. When I write 'all of us' I meant not just Jim, Karin, and Daniel, but most of the children in the greater Stockholm area. We were literally crawling over kids to get from one end to the other. But Daniel loved it. His favorite was Villa Villekulle, the home of Pippi Longstocking. There were many rooms to explore, upstairs and downstairs, plus a slide around the back. We even lost track of him a few times. In front of the house stood Lilla Gubben, or Little Old Man, Pippi's horse, and Daniel climbed up for a short 'ride'. Another highlight was a short tram ride that featured many scenes from Astrid Lindgren books. One book, The Brothers Lionheart, tells the story of two brothers that fight a dragon, and when the dragon showed up later during the ride, Daniel got a little frightened. The first thing he did when he got off the ride was to warn the tram attendant that there was a fire-breathing dragon back there, probably thinking that she might be able to take care of that particular problem.

There were other parts of Junibacken that featured characters from other authors, including some of Daniel's other favorites like Mumin, Mamma Muu, and Pettson and Findus. All that, plus an ice cream cone, made it a great fun day.

Sunday: back to the stable and the cars

We had another day at the stable at Hågelbyparken and of course that meant another day at the Trafiklek - traffic playground. Daniel had two turns before lunch - then twice more right after.

But it wasn't all fun and games - he had some work to do, too. He helped bring Jempe in from grazing to his stall. Then while waiting to ride, he found a giant pile of rocks that he claimed for his own, but we had to explain that all the rocks wouldn't fit in the car, so he just took one. Daniel then took a few turns around the paddock on Jempe. He's one of Jempe's favorites because Daniel loves to give him carrots and horse treats.

Hågelbyparken (http://www.hagelby.se/) is a wonderful place to keep a horse. As you can see, there are some nice buildings the grounds are very well-kept. And, on certain days, they have live music underneath the white tents, which you can see in the background of one of the photos below. If you watch the video of Daniel driving in an earlier post, you'll be treated to some Whitesnake - with some very apt lyrics, too.

Look - I can drive

While mommy went riding yesterday, Daniel went driving. They have this playground with electric cars and a mini city to drive at the park next to the stable. Last year Daniel was too little to reach the pedal, but now he can drive the cars all by himself. He does not always follow the traffic laws, but he did a good job not hitting any of the other cars, and only ran over his dad once. The cost is just over a dollar for about five minutes of driving time, so we have to bring enough money to last more than a few turns. Most kids we saw we're crying when told they couldn't go again, but Daniel was good because we promised him we'd come back again on Sunday.

Daniel driving - the movie

Playground accident

Happy child at play ground.

Not so happy... Bit his tongue when flying down the slide.

Pappa, take a picture of my rock!

Beach life