Ivan loves a teeter totter with a big girl bouncing companion.
Dropping crab apples into the water and watching them float.
Having a snack in the tunnel.
Ivan goes under a friend.
The racers had to ride to avoid the hot lava that had flooded the park after the volcano eruption.
Eric’s story brings all the kids to the couch.
Dinosaur Park was a big hit with the kids.
We tried hard for a photo of all the kids in one spot, but they move a lot.
Everyone loves Jason’s pancakes. They have faces. El panqueque esta feliz.
Two boys climbing a dinosaur tail.
Two boys making a pepperoni pizza. The bark mulch is pepperoni.
You could tell from his helmet, right?
All the kids got to pick a last ride. This was Ivan’s choice and he loved it. He would like to ride a real dragon, but this was pretty great too.
Driving this car was serious business – just look at Ivan’s face.
We are inside the Dizzy Dragon ride which Ivan stumbled off of at the end. Ezri took the photo.
Jason came to play yesterday.
He tickled the kids which they loved. He played Frozen Freeze tag (Elsa freezes you, but other than that pretty standard freeze tag). He let the kids use plastic tools on him and pretended to be a malfunctioning robot. He was Goofy in their version Mickey Mouse Playhouse.
Good times.
Today I chased Ivan around a tree and he begun singing “All around the mulberry bush. . .”
He declared himself the monkey and said he was chasing me.
We sang and I popped because I was the weasel.
The monkey then collected sticks to give the weasel because it was her birthday.
He made a big pile and called it “the stick station.”
The monkey invited the weasel for a sleepover at his house (park play structure) and served cereal(bark mulch on a park table) for the monkey in the morning in the kitchen.
The monkey was king of the rock. It was a monkey rock. Clearly, not for weasels like me.
The monkey liked playing red light green light on the teeter totter.
Here the monkey is saying, “Green Light – GO!” Then the weasel on the other end would bounce fast and the monkey would laugh.
The monkey climbed a lot and particularly enjoyed the monkey bars which he declared just for monkeys – again not for weasels. He did take one tumble off a climbing ladder and the weasel rushed to him saying, “Ivan, are you okay?” Through tears he replied, “You mean monkey. Monkey, are you okay?” The weasel sure loves that monkey.
Before leaving the park, we checked in with Ezri who was with her Spanish class. The monkey had to know, “Ezri are you a monkey or a weasel?” Without missing a beat she replied, “I’m a monkey.” Ivan-monkey was pleased with this answer and happy to head to the car where fell asleep on the car ride home.
I wanted to go to the park after Ivan’s Pee Wee Camp and run the kids around in the sunshine. Ivan was not listening. I asked if he wanted to hold my hand and walk across the street to the park or just go home. Ivan stuck out his lower lip and said, “I want to go home.” I pointed out that the park would be fun and had swings and slides and such. Ivan said, “I want to go home!” I said, “Okay, let’s go home and play in the backyard.” Ezri said, “We could get out the wading pool and then have fun.” Ivan smiled and said, “swim diaper!” I pictured epic battles to get the kids in swim gear. But, while not a smooth process it went pretty well.
The kids were right. We didn’t need a park. We had fun in our own backyard.
