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.

Ivan can just barely get his little hand around the trigger of this water squirter, but he reveled in his new ability to squirt the grown-ups and other kids.

He’s great at snuggling in his sleeping bag, loading the tent with stuffed animals, and storytime in the tent.
Actually napping in the tent was a failure, but he looked pretty sleepy until his sister decided to start a tickle fight.

Ivan chased ducks. Was horrified by gnats until he realized running through them was a fun game. He hopped across rocks and climbed onto fence posts.

Bike and trike are outta the garage for the first time since fall.

Ivan is chanting “Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. . .”

This next photo is what happens when he gets to the great fall.

The only thing as awesome as the wading pool for Ivan today was watching the park district’s mega-mower cruise through the park. The driver even waved to Ivan as the boy pointed and clapped in obvious adoration.

And this made Ivan laugh as much as he ever has. There’s nothing as funny as your sister dumping water on her head. Nothing.