This fountain was great for stomping on and practicing some karate moves.

He enjoyed being buried in sand and building a sand robot turtle named Metalhead.

He’s definitely developed a smile for the camera face.

Each kid planted a sunflower, but something ate the top of one of the sunflowers. Not sure if it was Ezri’s or Ivan’s but the flower is working on a new bloom. Here’s Ivan with the remaining bloom.

Ivan and I went to the paint your pattery place. He thought about making something for his dad for father’s day, but then got his heart set on painting himself a “Leatherhead” which is the name of the gator mutant from the ninja turtles cartoon.
He used a lot of green paint and carefully painted the mouth inside red.

Here we are playing Family of Alligators at the Subway while we pick up sandwiches.

I picked up Ivan from day camp and we had a little over an hour to explore Grove Fest.

Ivan wanted to find and ride the ferris wheel. He is not tall enough to ride solo, so we went together. I have a fear of ferris wheels, but feel I was very brave faced.

Here he is talking about how we are going to go “so high!” as we anticipate the ride.

I did review with Ivan how this was definitely NOT AN EXIT.

Ivan would like to go back with the whole family. Dad and big sister and the cats after they’ve been exposed to mutagen and are anthropomorphized and allowed to ride ferris wheels.

Ivan’s quotes from the ferris wheel made it worth it, “Up here we are taller than the whole EARTH!” and “I really like the up going better than the down going.”

Ivan likes to drive too.

He also really wanted to fish.

He caught 3 fish.

The carny offered him a green duck toy, but then looked at his face and his shirt and said, “Did you want a turtle?” Answer, “YEAH! a turtle, a GREEN turtle.” There was even an unprompted thank you for the turtle.

Then he explained to me how this turtle was like the baby turtles on his shirt who mutated into the ninja turtles.

He also likes all the pictures of food on the food stands. “That one has ice cream!” “That one has fries!” He loves fries. We got fries.

This is from the hot air balloon ride. We also rode the Strawberry-Go-Round and the Safari Bus rides. His sister is going to be so jealous about the hour Ivan and I spent at Grove Fest without her. We’ve promised to take her back later in the weekend. Not tonight because I work. Sorry, big sister.

Ivan’s biggest joy in this game was sending players to the penalty box for time out.
One was sent for 5 years to the penalty box. I think that’s a super max penalty box.

I have nicknamed Summer Camp. It is “damp camp.”
It has been a very rainy June.
Ivan is getting lots of use out of his frog jacket and spider-man boots.

At C2E2 upon seeing a child with a Baymax balloon, Ivan said “I want Lori to make one of those for me!” I thought he was going to beg me to find where the child had gotten it, but instead he just insisted I ask Lori if she would make one for him.

Lucky for him, Lori is talented and loves him.

He really couldn’t be more pleased with his Baymax balloons.