He pretends he’s too old for this game, but really he’s not.
Where’s Ivan?
Oh?
There he is!
Peek-a-boo
Reply
Making Finger Puppets
Father and Son in Wookiee the Chew shirts
Summer in DeKalb
Ivan won at a game of squares. Ivan – 41 points & Amanda – 39 points
Looking smug, isn’t he?
Eric talked me into taking the kids to Six Flags Great America theme park
Ivan has now ridden the roller coaster called The Demon 8 times. I have ridden it 6.
Here we are happy in the line for ride number 4 of the day.
The line for the Demon was short. Ivan was tall enough to ride.
It was his coaster.
My coaster preference was Spacely Sprockets a smaller Jetsons themed coaster in the area of the park for smaller kids. We rode that twice, but then Ivan would smile up at me and say, “Demon?” And back we went to the Demon.
Here he is with the flame letters that spell “Demon” in front of the roller coaster.
The joy of a water cannon is not to be underestimated. Here’s Ivan at Buccaneer Bay firing his water cannon.
Then he wanted to ride the pirate ship ride. We fired the water cannons on our pirate ship at sharks, skulls, and passers-by.
Here we are waiting to board our vessel, The Black Jack. Ivan is very happy for his chance to ride a pirate ship.
Ezri rode on a cat on the carousel. Ivan was on this little piggie.
Firehouse Field Trip
Ivan is in with his Exploration Station camp in orange. His counselor is Mr. Jeff. He was excited to tell me that at this field trip the firetruck was in the fire house. They got to look inside the firetruck. When his tot school class went on their field trip a year and a half ago the firetruck was away on a call and Ivan’s memory is long at least where firetrucks are concerned.
Rotary Grove Fest
Ivan up on an elephant
Ivan down on an elephant
Ivan with his tall, green apple slushie
Friends waiting to go on the rides
Waiting for the bumper cars in the bright sunshine and heat
Sweaty, bumper car selfie. Ivan steered and I pushed the gas peddle. He wasn’t tall enough to go on by himself because he wouldn’t have been able to reach the peddle. There was a lot of spinning in circles, but he loved driving himself.
Ivan also won a stuffed penguin that he has named Flippers in a carnival fishing game. Flippers came home and Ivan had him join a stuffed animal meeting with 13 other stuffed animals. Then Ivan read him two stories – Go Away Big Green Monster and The Egg. He slept snuggled with Flippers last night.
But when asked what his favorite part of Grove Fest he said, “It was going on Zero Gravity. Oh yeah!” He also liked breaking a board at the karate class demonstration we stopped at and playing in the Train Station fountain. He threw a penny in and wished for me to not ever be bossy. Not my favorite wish – since “bossing him” is a parent’s job. We talked about it and he revised to wishing for me to not ever be grumpy with him. Seems unlikely, but a good wish.
A Pre-Father’s day celebration last Saturday in DeKalb
The kids love this tree in the front yard. It was too small to climb when Eric’s family planted it when he was child, but now it’s a perfect climbing tree.
Ivan did a great number of laps around the house racing at his top speed. Here he is on lap 15 or so.
The newly remodeled DeKalb Library has a LEGO wall. . .
and a reading area for Grandma, dad and the kids.
Two great dads and a couple great kids
Out to dinner at Rosita’s
Bubbles in the backyard with the biggest bubble wand we’ve seen yet!
Tall enough to use the water fountain solo
This photo is from early May when we were so excited the near park’s water fountains were back in service!
Ivan is pretty impressed that he has grown enough since last fall when the fountains were turned off that he can now use the fountain without a parental boost.
It’s a milestone.
