Happy Father's Day!

Warm, sunny Father's Day. Sam gave me a home-made card, and a coaster made of pieces of wood glues together, which he made at school.

Josh gave me a card as well, which was a Fr's Day card cause at the right moment, when he was deciding what it was, I suggested it be a Fr's Day card. Good Fathering, I reckon.

Nice hot day today. Spent a lot of it repairing then shooting tennis balls, golf balls and a water balloon or two with the trebuchet, with Sam and J. Then bummed around outside with J killing time. Let J play with the hose, He got positively goofy when he realized he could turn it on himself and get a refreshing blast of cool water. Also let him play with the sprinkler and he played in the stream, fishing for frogs. Caught one, but he got away (thank goodness). 

Home-made BLTs for lunch and lasagna for dinner. Only thing lacking was a wife, but that'll be rectified in about 24 hours...

In the shot below Josh was actually saying, wickedly, "Come closer!"

Introduced the boys to the forbidden fruit of IBC soda (black cherry in this case). Wegs doesn't carry it for some reason, so had to stop at a Tops (shudder). Here the soda was at the back of the fridge, and so as soon as it was opened it began to freeze (having been preventing from expanding prior to opening) and the expanding CO2 made a slow, slushy soda geyser.

J tried the IBC, but said it was too "spicy".

Visit to Letchworth

Those of us who couldn't be at Katie's wedding are trying to console ourselves with the beauty of nature. 

So we went on a hike this afternoon at Letchworth State Park, which a USA Today survey ranked as the #1 state park in the US. 

It really *is* nice. And quite big.

Oh, and there was an ulterior motive for me.  The boys have been sleeping terribly. Sam's been up til midnight with insomnia each night and Josh was up at 6:45 two mornings ago and 6:30 this morning. And when he's up, he's UP.

So I was hoping to wear them out. That certainly happened. 

We went with Sam's friend Ian and his mom, and hiked the Portage Trail, which has been around as long as people needed to portage canoes around the southern-most of the three falls. This took us to the Footbridge Trail, which has been around since they put that stone footbridge there. 

The hike was rife with precipices. For some reason I spent more time imagining Sam's friend Ian deliberately pushing Sam over the edge, rather than Josh slipping and falling. Not sure what that means. 

At the trail head

One of those precipices. Wow, it was a long way down. They call this the "Grand Canyon of the East" for  reason.

Ian: "Dude, this rock looks like a CHAIR!"

The boys were taken with the odd shape of this tree trunk

Near the bottom, approaching the footbridge

View downstream from the bridge

For some reason today the place was packed with Indian tourists

The falls!

And we.

Single-parenting update

Josh's last day of school was yesterday. Picked him up at 1:00 to find they'd taken the kids out to get soaked and muddy with the sprinker. And not, for some reason, in the bathing suits they asked us to send in. Below, the classroom assistant, Mr. Ramos, is showing Josh how to clean a leg using the sprinkler. 

This morning I spent with Josh. First thing we spent time outside playing with the new stomp rocket, and getting the trebuchet working. The trebuchet was donated by my officemate. It'll throw a golf ball about 60+ feet. Will try water balloons next. 

Two nights this week we went to the YMCA and brought along a friend from Sam's class, Zoe. Here they are in the new tween center playing air hockey.

I don't have a shot of it, but Josh enjoyed the Y too with two new activities. In one of them, he crawls along on the treadmill like a cat, and is periodically swept down and off the back of it. In other, we sit together on a computerized exercise bicycle which responds to turning the handlebars and displays a course you ride on. I do the pedaling and he steers.

Fun fact: Josh has some freckles coming out on his cheeks. Faint, but definitely not mud, as I thought at first. Freckles and blond hair?

Hope you are all well!

Summery activities

First, two photos from the ice cream social at Sam's school, Cobbles:

They have lots of games, music, food, and a dunk tank the teachers take turns on.  The tank was easily the most popular activity. Nice weather, and both boys had a wonderful time.

Two other photos for this brief update, of a birthday party for a friend of Josh's from school. The party was at the zoo. It was for Jack. Jack and Josh and Carter are thick as thieves:

They regularly hold hands and hug and do very silly things with the un-selfconsciousness of four-year-olds. And I have many time met other parents who, upon learning I am Josh's father, tell me their kids come home each day with tales of Josh's exploits.

A conspicuously neutral statement on the face of it. 

Best not to look at that too closely.

Here's the zoo trainer showing the kids a three-banded armadillo:

Last day of school this Thursday for Josh, and next Wednesday for Sam.

This Wednesday commences The Great Experiment, wherein I single parent for six days. Light a candle for me!