So…we’re already into our 4th week of summer, but Brian was updating our computer last week and I just got back on! Our second week of summer fun concluded with the annual Prairie Fest weekend and Father’s Day. The fun continued with baseball which started last week for all three boys (coach pitch for Logan, 1/2 tee-ball and 1/2 coach pitch for Aiden and a little Mighty Mites class for Brady) plus tennis for Aiden per his request. Here are pictures of Prairie Fest and Father’s Day.

On Friday, the 15th, we met up with some good friends to do the “all you can ride for $20”. When we first got there around noon, all the rides were down due to electrical issues. Around 1:30, we got back up and running. The boys rode and rode and rode the rides until around 4:30 when we left and collapsed at home on the couch!

Here is Brady on his favorite, the helicopter ride. Due to his height, he wasn’t able to do many of the “big kid” rides. It worked out well because my friend Lisa took him and her younger son while I took her older son and my boys along with another friend to a different area with much crazier attractions.

 

Like the crazy, spin-you-around-and-then-tilt-you-all-the-way-up “Zero Gravity” that Logan rode at least 10 times and Aiden rode at least 4 times (Aiden was a little gun-shy so he stood aside for a while. Once he got a taste of it though…he was just as hooked as Logan – crazy boys!) This is a view of the back of the ride:

My favs: the swings. I think they all went at least twice on this one.

Brian the gourmet detests the food selection at P-fest (we went on Thursday with just the adults for a concert and he was then set on making his own food for our traditional night with the kids on Saturday). Here he works on 1 of his masterful creations. I can’t remember exact ingredients, but there was a jerk chicken with pineapple coleslaw and a steak with blue cheese and bacon. They were oh-so-good and we had more than enough to share.

The kids played around per usual and there was a nice, big area for a while before the crowd started rolling in. Aiden somehow convinced AJ, Ryan and Ella to lift him up and carry him around.

The Pfest crew minus Kate and Carter (plus 2 that were on vacation)

 

The next day, we celebrated our wonderful and amazing daddy with a ride out to a farmer’s market in Geneva and a walk around the Fabian Forest Preserve that features a Japanese garden amongst other things. I spent a lot of time behind everyone else capturing cute pictures like this one….

…and this one

 

This is the old tea room at the Japanese Garden. I don’t have any other pics because I was too lazy with my iphone :)

After our little adventure, Brian’s dad came over and we had a lovely dinner…complete with some “grill” cupcakes that the boys and (I!) made:

Gummy Crabby Patty burgers, Mike and Ike’s strawberry candies and gummy fruits on the toothpicks. You can’t tell from the picture, but these were the giant cupcakes…like as big as my hand. Very fun to make!