Today kind of marked a weird day for me. You see, it’s one
of those days that’s not unbelievably significant but still somewhat
significant. Today was the final day that Ethan and I will spend alone before
Ellie joins us for summer break. Not only that, but it’s likely the final day
that the two of us will spend together before Ethan begins school in the fall.
Crazy, right?
Since I had attributed so much meaning to the day, I decided
to try and make it all about Ethan by basically letting him plan our day. Of
course, when you tell a five-year-old that he’s responsible for planning the
day, you’re sometimes met with a resounding chorus of “I don’t know.”
Therefore, I ended up having to give him ideas here and there for things to do.
We finally ended up with plans to go to a park in the morning and then to go to
a splash pad later in the afternoon.
After dropping Ellie off at school, Ethan and I started our
day off by heading to E.H. Riverfront Park in Riverside. Honestly, it’s been a
while since we’ve wandered to Riverfront Park so Ethan was actually pretty
stoked to get to play there. Between the three-story slide, the zip-lines, and
the various things to climb, it’s one of his favorites!
When we first arrived, Ethan quickly made his way to the big
slides where he took a few trips down. Then, he asked me if we could head to
the zipline. Most park ziplines are pretty small and easy for kids to get on
and off. Not so at Riverfront. Ethan actually needs help to initially climb up
onto the seat and then after that he’s fine. Before our ziplining fun began,
Ethan decided to challenge himself by taking on the ropes agility course leading
to the zipline. He’s really become a fan of stuff like this since watching
American Ninja Warrior on television last year. He honestly does a pretty good job
at it, too. I’m continually amazed at how he deftly makes it across obstacles
that it seems like he has no business attempting.
Once he finished up at the zipline, Ethan headed back to the
playground to tackle that agility course which involved him climbing through a
series of ropes, across floating portals, up a “rock” wall, and finally
reaching solid ground on the other side. Of course, it wouldn’t be a trip to
the park without engaging in a little time playing soccer together. I’ve been
trying to teach him the value of dribbling and passing so we spent time in the
octoball pit so that he could practice making and receiving short passes.
After that, we headed home for lunch and a quiet time before
our afternoon activities could commence. Around 1:00 pm, Ethan and I began getting
changed into our swimsuits so that we could make our way to City Park in
Liberty to play at the splash park.
Ethan’s one request for the splash park was that I actually
stand under the large dumping bucket with him and get wet. While I didn’t initially
think that was a big thing to ask, my mind was certainly changed when I realized
just how cold the water was on this day. Eventually though, I worked up the
courage to join my already-drenched son under the bucket for a dumping (even if
I did sidestep most of it at the last minute).
Eventually, Ethan tired of the splash park and made his way
over to the adjoining playground to dry off while playing on some more ropes
courses. If you didn’t already know, Ethan definitely has a favorite kind of
playground. My favorite part though was watching him continually try to leap
from stone to stone in an attempt to make it through an area of the playground
without touching the ground. It’s always fun how such a simple activity can
activate both his imagination and his competitive streak in a never-ending
quest to complete his mission.
Around 3:00 pm, I had to break it to the little man that it
was time for us to head home. After all, I knew we had one more activity ahead of
us for the day and I wanted us to have the opportunity to change clothes, rest,
and grab some supplies for our final activity. When the time came, we headed to
school to pick up Ellie and made a stop by Summer Sno Co. on the way home. You
see, Ellie’s been asking to go to the snow cone stand for at least a couple of
weeks and I had promised her we could on the last day of school. Since Friday
is a full day, I instead chose to celebrate the last day of school on Thursday.
The great thing about Summer Sno Co. is that their snow
cones are large enough for multiple people to share. As such, I generally take
along some extra cups and spoons for splitting up the snow cones so that
everyone can have their own. Of course, the downfall of that choice is that it
normally takes a bit of time for the kids to come to a consensus on what flavor
to get. Luckily on this day, it went fairly smoothly, and they decided on the
special of Polynesian Punch (Pineapple, Strawberry, and Black Cherry).
Once we received our order, I split the snow cones up among
the three of us and we found a shady spot to sit and enjoy our frozen treat in
the shade before heading home for the day. As you can see, it certainly was a
full and fun last day before summer. Unfortunately, I’ve got several more last
days to celebrate in the upcoming months. Don’t worry; I’m already trying to
mentally prepare myself for those lasts to come.
#DaddyWrite
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