Let’s see what Artie the Shelf Elf has been up to since his arrival on Friday…

Not that Nate doesn’t always enjoy going to C2E2, but something tells me he’s really gonna be jazzed about this one…

That snow that was predicted for which Nathan would need new coat, snow pants, and boots? It actually happened!!

We discovered recently that Nathan needs all new winter gear… coat, snow pants, and boots. The whole enchilada. Everything he has is too small.

Poor Nathan. He can’t sit at the cool kids table.

For the second year in a row, Nathan opted to have his friends birthday party celebrated at Urban Air, a local, indoor adventure and trampoline park.

Lately, Nathan and I have been toeing the waters of toy swaps. Literally, we’ve been taking some of the toys we don’t want anymore or maybe never cared about at all (obtained through contest wins or the like) and have been trying to set up trades with other toy collectors.

I thought I’d take a moment to throw some of our Halloween-related photos your way.

The three of us were planning on doing a Halloween theme cosplay of characters from Jurassic Park/Jurassic World this year. Katie was going to be Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), Nate would be Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), and I would be Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight).

WTF, Evite??? You assume that just because I set up the invitation and am hosting my son’s birthday party that I actually want to attend it???

I am so ridiculously proud of Nate for the photo he took today. This is the finished shot, post editing…

A couple weeks ago, we placed the order for Nathan’s school photos online. The next day, he had his photos taken.

Nate started the day like this…

As if it weren’t enough that we are paying out the wazoo to give Nate a beautiful smile, now he has to go and steal my lid!

He’s 11! Freaking 11! How in the name of all that’s holy did that happen?!?!

And just like that… three months have passed, summer is (almost) over, and our community pool is closed.

As I posted on Saturday, Nathan and I went out to Spirit Halloween and American Science & Surplus checking out Halloween costumes and decorations and the like. He's been struggling trying to figure out what to dress as this Halloween so I thought we could take a look at what was available.

Today, we took advantage of the $4 tickets being offered for National Cinema Day and went to see Jurassic Park on the big screen in THREE DIMENSIONS!!!!

Nothing good can come of Nathan and I being set free in Spirit Halloween and American Science & Surplus.

Nathan starts fifth grade tomorrow.

Fifth. Grade.

Where the hell did the last 11 years go??

My wife is a 12-year-old boy. Strictly in terms of her sense of humor.

Please let me explain before you call the cops.

Okay, so he’s playing with his food trying to get the longest cheese pull possible.

Wanna hear something trippy? Nathan just randomly decided to start watching the old 80s sitcom ALF. And he’s digging it.

I love Nathan. Really. Truly. The kid cracks me up. Sometimes it’s intentional on his part. Sometimes it’s by pure accident.

I know we signed Nathan up for saxophone and summer band camp and all the accoutrements the other day (and paid the bill), but it wasn’t until Amazon made a delivery today that it really started to feel real…

Nathan signed up for a beginner’s Dungeons & Dragons class through our park district and it was held today. The plan was to drop him off and then Katie and I go work out for a while (we signed up for the gym finally).

I can’t believe I didn't shared this in one of my earlier vacation photo posts. It was the time when Nathan was chosen by a great wizard to receive his first wand at Ollivander’s Wand Shop at Harry Potter World in Universal Studios Hollywood.

Chaperone /ˈSHapəˌrōn/

noun - a person who accompanies and looks after another person or group of people.

verb - accompany and look after or supervise.

We went to that Band/Orchestra Night that was being hosted as a "get to know your instrument" night for upcoming fifth graders. It was split in two with orchestra (string instruments) and band (brass and I think a few woodwinds) holding sessions in different places. We wound up going to both.

With The Flash, the final movie in the soon-to-be defunct DCEU, coming out soon in theaters and given the fact that Nathan and I watched Suicide Squad this weekend, I decided I wanted to counter the negative stigma from Ezra Miller and their portrayal of Barry Allen and Flash by introducing him to the far superior versions played on television from 2014 to the end of this month by Grant Gustin.

Next year, Nathan is eligible to start playing an instrument in either orchestra or band at school. And, yes, he's interested. 

Normally at this point of the year, we’re struggling to get Nathan signed up for park district classes for the summer because with so many two-working-parent families, those classes fill up quick.

Nathan had a project at school where he had to create a simple circuit board that would trigger an LED bulb when the correct leads, given several choices, were paired up.

Adidas has been a brand as long as I can remember. Shoes, clothing, sports equipment, whatever. But it was always a secondary or tertiary brand. Not one that we would think of as top of the line. Certainly not something we sought out or pined over.

Nathan seemed to have a happy Easter today.