I love back-to-basic toys, and I feel fortunate that these types of toys are Evan’s favorites, too.  No matter how many electronic, gimmicky toys he receives, he always goes back to the same three types of things: construction/farm equipment, Legos, and blocks.  He will play with other toys from time to time, but 90% of his play with toys is related to one of these three things.  He has unit blocks at my mom’s house and he enjoys those, but at home, we have three boxes of Kapla Blocks.  He received his first set at Christmas last year from my two aunts, and he fell in love with those things right away.  Over the summer, he didn’t play with them much, but lately, he’s been getting them out again.  If you are local and are looking for these blocks, they sell them at the Discovery Center in Clinton, IA.  I have seen them at a couple of other children’s museums, too.  This weekend, we had some fun with them (and trashed our living room):

On Sunday, we made this:

this (and one other thing that got destroyed before the camera could make it there):

Evan spent a long time making a “dog park” around the building:

Creative fun with the blocks:

A few pictures from the last day of the fair.

This is a horse that lives and trains at the fair in Morrison. I think that is kind of neat! I forget his name…but it has Dana in it. My mom knows the names of his owners. Hopefully she’ll comment & clarify that (Mom: hint hint).

Later, Evan and Grandma threw 300 balls at little fishbowls (unsuccessfully).

I snuck away to the first turn of the racetrack to take a few shots from a better angle:

This slide was crazy fast. I rode on it earlier in the week with Evan, and our behinds flew in the air!

Merry-Go-Round:

Balloon-Popping game:

Air-brushed tattoo:

The guy was nice. He runs a tattoo shop in Clinton called Steel Appeal.

Ta-da!

Last year, Evan won the pedal pull one day and got second another. This year, he didn’t do as well, but he still had fun!

Until next year!