Our neighbors, Marilyn and Andrew, coordinated a dinner date to invite the four adjacent families for a get-together and it was on Saturday night.  Before we went to the dinner, we had a swim first in the afternoon.  We then cleaned up and got dressed, and walked up to their house.  We were the first to arrive and the boys were very excited to explore the house.  The hosts have many precious decors along with one piano and three harps.  The boys were so intrigued to play with the instruments; even though they were given permission to play with them, we had to ensure that they were being gentle.  We later decided to take them out to the yard to avoid them getting too hyper inside the house.  Their yard was big and it was surrounding the entire house.  I followed the boys and it was quite a hike walking through the paths and the steps all around.  The other two families slowly arrived, and one of the families also has younger kids (9, 2).  We all chatted for awhile, then later the dinner was served.  Marilyn did a great job cooking a spread of different entrees and side dishes to accommodate different food restrictions.  By then Logan and Connor were drawn to the Tablet the big boy Parsa was playing and they were all content in the living room.  So we decided to have our dinner first.  It was nice talking and getting to know our neighbors.  I finally got the kids down to eat their dinner; the food was a bit too sophisticated for them but they managed to eat just enough.  Parsa went home to get his basketball, and he and Logan played a quick game together.  Later we got the four kids down to watch a movie, so we could join the adults in the conversation again.  Later Marilyn served us her homemade desserts and some coffee.  Connor was telling us he was tired then but his eyes widened after learning that there were desserts.  After we enjoyed them and the kids had some ice cream, we realized how late it was, 10:15pm.  We said our thank you and enjoyed a short walk to go home.

   Logan had his second game on Saturday; he is always excited for the “real” games.  The game was fun to watch as there were a few quite good players and it was relatively fast pace.  Logan was his usual “not too aggressive” self during the play, not assertive for rebound and not really ready for the ball sometimes.  He had procession of the balls slightly more in this game and had dribbled it down the court a few times.  He gave the ball away a bit too quickly whenever he was being guarded but he passed it nicely to his teammates most of the times.  Logan made three baskets.  The first one happened when the ball came to him and he quickly put it into the basket above him but unfortunately it was the opponent basket.  The other two happened when Logan dribbled down the court and found an opening, so he proceeded and made the basket.  He actually was pleased with those as he told us how he did it when he came over for water.  it was nice to see some reaction from Logan and see how proud he was. 

    So now Logan had just finished the first week of Camp Galileo.  He seemed to have fun or at least he said he had.  But we really do not know much about how the week went.  Logan is the worst in recalling things he did and there is no difference this time.  We tried to ask many open questions but we only learned some minimal things.  The topic for this week was the “Human Body”, so Logan did learn some facts about the body.  He wore a yellow “theme color” shirt one day and a crazy hat on another day.  He had a water day where he said he was sprayed with water by the team leaders.  He learned a few names of his teammates but we were not sure if he played with them.  According to the team leader’s notes, Logan was enthusiastic and determined to finish the projects and he got along well with all the teammates.  Today Logan brought home several projects they had made during the week. 

      Logan is returning to this camp for three more different “theme” weeks, so hopefully he is really enjoying it.

     Since we got home earlier today, I took the boys to the Cabana Club while Stuart finished up his work.  They wanted to play at the sandbox again, so we started there first.  After playing for quite awhile, we headed over to the wading pool.  There were several other kids there so both boys just walked around in the water.  When it became less crowded, I asked Logan if he wanted to dive into the water again and he did it.  After just a couple of minutes, Logan became more comfortable and repeatedly putting his head in the water for the rest of the time we were there (at least 20-30 minutes).  He was diving and chasing Connor around the edge of the pool which Connor had a great laugh from it.  Later he even got Connor motivated to put his face in water too.

    The boys started new schools today, and we had been preparing them mentally the past couple of days.  This morning after Logan woke up, he discovered that he could not play games and he was slightly grumpy about it.  Then when he and I were sitting together, he told me that he was nervous to go to the new place and that he might cry.  I tried to be positive and had him focus on the fun aspect of camps.  Both Stuart and I were a bit worried about how their drop off would go, but fortunately it went quite well.

   Connor and I accompanied Logan to the school where the summer camp was held.  We asked for a quick tour and a camp leader showed Logan and us around.  Logan looked expressionless but he was following instruction well about where to put his backpack and where to go.  When it was time to go inside, Logan did not say bye to us and just followed the crowd to walk in.  I could tell that he was nervous as he was picking his nails, but at least he did not cry or show any hesitation.  When Connor and I arrived at his new school, he was happy as he recognized the place from the open house few months ago.  He was telling me how there were similar structures at his old school.  While we were walking in, he did tell me how he missed his teachers and the one teacher who used to chase him around in the mornings.  Once we were inside the classroom, Connor was holding on to me tighter.  We walked around the room to familiar him to different things, especially the bathroom and the sink area.  Connor showed me how he could wash his hands there.  Afterward we said hi to the second teacher who just came in.  Miss Julie talked to Connor about Duplo and he agreed to stay to play with her.  I then said goodbye to him and left.

    Stuart and I went together to pick up the boys at the end of the day.  We arrived at Logan’s school first; by the time we spotted him in the extended care room, he was just walking around so we did not see what he was doing prior to that.  He was happy to see us and he told us that he had fun.  We tried to get some information about how the day went, but we got nothing.  He kept changing his answer so many times that we did not even find out how many classmates in his team.  He did tell us that he saw a couple of schoolmates he knew from the previous school and he shared a couple things he learned about the “Human Body” as it was the theme for this week camp.  One more thing he did say was that he did not have to use his pencils even once today.  As soon as we walked in to Connor’s class, I saw the teacher sitting down talking to the kids and there were a few kids standing around her.  Connor was one of them; he was raising his hand and saying something to the teacher.  Once Connor saw us, he smiled but froze there for a little bit before he finally ran over to us for a hug.  He also told us that he had a good day and the school had a fire drill.  But after that, he told us few other things that he just made up for us.  We might have to install a hidden camera in order to find out what these boys are doing during the day.

     The day after Logan’s birthday, Connor started talking with us about his birthday.  Connor told us that “I want to go golfing on my birthday…I want to have many people there…I want the banner but I don’t want someone fighting (referring to the superheros)…I want balloons and many of them….I like all colors, but no golden and no rainbow colors…I want goodie bags too…I want to play inside first but we can go outside at the last part”.  He is a chatter box lately.