We wanted to check out the Almaden Lake Park Art and Wine Festival on Sunday, and we tried to get out earlier as it was a hot day.  There were quite a lot of people there already when we arrived but we had no trouble parking or walking in.  Connor wanted to watch the performance so we walked through the booths to head that direction.  There was a choir singing and both boys just wanted to sit down to watch.  As it was close to 11am, we picked up some yummy skewers and settled down in a shaded area to enjoy the show while we ate.  Both boys loved the chicken so much that I had to go buy more for all of us.  While we were eating, we not only had the a rock band performing, there were some kid gymnasts practicing tumbling right in front of us.  It was a great entertainment.  Both kids, especially Connor, really did not want to leave the performance area when we were ready to walk around again.  We strolled through the rest of the booths, then we entered the children area.  The boys had considered playing at the bouncy houses but changed their minds.  They preferred watching some kids climbing the rock climbing wall instead.  Later as we were heading out, we picked up the beautiful sunflowers that they were given away.

    In the afternoon we wanted to hit to pool to cool off.  Connor was excited to go to the big pool but Logan still preferred the little kids pool.  Logan played with the water gun, then swam around a little bit.  He did not seem as engaged so he came out for a snack instead.  Afterward, we switched up; Connor returned to the big pool with me and Logan wanted to play ping pong with Stuart.  Connor liked jumping into the water while holding my hands, then he hung on my back and we walked along the pool several times.  It was some workout for me.  We stayed in the water for a long time, and it turned out that Stuart and Logan were still playing ping pong.  Logan did better this time and they actually had some good rallies.

    The girls and I had a dinner planned on Saturday night for Robyn’s upcoming birthday, and Ted invited the boys (including Stuart) to go over to hang out with them while I would be out.  All of us arrived their house shortly after 5pm.  Mckayla and Marcus were excited to show the boys and me their new play structure.   They were all playing there for awhile, and I hung out giving them pushes on the swings and chatting with them.  Mckayla and Marcus were both chatty and talked with us about many things.  Then Connor wanted to play hide and seek while Logan wanted to play tag.  Mckayla was opened to both initially but they ended up playing hide and seek.  I finally found a moment to sneak away to sit with the adults instead.  After few more minutes, Michelle and I got ready to go out.  Connor told me that he would miss me and wanted to give me a few hugs before we left.

    Michelle and I arrived at the restaurant and found Robyn and Julie at the table already.  Later Thuy and Theresa arrived too.  We had a nice evening together; we enjoyed the delicious meal and some fun conversations.  After a couple of hours of dining, we said goodbye to each other, then Michelle and I drove back to their house.  When we walked in, the boys were packing up and were so focus in looking for a toy gun that they barely remembered to say hi to us.  According to the, Stuart, Ted and the kids had a good night together; they enjoyed the homemade dinner Michelle made while watching football on TV.  Then the kids were playing nicely and quietly for awhile so the daddies could finish watching the game.  We all chatted just a little bit more. then we thanked the hosts and left to go home. During the drive home, Connor was still quite excited and wanted to share with me what they played.  He told me that they all played with Legos for awhile, and later Mckayla, Marcus and he played “family” while Logan continued to play with Legos.  Mckayla was the mommy, Marcus was the daddy, and Connor was the baby.  They also played “school” too.  They had a great time.

     We knew Logan had his first soccer game on Saturday and picture day on Sunday, but we did not find out the times until Friday (such last minute), therefore, we kept the entire weekend free for them.  The Saturday morning game was early at 9:15am, and Logan was excited for it.  We arrived at the field, then Logan joined the team.  The boys all looked so sharp with their team jerseys.  Logan’s team had fun running back and forth defending and trying to shoot.  Logan was engaged and enthusiastic, but also not too aggressive.  He did not try to get the ball too much but if the ball came close to him, he would give it a good kick.  He liked being the goalie and tried to guard the goal any opportunity he had.  It was fun watching this first game.  Some kids definitely showed some experience with soccer, and they did great. 

   Today we walked over to the local middle school for the picture day.  It was a huge event as there were so many teams in this league.  Logan hung with the boys while they waited for their turn, then they all had their individual pictures and the team picture taken.  After the picture event, we walked over the farmer market next block.  Logan sat and watched a musician singing and playing guitar while Connor came along with me to sample some nectarines.

   The rest of the weekend, we played some tennis and hockey, but the boys also wanted to play more soccer.  Both of them enjoy being the goalie, so we set up some rules so they could win their way to be the goalie.  We all had a good time playing together.

    There was a movie night at Logan’s school on Friday, and the boys were very excited about it.  Connor was especially happy as it was showing one of his favorites, Frozen.  Unfortunately Stuart had to work that night starting at 8pm, so the plan was just the three of us going to the movie.  After dinner we packed up some snacks, jackets, a blanket and flashlights, and we started our walk over to the school.  We arrived and found a spot for our blanket.  We looked around and Logan pointed out a few people he knows, one from CDC, one who he plays “Hula tag” with at recess, and Alexander from his class.  I asked if Logan would like to go say hi, but he chose not to and we settled down on our blanket.  One of Logan’s classmates passed by us; Logan cheerfully yelled out “Hi Jaime” and he got a big smile in return.  Finally the movie started and our snacking began too.  This was the first time for any of us watching an outdoor movie and we loved it.  The boys even pointed out that there were many stars in the sky.  Once it was dark, It was a little cold, but with us all bundled up and cuddled together, it was totally comfortable.  Everyone was enjoying the movie; when the “Let it Go” song came on, many people on the field started singing along which was so cool to hear.  Both Connor and I joined the fun while Logan continued watching and munching on snacks.  Some people packed up to leave before the movie ended, but we stayed until the end.  We packed up and started our walk home with a flashlight each.  Logan was so worried initially that Connor would get lost if he fell behind walking.  He ended up holding on to Connor’s hand for a little bit until we cleared the crowd.  The boys had fun shining the flashlights on our path and we played “following the leader” all the way home.

    We met up with Vrinda, Nanda and Rohan a couple of times this weekend.  On Satuday we were invited to their house.  Stuart had reminded the boys that Rohan likes Beyblades too, so the boys were excited to bring their Beyblades and stadium to play.  Once we arrived to their house, the boys ran around, watched a little TV and played some games.  Then they finally sat down and battled together with their Beyblades.  We broke for dinner, then they played so more.  Later we all went out to the backyard.  Most of us just relaxed in the backyard while Nanda had the pleasure of playing ball tag with the boys.  All three boys ran around the huge backyard so much to avoid being tagged by the tennis ball.  What a blast and good exercise they had; they were all drenched with sweat.  We finally called off the fun time and headed home for shower and bedtime.

   Monday we met up with Rohan and family again at the Almaden Lake Park in the morning.  It was so strange that there were lots of bugs in many areas of the playground.  We had to migrate to the big kid structure to stay away from the bugs.  The kids loved playing tag and they were lucky that Nanda was willing to play with them for awhile.  Our boys never really played with swings, but today Logan wanted to play with it and got the other two boys into it too.  Connor even said to me “We never played with swing and it is fun!”.  It was a hot day. so after over an hour at the park, we moved back to our house for the boys to play some more.  They built a fort in the bonus room and played in it until it was time for our guests to go home.

   We also made a couple of visits to the cabana club this weekend.  Logan did well in the wading pool and was still timid in big pool.  So we did not even push him and let him enjoy his time in the wading pool today.  Connor loved being in both pools and he liked jumping into the big pool like a cannon ball while holding our hands.  The boys also wanted to play in the playground too which gave us an opportunity to play ping pong.  I lost 21 to 15 to Stuart but it was fun playing a game without too many interruptions.  The cabana club time is coming to an end this year and we sure tried to make the most out of it.

    Logan is often nervous to ride his bike and we feel that the training wheels on his big bike might be not be that helpful, so we decided to try him without the training wheels this weekend.  On Saturday, we stepped Logan down to Connor’s smaller bike and let him try riding it on grass.  Logan was very nervous despite Stuart holding on to his shoulders.  He was very stiff the entire time, and he even cried a little according to Stuart.  We had Connor taken turns too.  He was nervous as well but was slightly less stiff.    He tried to steer a little.  The whole experience was very tiring for them and for us too.  We had to call it a quit after a couple of rounds.

    Sunday morning we changed the strategy a bit.  Stuart lowered Logan’s bike seat to the lowest and removed the peddles from both of their bikes.  Our goal was having the boys glide around with the bikes on foot to learn balancing.  We also decided to go to another location where they could bike on the playground rubber top.  Logan was doing better, trying to glide and steer a little.  He was not as scared this time and did his best.  Connor on the other hand was more timid and did not want to glide at all.  He basically just waddled around with his bike.  We did not want to push them too much; so after a couple of rounds, we moved on to playing tennis instead.  We know that we still have a lot of work ahead of us.