Stuart had to work today, so I made plans to spend the day with the boys.  After the usual game time in the morning, our first stop was at Michaels to pick up a few things before our main event at a bowling alley.  The boys were excited about bowling but neither of them knew what to do.  We got the shoes on and I started showing the boys how to hold and roll the bowling ball.  With the help of the bumper, the boys and I started knocking down some pins.  I tried to show them the more appropriate way to roll the ball initially, but later I just let them throw it however they could.  They got the hang of it quickly.  Logan threw a bit stronger, but Connor’s rolls remained quite soft and the machine often did not sense his ball.  So sometimes I would let him have another try before pushing the button to clear the pins.  Connor’s expression always made me laughed as he walked away from his rolls without watching the result.  Logan got two spares, and Connor was a bit disappointed that he did not get any.  It took us quite awhile to finish one game, and we did not have enough energy for another, so we wrapped up our fun adventure there.

     I then took them to pick up Logan’s eyeglasses.  Logan is happy with this new pair especially as it turned to a shade when we stepped out to the sun.  Connor is now quite jealous; he keeps saying that he can’t see well and hopes to get a pair of eyeglasses too.  After we left the hospital, we grabbed some lunch before going to Costco to picking up a few things.  The boys were helpful there helping me carry things as I purposely did not get a cart to avoid a long trip.  After we got home and another video gaming break later, I took the boys to the pool to swim.  They both did well practicing from where they left off.  Stuart later joined us after he was done with work.  After swimming, we hit around a volleyball and Logan did well with some simple volleying.  Two hours later, I was exhausted and we went home to relax for the night.

      We made a brief trip to see the grandparents this week.  Logan and Connor were excited to see them, and they talked about who they would hug first before we arrived at their house.  When we got close Logan recognized their house as “the prettiest house on the street”.  Shortly after we settled in, Logan asked Grandpa to play chess with him.  He later came to tell us that he lost but he was proud to have taken many pieces from Grandpa.  Connor also wanted a game with Grandpa too.  Throughout the next two days, the boys played Uno and read bedtime stories with grandma, looked through Grandpa’s model planes and played hide n seek with him.  The boys made some drawings for both of them too.  One of the days Grandma showed the boys her secret garden in the backyard (which Connor wished to have one in our house now), and she also set up some golf games.  We all took turns practicing chipping and putting.  Toward the end, Connor seemed more into chipping and Logan was quite content putting. 

    On both days, grandma and the four of us spent the afternoon at Manhattan beach.  As soon as we walked to the beach, the boys could not wait to go toward the water.  It was cloudy at the beach, but the temperature was fine at around 73 degrees.  Both Logan and Connor enjoyed running toward the water and tossing sand into the water.  I stayed out by the water with the boys most of the time while Grandma and Stuart hung out on the mat at the sand.  Logan, Connor and I also spent quite a long time building barriers for the waves, and we had quite a good laugh when our structures got destroyed.  They had fun imitating the mickey apprentice show while filling water in one of our towers that we built, and calling themselves the water crew.  We spent two hours each day played at the same spot at the beach, and the boys did not really want to take a break for snack or to go home.  Neither of them complained of being cold either despite being wet in the mild weather.  On the first day after playing with water and sand, we threw a football around for awhile and Grandma joined in the game too.  We then moved on to the volleyball before we called it a day.  After being at the beach for hours, Logan got a mild sunburn on his back and Connor fell asleep on the couch at the house while the grandparents made dinner.

    This LA trip was short, but we felt that it was productive and was nice to spend time with the grandparents. 

    Connor had a birthday party to attend today; it was for his classmate Amber at another nearby cabana club.  As soon as we walked in and passed by the waddling pool, we heard a bunch of kids yelling out “Connor”.  The scream surprised Connor a bit, but he gave his classmates a smile in return.  Connor and I then walked over to the Amber’s party area to say hello to the parents first.  Afterward, Connor gladly joined his classmates in the pool, and they stayed there for quite awhile.  At some point, all the kids decided to migrate to the shallow area in the big pool.  Connor wanted to work on swimming like he did yesterday, and since it was hot, I did not mind jumping in for a little while.  He was so excited that his mommy was in the pool and especially when a few kids came toward us to talk with us.  I had him practice for awhile, then I got out of the pool and let him play with his friends again.  Later the kids were gathered to the table to eat; they had so much fun eating and chatting with each other.  They suddenly started singing the songs they learned from school.  It was very cute!  Then it was cake time.  Afterward the kids returned to the waddling pool for more splashing and fun.  At the end, everyone was gathered again for the final event, the pinata.  All the kids did well waiting for their turns, and hitting the assigned strokes.  When the pinata finally broke open, Connor and all the kids were so excited going around picking up all the toys.  Tonight he was so proud to put all these little plastic toys in a toy suitcase, and showed them off and shared a few with Logan.

    It was quite hot today, and thus it was perfect for swimming this afternoon.  As soon as we arrived at the pool, Logan wanted to warm up in the toddler area, but we convinced both of them to get into the big pool before the hourly adult time started.  I was playing with Connor in water, and I tried to show him the few basic steps I learned from a YouTube swimming video.  Less than five minutes later, I looked over to Logan and Stuart, Logan had let go of Stuart’s hand and swam to Stuart.  Wow, I was amazed!  Logan was very excited with his new found confidence.  He wanted to show me how he could kick his legs and move his arms to swim to daddy.  Logan also kept asking Stuart to add two more steps backward every time before he swam to him.  Toward the end, Logan basically could kick his way through like 7 or 8 feet toward one of us, and he would use us to push off and swim back to the wall.  He was so proud of himself too and would give Connor some pointers.  Connor did get motivated and tried his best as well.  He is able to keep his head in the water a bit longer now and is learning to kick his legs toward the wall.  Connor also advanced with jumping into the water without any handholding.  Both boys continued with the progress even at the waddling pool when it was adult time.  As soon as the fifteen minutes were up, they both wanted to return to the big pool.  We then saw one of the neighbor’s daughter and she is new to the swim team this year.  She was happy to show the boys some swimming tips too.  We were so surprised that we were in the water for over an hour and a half, and neither of them had asked to come out for a snack like they usually do.  Stuart and I are thrilled to see the boys made such progress today.

     It was Connor’s last day of preschool yesterday.  The school had a special “Circus Day” event to celebrate.  Connor was very excited and counted down to this day as he often does with any big events.  The students were allowed to wear any costumes for the day, and Connor finally decided to be a knight.  He also took some time to figure out the right pants to pair with the knight top.  At the end trying on different pants, he agreed with a long black pants, and after he checked himself out at the mirror, he came back to tell me “This looks perfect, I will wear this tomorrow”. 

     When I came home from the work dinner last night, Connor was so happy to share “I had a very fun day”.  He wore his knight costume all day, he received a fake tattoo and face painting.  The students played games in their room, visited other classrooms, and jumped in a bouncy house.  After telling me about the fun day, Connor also added “I am not a preschooler anymore.  I am a Kindergartener now”.  He is very proud!

    Connor also brought home the class picture and his last report card.  He reached “achieved all the time” in almost all 30 categories except “most of the time” with ‘hopping’ and ‘communicates comfortably with peers’.  I think Connor is truly ready for grade school now.

    I had another day with Logan today.  He had some Tablet and Xbox game time in the morning while I did some clean up in the house, then we were off to the shopping center near the hospital.  We went to buy some Chinese buns for Connor, and picked up some groceries.  Then he and I grabbed some lunch at a Chinese joint; Logan really enjoyed the potstickers.  I also had Logan do a few pages of math worksheets before our food arrived.  Afterward we headed over to the hospital for Logan’s eye checkup.  Logan knows this set of drills well by now; he answered the doctor’s questions correctly, and he seemed to carefully letting her know “which one is clearer”.  The exam showed that Logan’s vision worsened a bit, the right side more so than the left.  But the doctor did not think the change was that significant.  Logan currently has three pairs of glasses, a just nearsighted one, a bifocal one and a sports goggle.  The change in prescriptions did not necessarily require changing the glasses, but since the nearsighted only one is the oldest, I decided to get him a new pair.  Logan was excited to shop for new glasses and tried on many different pairs.  He had asked for sunglasses that he can see well with, so with this new pair, we will try the transition lens where it will get darker when expose to direct sunlight.  Hope it will work.

    Instead of a sunny warm day today, we had a cool and cloudy one.  Therefore I could not continue our plan to take Logan swimming everyday this week.  He and I ended up playing some games together in the afternoon.  We played four games of NoStress Chess, Logan outplayed me in all of them.  He was thrilled.  We also planned to pick up Connor earlier than usual, eat dinner quickly and walk to the school to play.  When we arrived at school, we ran into Logan’s classmate, Jamie, and he ended up playing soccer and football with the boys and Stuart for quite awhile.