This year Dora was able to arrive the day before Thanksgiving and join us at the local turkey trot.  On Thanksgiving morning, the boys hung out with Dora for a little bit; then we all got ready for the race.  It was pretty cold; shortly after we started walking the 0.7 mi to the starting place at the high school, Connor suggested that we should have driven there instead.  After we arrived, we took a few pictures, then the 10 K was ready to start so Dora was off for her run.  Logan had been telling us that he wanted to beat his time from last year and Connor told me that he would run until he got tired then he would walk.  Ten minutes later it was our turn for the 5K.  Logan and Stuart took off on their own while Connor and I stayed together.  Connor was quite motivated and during the first half of the way, we ran a little and walked a little.  For the remaining half, Connor did not want to run anymore as he said his legs were tired.  But he was still good in walking and just needed encouragement periodically.  We finally got excited when we were on the last stretch, and we even met up with Dora who walked back to join us.  Close to the finish line, Stuart and Logan were cheering us on, and Connor and I picked up our pace and ran to pass the line.  Connor and I finished at 57 minutes which was 7 minutes faster than last year.  According to Stuart, Logan was motivated, and he alternated running and walking.  He also beat his time, 38 minutes instead of 44 minutes.  Dora made her best 10K time ever and was the 3rd female in the her age group.  After a quick snack there, we took our homeward trek with our sore legs.

     The rest of the day Stuart, Dora and I were tired, and we took a nap.  But the boys did not complain at all and looked quite energized.  They played video games, and later played Monopoly with Dora and Stuart while I made our dinner.  We enjoyed dinner and pumpkin pie afterward.  We took it easy the rest of the night as the adults were tired.  Happy Thanksgiving!

    This is a late post for last Sunday.  We started the day with Logan’s classmate Lucas over to play.  Logan was excited to get to know a new friend; as soon as he arrived, Logan showed Lucas around the house.  They spent quite a bit of time in Logan’s room.  Lucas was showing the boys how to make an origami windmill.  Later they migrated to the game room, and eventually came downstairs to play chess.  Logan played Lucas at the first game, and Connor joined Lucas in force against Logan at the second game.  Later both big boys wanted to get online to play with the school programs.  Connor spent majority of the time hanging with the big boys.  At the beginning when I tried to encourage Connor to help me make brownies, but he told me that he was old enough to stay and play with the big boys.  All three boys actually played well together, and at the end Connor did hang with Stuart for a bit.  The mom returned an hour and a half later but ended up staying another hour to chat with me until the boys were willing to end their playdate.

    The Tsaos decided to have an impromptu dinner and we were happy to join in.  We arrived at their house in the afternoon after a quick detour for the boys’ haircut.  Both boys were fascinated with Brandon’s collection of Skylander figurines and Beyblades.  They played for a long time before they headed outside to the yard.  They were happily playing tag with a mini soft football, but all of a sudden, Robyn and I spotted both Logan and Connor were crying.  It turned out that Connor tossed a real golf ball which ended up hitting Logan’s forehead.  Logan was in pain but fortunately the ball had missed his eyeglasses and eye.  We got some ice and immediately started icing the area.  Connor understood what he had done and regretted his action; he just quietly sat on the ground next to Logan and Stuart.  At this moment, the Zhangs arrived.  Jesselyn was her usual happy self coming over to say hi to everyone; and she ended up sitting next to the boys to hang with them.  Then dinner was served.  At that point, the icing had helped and Logan felt better.  Everyone enjoyed the nice meal in their backyard.  After dinner we all returned inside the house; the kids watched a movie while the adults continued to chat.  We enjoyed some desserts, then it was finally time to encourage the kids to leave the couch and thank the hosts before we headed home.

    The two moms and I had our second lesson for the kindergarteners on Monday.  We took turns in our roles, and I only had to be responsible for discussing a painting this time so I did not have to do too much prep work.  After drop off in the morning, the moms and I prepared for our lesson in the cafeteria, then we hung out until the kids arrived after recess.  Connor was happy to see me and ran over to give me a hug before he sat down in the front row.  The lesson then began.  As usual, we reviewed some art vocabularies; afterward, we showed the class two paintings with horses and discussed what they saw on them.  Finally we moved on to the hands-on project “crayon resist”.  By considering different shapes for the body parts, the kids drew a horse on their paper.  Then the kids pushed hard with the crayon to fill in the details on the paper.  Lastly they used a paint wash to paint over the drawing to see the “crayon resist” effect.  The final products were amazing and the kids were happy with them.  This was another fun lesson.

    We had back to back celebration dinners with both boys’ soccer teams, and that meant pizza for dinner two nights in a row.  The boys were thrilled to receive their trophies and to have pizza too.  With Logan’s celebration on Sunday, most of the teammates were there.  After eating, the head coach prepared to hand out the trophies.  Connor was so excited about the trophies that he quietly left us at the table to stand near the coach.  The coach ended up asking him to help pass out the trophies and of course Connor was happy to take on the job.  He also helped the coach to call out one boy at a time to receive the trophies.  Logan was pleased to be called and receive his reward.  He was proud to hold his trophy for a picture.

    
     Tonight it was Connor’s turn and he had been asking me for the countdown of hours to this party.  These younger kids were a lot more rumbustious compared to Logan’s team the night before, and were also happy to see each other.  We accomplished getting everyone seated for dinner, but after eating, the kids were running around the room again.  The coach decided to give out the trophies to calm them down.  Then it was cake time.  One of the moms bought a cake with the team picture and all the kids were happy to get the slice with their own face to eat.  It was then time to go home, and it marked the end of the soccer season.  The boys were proud to parade their trophies around the house for the rest of the evening.

     We went to a used book fair at the Community Center on Saturday morning. The boys were excited about this event after learning of it during a library visit.  We tried to get there early but even so there were lots of people shopping already.  The boys eagerly went through the children books and both found a few books, mostly chapter books, that they wanted.  They were happy to use their own money to buy them and proudly held on to them.  One of the ones Logan bought was a Diary of Wimpy Kid, and he could not wait to start reading it.  He reads it aloud to us and sometimes to himself.  On Sunday, while he took turns with Connor playing Stuart at ping pong, Logan would pick up the book to read during breaks.  He also took the book with him when we went out to dinner the past two nights.  He even has read while walking up and down the stairs too.  Connor is following his lead and pretending to read a chapter book as well (a Magic Tree House book).  It is cute to see both of them reading together.  We are not sure how much Logan comprehends and retains what he reads, but we are happy that he is enjoying the act of reading.