The boys and I had a day off today.  We decided to go to the theater for The Peanuts Movie in the morning.  We arrived 20 minutes before the first showing and there was a line to buy tickets.  It was also quite crowded when we walked into the theater room, but we found three seats next to the aisle with no problems.  Since we had been having popcorns at home the past couple of days with our home movie nights, we opted out on our usual preference at the theater.  The boys were fine and did not ask for anything at all the entire movie. 

     Charlie Brown and the gang were very adorable, and the boys seemed to really enjoy watching the film.  As we were walking out of the mall, we saw the multiple huge lines for the ticketing counter; it was lucky that we made to the early showing.  Afterward, we went for some grocery shopping before we headed home.  After lunch, we did our usual weekend routine, i.e. quiet time and some video game time, then I had the boys played in the backyard while I planted two low water shrubs by the backdoor.  Once we came back in, we decided to play Monopoly and the boys got quite into it.  Both Connor and Logan bought many properties while I was sent to jail often.  Later Logan had his fair share of Jail but Connor was kind enough to sell his Got Out of Jail Free card to him for only $1; Connor was happy to help his brother out.  We ended up playing close to 2 hours until dinner time.

     At the beginning of the year, I had volunteered to be a rainy day helper for Logan’s class on Mondays, and my help was finally needed this past Monday.  It was pouring in the morning, so I was prepared to go in.  I arrived to Logan’s class just at the end of the computer lab.  With the teacher’s instruction, I led to the class back to the classroom to pick up their lunch bags and then return to the Superdome to find the assigned bench tables for the class.  I, along with the help from the yard duty, kept the kids pretty much staying in their seats to eat their lunch for 20 minutes.  Most of the kids were nice and quiet.  Logan sat with one other boy at one end of the table, and as Logan has told us before, his ex 1st grade classmate came and found Logan and sat with him.  When it was close to the end of eating time, I had to rush a couple of kids to finish eating and pack up.  Then I led the class back to their room to watch a movie, Wizard of Oz, that was set by the teacher.  Some kids preferred drawings and doing some crafts.  All in all they behaved well and enjoyed the show.  When the lunch break was over, the teacher returned to resume class, and I assumed my classroom helper role on the side and assisted her with some chores.  This was probably the longest stretch of time that I spent at school so far.

     We did not end up having that much rain, but we had already decided to have a lazy day at home.  Stuart set up the ping pong table and we played quite a bit of it throughout the day.  The boys played some here and there, but often got distracted and went to the backyard to play instead.  Stuart and I played many games with each other, and with all the practice, I finally won a game and had a few close calls.

    In the afternoon, we made a run to Home Depot as Connor had been asking us to buy him some seeds for planting.  It might not be a good time for planting, but we bought a gardening kit and some daisy seeds just to try it out.  Both Logan and Connor were engaged; they followed steps by steps to plant the seeds.

    After dinner, we decided to do a movie night.  We picked Harry Potter but planned to watch only the first half of the long movie tonight.  The boys truly enjoyed watching the film especially with popcorn as a snack.  While they were putting on their pajamas for the night, they told me they were putting on their wizard outfits. 

    Yesterday was the last game day of the season.  Each team had two games to play and this league event was held at the nearby middle school.  Both boys had a game in the late morning and one in the mid afternoon, and their games were overlapping somewhat.  We got geared up and arrived at the fields.  There were probably 6 -7 games ongoing at the same time.  We ran into Kathy and her family first; we quickly cheered Kira on, then went off to find the field for Connor’s game.  His game was delayed due to prior matches, and so the kids were playing on the side for awhile until Stuart took off with Logan to his game.  Connor’s coach could not be here for the day, so the wife stepped up to help out.  She did ok with rotating kids in to the game, but there were not much of coaching.  The team hung in there and I think they tied at the end.  However the game seemed to last a long time, and by the time we finished and rushed to Logan’s field, they were finished too.  According to Stuart, Logan’s team did try their best and was assertive, but did end up to have a loss.

      We headed home to have a lunch and rest for a bit, then we had to re-gear up for the second half.  We switched the pairing this time; I went with Logan to his game to take some pictures.  Logan preferred playing defense usually.  He hardly had any contacts with the ball in this game as his team was more aggressive and the action was mostly in the offensive side.  His team finally won another game.  Connor’s game, on the end, was brutal according to Stuart.  The lack of coaching was really showing there and their team was behind for quite a lot.  Right after halftime, Connor got a hold of the ball and kicked into the goal, then he realized and remembered that the goal was switched after halftime.  When Logan and I came over to see them after our game, scoring the own goal was the first thing Connor shared with me.  Overall the game day was exciting and I bet it was quite tiring for the boys.  We will have end of the season celebration with the teams soon, but otherwise this game day rounded up a fun soccer season for them.

    Stuart and I attended Connor’s conference on Wednesday morning and Logan’s this morning.  Both days we walked to school all together and dropped the boys off at CDC before we headed to the classroom.  Yesterday we spent 20 minutes with Connor’s teacher.  She shared with us what the kindergarteners are learning in class, and we were surprised by how structured some of their writing is.  Connor is doing well in all areas especially reading.  Connor is a chatterbox according to the teacher; he talks to his tablemates a lot and he talks to whoever he sits next to at the rug.  Fortunately he always stops when he is being reminded, therefore the teacher did not feel that there is anything we need to talk to him about.  Overall Connor is doing great.

    Both Stuart and I were worried going into Logan’s conference, but fortunately he is progressing well too.  We spent 30 minutes talking with his teacher.  Based on the computer work and classwork, Logan is meeting his grade level standard and even earned a “3” in reading/phonics.  He is making progress in his writing and did well in the time telling test which was the topic that I was pulling my hair out working with him.  The one thing the teacher brought up was that Logan does not seem to be engaged or focused during lessons at times.  She would call on him even if he did not raise to his hand, and sometimes he was caught off guard and hadn’t heard the question.  She has tried a couple of tactics but has not been successful yet.  We totally understand what she means as we also encourage Logan to be more focused at home too.  Other than this area which we all will try to concentrate on, Logan does fine in other behavior categories.  After the conference, we felt relieved, and felt that we have a direction now for Logan to continue with his progress.