The school year is coming to an end, and Tuesday night was the open house to show us what the kids had done in school.  This year, there was a new art show before the open house to show off the pieces from the Art Vistas projects.  The docents from each class all pitched in some help to make this show happened.  With me back to full time work, I did my share at home, ie, putting together the kids’ handprints to make a banner for the class.  The two moms selected and put together one piece of art work from each of Connor’s classmates to display.  The show was successful.  Both Logan and Connor enjoyed seeing theirs and their classmates’ work, and it was fun looking forward to the higher grades’ projects too.  After checking out the art show, we had some times to kill before the classrooms opened up, so many families just hung out in the library while the kids played together.  Connor of course was hanging out with his little “friend”.  When the open house began, we started with Connor’s class.  He showed us some of his writing and art work, and we toured around the classroom to look at the displayed work too.  Next it was Logan’s turn, and he was happy to show us the binder full of work he had done.  We walked around the classroom to check out Logan’s work on the wall as well.  This year we had followed the school’s advice to focus only on our kids’ classes, rather than looking forward to other grades’ classrooms.  Thus, we could actually head home earlier to have our late dinner.

   Saturday morning was our usual event with both a soccer game and a basketball game.  This was also Logan’s last basketball game for the season which I did not get to watch.  He came home later with his team photo and showed us the medal he earned.  In the afternoon we had some errands to run together.  By 5:30pm, I met up with Kathy to drive and meet up with Theresa and Michelle for our dinner at a Japanese restaurant.  We enjoyed a great cocktail with tons of yummy sushi and appetizers.  Toward the end of the great meal, Robyn was able to join us.  The restaurant was very popular and we were encouraged to leave the table when we were totally finished.  That did not stop our conversation; we carried our fun talk just outside the restaurant for another hour and more before we all parted and went home.  The boys had a good bonding evening with Stuart; they played the Ticket to Ride boardgame and had their favorite pizza for dinner.

    Today, Sunday, Connor suggested to play tennis which was what Stuart was thinking as well.  We played for an hour and we moved on to the basketball court for 2 on 2 next.  In the afternoon we decided to go for a hike at a local trail that I wanted to do.  The trail was quite nice and tried some workout stations on the way.  The boys attempted to do each of them, and it was funny to see how determined Connor was at them.  The boys complained for being tired of walking quite early on, but we managed to walk 2-3 miles round trip.  I was exhausted with today’s total of 15K steps that we earned, but the boys still wanted to play basketball after dinner.

    This was the very first time Stuart had to leave the three of us for a trip, and it was for a total of 5 nights.  The week actually went through as smoothly as I hoped.  My goal each day was to leave work on time and try to keep the kids on schedule as much as possible.  We had extended CDC to five days a week in May, so the boys would spend the morning and after school there on Monday and Friday as well.  The one thing the boys did enjoy was the fact that I drove them to and from school the entire week; they were happy to get a break from walking.  Monday went by quickly and we Skyped with Stuart while we had dinner.  Tuesday was the toughest one as Connor’s soccer practice was at 5:30pm, but I managed to leave five minutes to 5:00, and we made to the the field 10 minutes after the practice started.  Logan and I did his homework and he played some basketball later while Connor practiced with his team.  Then we went for some pizza and I helped Connor with his homework before the food arrived.  Wednesday was Logan’s turn to have his basketball practice at 6:00; since it was a bit later, I did not have to rush as much.  We went for some Vietnamese dinner afterward and it was Logan’s turn to finish up homework at the restaurant.  All three of us were relieved on Thursday that we did not have to go anywhere after school.  We ate dinner at home, did homework, and I joined the boys briefly for some basketball in the backyard after I cleaned up.  The week was very busy and I was tired by end of the day, but fortunately it went fine.  The boys and I were thrilled that it was finally Friday.  Stuart left Indianapolis very early in the morning and actually arrived home early so he could unpack.  The boys were excited to see Stuart picking them up from CDC, and they were even more pleased when they saw the Panda bears that Stuart got them on his way home.

    Connor received a note from his classmate (”friend”) two days in a roll last week.

    Stuart left at 6am this morning for his business trip, so Mother’s Day was a bonding time for me and the boys.  I initially had considered taking them to watch the Jungle Book, after we talked about if it would be too scary.  However this morning the boys suggested a change in plan to go play miniature golf instead.  We decided to go as soon as the park was open to beat the crowd, and we did it.  We were the first group on the course, and we finished the entire course before anyone caught up to us.  The boys did great; Connor even out beat Logan in a few holes.  Logan did not want to keep score this time, but they tried to argue who the winner was at the end.  After mini golf, they were excited to play some arcade games, a mixture of shooting games and air hockey.  Next I wanted some French fries, so we had our lunch at In and Out.  The two of them were quite into playing with the little sticker activity they were given while they ate.

    After a little quiet time and some Monopoly time at home, the boys played video games and I actually caught a quick nap.  I convinced them to take a walk later but we ended up at the school playing basketball, Connor and I vs. Logan.  Connor is getting better shooting basket and could make several baskets at these higher baskets.  I also entertained them by playing Four Squares with them too.

    The agreement to change plan this morning was to also include a movie night.  I finally found a movie that I was interested and the boys had not seen, Rio.  Before we started the movie, we also agreed to let Connor be the teacher and pretend teaching us some facts about animals for awhile.  With the movie, the two of them were quite engaged.  We took a break to eat dinner while we chatted with Stuart over the phone.  We finished up the movie after eating, and we still had some time to play basketball in the backyard.  I joined them after I finished cleaning.  We then proceeded with shower, story time and bedtime.  We had a productive day as we tried to keep ourselves busy while we miss having daddy with us.