Last Sunday we headed over to hang out at the Kaos.  Stuart and I went straight to the kitchen to chat with Michelle and Ted, while the boys gathered in the family room to play with Mckayla and Marcus.  Later Robyn, Peyton, Jennifer, Jesselyn and Jayden arrived to join us.  We snacked for awhile and finally the kids asked to go swimming.  All the kids plus Stuart and I got ready and jumped inside the pool.  Logan felt comfortable as soon as he realized that he could stand in part of the pool.  Connor had fun playing in water while holding on to either Stuart and I.  All of us played with water guns or just swam around.  Later Dave and Brandon arrived and Brandon went into the pool as well.  After quite a long time, slowly one by one, we came out and cleaned up.  The kids were hungry and filled up with snack, then immediately went inside the house to play.  Then it was the adults’ turn to snack and to enjoy the yummy BBQ taco meal Ted made for us.  At some point, the kids were gathered to enjoy some tacos too.  After everyone was stuffed with food, the kids returned to play inside the house and later migrated out to the backyard.

    Michelle was kind to have suggested celebrating Logan’s belated birthday during this gathering.  Logan was surprised to receive some awesome gifts from the Zhangs and the Tsaos.  He had already broke into the gifts and played with some of them.  When the dessert time came, Logan was a bit shy with the cake, the candles and the happy birthday song.  He was embarrassed with the attention, but could not stop smiling.  He blew the candles and everyone enjoyed Logan’s favorite chocolate cake.  The kids went back out to play to burn off the sugar.  Before the end of the gathering, Mckayla also took out a present from the Kaos for Logan; she even took time to show everything to Logan.  We had a wonderful time on Sunday as usual and Logan was also showered with all the pleasant surprises.

    The boys survived the summer camp last week.  We had signed them up to a basketball camp at YMCA a couple of months ago and later we learned that the activities were being held outdoor instead of indoor as we had assumed.  Last week the weather was quite hot, so we were worried for them.  Every morning we tried to lather them with lots of sunscreen lotion, but at the end of the day the boys came home looking darker.  The staff offered sunscreen during the day for them to reapply; as a result, Connor often came home with “vampire eyes” as he had gotten some sunscreen in his eyes.  When we would pick them up in the late afternoon, they were also extremely dusty and dirty.  Stuart said that they reminded him of the “Pigpen” in Charlie Brown.  However, the boys told us that they enjoyed the camp.  They learned the basics of basketball skills the first few days and they played games on the last two days.  They also learned many rhymes and songs while they were traveling in the school bus to their activity location everyday.  The two boys enjoyed being together the entire time as well.  The only time they did not care for as much was after they returned back to the drop off location in the late afternoon, so Stuart tried to pick them up slightly earlier each day.  Other than the full day of basketball activities, the boys continue to have their weekly league practices, ie.Logan on Monday and Connor on Wednesday, and they did not seem to mind more basketball. 

    Our tree in the backyard is producing lots of peaches.  They are small but quite tasty.  Connor had fun picking out the fruits and eating them later too.

     We spent last Saturday morning finishing up our backyard project.  Stuart cut out the artificial grass and he nailed them in place.  We are pleased that the work was finally completed, and I am happy with how it turned out.  We now need to decide how we will utilize the space. 

     In the afternoon, we spent several hours hanging out at the Merons.  The boys were very happy to see Rohan.  All the children gathered to play at jumpy house and with the attached water gun.  It was great weather for the water play, and many of the kids, including Connor, got completely soaked.  After playing a long time outside, the kids cleaned up and joined us to eat something, then they moved onto TV and watched almost two movies.  Toward the end of our stay, the host took out their hoverboard.  A couple of kids including Rohan tried it and enjoyed it.  Rohan went to get Logan out to try it, but of course Logan was not interested.  He watched Rohan for a bit and returned to the movie.  All the adults were suggested to hop on, and so it was my turn.  It was an interesting experience and I did better with my second try.  Connor later came out and wanted to give it a try.  He hopped on and stayed on it for a little before he fell off.  Later he insisted that I held his hand which did not work at all.  After another quick try, he gave up and it was time for us to go home.  We ate so much during the mid day that none of us needed to have dinner that evening.

    For Father’s Day Sunday, it was up to Stuart to decide how we spent the day.  Connor suggested for us to play tennis and Stuart agreed.  Connor now not only makes contact with most balls now and he actually has a pretty good swing too.  Logan did great as well, but they did not play long since they wanted to move on to basketball.  Afterward, we finally went to Costco to purchase the big TV that Stuart had been hoping to buy the past few months.  It was initially meant to be his gift for not being laid off, then we hoped to get it for his birthday.  Now it was finally available again and it was now a gift for Father’s day.  Stuart and the boys were excited to have it set up and try out playing with their XBox games. 

     Finally we planned to watch the NBA Final in the evening.  We were glued to the TV for the two hours.  It was a disappointing game and we were all bummed the Warriors lost.  Other than this sad game, we had a great weekend.

    We all were excited for Logan’s eighth birthday.  Connor had personally looked for and paid for a present for Logan a week ago.  On Monday night, while Logan was out at basketball practice, Connor and I set up a little decoration for the birthday celebration. This year Logan asked to go to Chuck E Cheese, so yesterday Stuart picked the boys up early from summer camp and headed over to play.  I joined them as soon as I could after work and arrived just in time for the pizza.  The boys told me about the games they had played and we talked about the games we would play next.  This Chuck E Cheese had updated a lot since we were there at least a couple of years ago, and all the games looked fun and age appropriate.  We were off to play as soon as we finished eating.  Logan and I challenged each other with a snowboard game and next Connor challenged me with bowling.  We played different video games and many sport games.  Logan was hooked into the monkey barrel games; he finally got the golden monkey at last and earned 150 tickets.  The boys had a good time and surprisingly Stuart and I enjoyed playing a few games as well.  We finally used up all the tokens we purchased and the boys turned in all the tickets to trade for some toys.  We ended this 2 to 3 hours outing to head home for the second part of the celebration. 

    Logan was excited to open presents.  Logan has learned to be very appreciative, and was hugging us without prompting after each gift to thank us.  Connor was very pleased when Logan showed excitement toward his gift and he was happy to receive the thank you hug.  Logan was also pleasantly surprised with a big gift from grandma / grandpa, and cards/cash from Poi Poi and aunties/uncle.  Logan seemed a bit embarrassed when we sang the birthday song to him, then we all enjoyed the ice cream.  The boys were exhausted then after a day of basketball camp in the hot weather and hours of entertainment for Logan’s birthday.

    The boys finished the first week of summer camp at the CDC  last week.  During that time I had the opportunity to continue to walk them to CDC at school every morning to get some steps.  The summer camp crowd was smaller, and Logan and Connor did not know any one there.  At the end of the days, the boys seemed to enjoy the activities there.  The two of them basically hung out together the whole time, playing and eating lunches.  They did meet a couple of boys who they played with too.  The big thing was the field trip on Thursday to Morgan Hills Aquatics.  It was Connor’s first time on a real field trip and in a school bus.  The problem was that it was not a hot day, so I was worried how the boys, especially Logan, would tolerate the cold when they would be wet.  Fortunately they had a good time.  They had fun shooting water and playing at the water playground.  Connor felt asleep in the bus on the drive back, but Logan said it was too bumpy for him to sleep.