It was a stormy weekend and fortunately we did not have any plans; we mostly stayed home to play games.  We had gone out once for a short walk with our rain boots during a light rain, and we also drove to check out the water level at our local creek after the major rain yesterday.  Logan had earned a free scoop of ice cream from the orthodontic office a week ago, so we finally managed to take him out for it, and of course he enjoyed it greatly.  Connor got a smaller portion for tagging along too.

   The boys do not nap these days unless we drive somewhere in the afternoons where they might fall asleep in the car.  Yesterday during quiet time, I offered Connor that he could lay down with me and he actually did not object.  We snuggled together and he quickly fell asleep.  We both slept for an hour and woke up feeling refreshed.   Later when we came back from ice cream, Logan did not want to join the rest of us in one of the board games, he just laid on the ground to kill time.  Next we discovered that he was sleeping.  I placed a blanket on him and he continued to sleep until we woke him up later.  Rainy days were definitely a lazy day for us.

   The holiday is coming to an end.  The past week I had only worked a day and a half, and the other days I spent with the boys while Stuart worked.  We went to see another movie on Wednesday, and it was Moana which received good ratings.  The three of us now have our routines for going to the theater and we brought a thin blanket again this time to snuggle together.  The characters of the movie were very cute, but the storyline was a bit crazy.  The boys also found it scary at times, but it wrapped up nicely with a happy ending that we all enjoyed.  On Thursday Stuart took them to the library and played games and ping pong while I was at work.

    For Friday, Vrinda initially wanted to drop Rohan to our house, so I invited Maxim too.  But Vrinda changed their plan at the end, so it was just a day with Maxim.  Stuart and I had talked with Connor prior to the day about not being as bossy and be respectful to others.  However the playdate did not go well.  Connor cried once with a little argument with Logan during the first half of the day.  After lunch and TV time, I took them for a walk to school.  Of course they wanted to play Four Squares and I did not mind some exercise playing with them.  We all had a good time; while we were walking home, Connor suddenly got upset with Logan for not answering him and it turned into a big meltdown.  He was crying and not being respectful the rest of the way home.  Connor did not get to play video games or with Logan and Maxim in the afternoon as a result.  I was tired of his behavior and made it known to Connor that we won’t be having a playdate in the house for awhile until he earns it back.

    We did not have any plans for Jan 1st, so we were taking it easy.  Despite going to bed late on the eve, Logan still woke up early.  When I got up I recruited Logan to make pancakes for the other two sleeping ones in the house.  Logan normally does not care to help, but he was getting a bit into it that morning.  He was proud that he cracked two eggs and flipped the pancakes.  Stuart and Connor later came down and enjoyed the breakfast with us.

   In the late morning, we decided to start the new year with some driving range practice and for Logan to break into his new clubs too.  Both boys did not last long, but they had some nice hits at the beginning.  Two buckets of balls nowadays did not last too long when all four of us are hitting.

   We decided to have a movie night to watch Charlotte’s Web.  This was the first long book I read with the boys, so we were excited to watch the movie together.  While Connor was watching, he also decided to draw a picture of Wilbur with Charlotte.

     After the boys played with Rohan on Thursday last week, they immediately asked for their next playdate, so they were excited when the Gopals invited us over on New Years Eve.  However, first In the morning of that day, we decided to play some tennis.  It was very cold out there but we eventually warmed up.  We all had some good hits and some exercise.  For the afternoon, the boys packed up a backpack with their Tablets and counted down to the time we could leave our house.  Once we arrived at the Gopals, the three boys were off to play while Stuart and I sat with Nanda and Vrinda to chat for the rest of the afternoon and evening.  The boys requested to have pizza and the adults enjoyed some cocktails, wings and pulled pork sandwiches.  We hung out until it was time for count down with New York on TV, and the boys counted with us.  Afterward we decided to pack up to go home.  It was a late night for Logan and Connor, and for us, we were so exhausted that we did not make it to midnight either.  2016 was a good year for us and now we are ready for 2017.

   Michelle and I had made a plan to go to the Exploratorium in the city on Friday.  Stuart had added the 3rd row in his SUV, so I could drive the boys up to meet Michelle, Mckayla and Marcus, and give them a ride to the city together.  On the way up, the kids were excited to be in the 2nd and 3rd rows, but over time, they grew quieter.  Logan was falling asleep, Marcus complained about being carsick, and Mckayla was reading.  Connor looked tired and was complaining being hot.  Later he said he was getting carsick.  Finally we arrived at the piers but met with a little bit of traffic.  By then the kids all voted to eat first, so after we parked, we walked over to the ferry building for lunch.  Our boys picked tacos, so most of us got our food and ate at the outdoor seating from the Mexican restaurant.  After we all fueled up, we made our way back toward Pier 15 to the Exploratorium.  It took the four kids forever to walk this short distance since they were playing around with each other.

   Finally we were inside the huge exhibit halls and there were tons of people.  The first thing we saw was a “toilet” water fountain, and the kids thought it was funny watching other people drinking from it.  Connor did not hesitate to go up to take a drink while Logan and I did not want anything to do with it.  There were so many exhibits; the four kids mostly hung together as a group or paired up to play.  Mckayla and Marcus were good showing our boys how to use some of the games as they were familiar with them.  The kids enjoyed some exhibits so much that they would stay there for awhile, so Michelle and I would just chat while they played.  Two hours later, the kids started to ask to leave and my legs were tired by then, so we began our trek to the entrance.  But the kids continued to play at some exhibits and it took at least 30 minutes before we were out the door.  Next we had a snack at the cafe; we all enjoyed some tea, coffee, cocoa and cookies or brownie.  We all had a good time there.  On the drive back to the Kao’s house, the kids continued to play with one and other that they were so loud so Michelle and I had to quiet them sometimes so we could talk on our own.

     As we arrived to their house, Stuart was already there as we had planned to have dinner together with Ted too.  Since the kids were off to play in the house immediately, we decided to have food delivered to avoid leaving the house.  It was a very pleasant and relaxing evening for us, and the kids definitely enjoyed the extra hours to play with each other.  We finally left their house at 8:30pm; this was a long fun day.

    After the grandparents left and Stuart returned to work, I took the boys to watch Sing on Wednesday.  We had ourselves situated comfortably with popcorn and a small blanket, and we were ready.  The entire movie was great and all three of us enjoyed it very much. 

    On Thursday, we planned to watch Maxim while his parents worked.  Maxim came to our house around 8:30am, and the three of them went to play in the bonus room immediately.  They were good and taking breaks without prompting in between video games to go to the backyard to play Two Square.  Rohan wanted to come over to play too, so he arrived at 11am.  The four boys played well altogether with a Tablet or Xbox, or as a group for Two Squares in the backyard.  After I fed them lunch and a short break, I took all four boys to walk to school to play at the playground.  Of course the only thing they wanted to play was Four Squares and I was recruited to be in the rotation too.  Logan and Maxim seemed to be the best and they both were the King often.  Connor had very good hits but he got out sometimes too.  Rohan and I were the least experienced and easily got out.  They all had a good time and we played over 30 minutes before we slowly headed home.  While they played in the house again, I made them some cookies for snacks.  By 3:20pm, Maxim was picked up, and later Vrinda and Nanda came over at 5pm to take Rohan home.  Both Logan and Connor had fun with this longest play day.  However Connor had a couple of times getting grumpy; he would sadly tell me that ‘I always play with what they wanted to play but they don’t play with what I want to play”.  We know that Connor is quite bossy and we see how he gets upset when things do not go his way.  At the end, we told Connor that he needs to learn to play better together otherwise he might not be able to share playdates with Logan later.