Last weekend Stuart’s cousin Erik and family had a road trip from Southern California up to the bay area, and they came to visit us at San Jose.  They arrived in the afternoon on Saturday, and the boys were happy to meet these “First Cousins Once Removed”, Eleanor, Amelia and Edward, who they had never met before.  We chatted briefly; then we changed into swimming gear, and moved over to the community pool to swim.  Most of us swam while Stuart had a chance to catch up with Erik and Alison.  We then relaxed in our backyard for a bit and had a barbeque dinner at home.   After dinner the boys wanted to go outside to play “Kick the Can” and they convinced their cousins to join them.  The boys introduced their “English cousins” to their neighborhood friends; Eleanor and Edward just jumped right in to play with everyone.  We all stayed out on the street to talk for awhile as well.  I also enjoyed a little chat with Eleanor (14) while we had dessert in the house; she is still the nice and proper little girl who I met in England 11 years ago.  The boys had fun playing games with Edward and they bonded quickly within minutes of meeting each other.

    The next morning we all woke up and had breakfast together.  We chatted some more and the kids played more games, then it was time for the Horns to take off to San Francisco.  Logan kept asking them if they could stay longer or return to see us after visited San Francisco.  Overall this was a nice visit for us to meet and spend some time with the Horns.

   This was probably one of the most impromptu decisions we had made.  Last week when we initially considered signing Logan up for chess with his friend Maxim, we suddenly thought about martial arts instead.  Logan had gone to a trial class a couple of years ago, and now we thought it might be a better time to try again.  It will also be great to sign up Connor together as they would be in the same beginning white belt.  A few days ago, I called and got them both signed up for a Friday class.  On Friday, Stuart picked the boys up from school and took them over to the studio.  Both boys were fitted into uniforms, and just as they were waiting for the class, their neighbor buddy Cole showed up.  They were all surprised to find each other in the same class.  According to Stuart, both boys did fine and tried their best to follow the instruction.  They were given a round of applause suggested by the instructor at the end of the class too.

     I arrived at the studio just when the class was finished.  An instructor sat with us in the office afterward to have a discussion with the kids, then reviewed the fee with us.  We now have planned to sign them up for twice weekly classes.  Hope the boys will really enjoy this new activity.

    For the past few months, Connor insists on only wearing sporty outfits with shorts.  He said he needs to be comfortable to play 4 squares when he began the requests.  After awhile, I gave up trying to encourage him to wear anything else.  Connor does do a good job matching his outfits with colors, and he loves matching sets too.  When I took the boys to buy new shoes before school started, Connor also wanted to buy some Nike long socks as he said he likes wearing them up.  Since then, he has been wearing long socks everyday and he looks like a soccer player.

He likes his outfit so much that he even drew it on the first day of school during his classwork.

     On Friday as I was driving home, Stuart told me that our neighbor John invited us over for BBQ.  We changed out of work clothes, I cut up some fruits, then we walked over to their house.  The boys were excited to see Cole and they played inside their trampoline.  Lisa, John, Stuart and I just sat and talked, and later we enjoyed a nice sit down dinner at their backyard.  John made the boys some food and they had a picnic on their grass.  It was dark and cold before we walked home.

    We had a plan to meet up my old coworkers at a park in Sunnyvale on Saturday.  I wrapped some spam masubi, and we left to the park.  Theresa and Julie organized this gathering, and they set up a nice area for us.  There was a big group of us and we had lots of food.  Logan and Connor went off to play at the playground initially, and later after eating, Connor hung around to play Frisbee and catch ball with Stuart.  Logan apparently was waiting to get on a swing.  Later the boys also played with few of the kids at the slide.  This was a great time for me to catch up with some old friends.

   On Sunday we went to the Merons for a barbeque.  The boys were prepared with their Tablets, and they played with that a lot along with watching TV.  The adults stayed in the backyard the entire time for hours eating and chatting.  It was Revital’s birthday the next day, so we sang and had some cake in her honor.  By 5pm, we were tired; we had to wrap up to go home and end the weekend.

      The boys returned to school on Wednesday, and now they are 4th and 2nd graders.  This year we decided not to continue with CDC (before and after school care), and signed up for Math Enrichment after school instead.  The boys were actually excited about going to ME even more than school.  I took the day off, so I walked the boys to school with the school supplies in the morning.  Logan is now in the upper grade, so his bell is 5 minutes before Connor’s.  We arrived at school, said goodbye to Logan and watched him march into classroom.  Next we walked to Connor’s classroom which was only 2 classrooms away.  Connor was a bit quiet and stayed near me instead of saying hi to his friends.  When the teacher opened up the door, she welcomed the parents inside the classroom too.  Connor and I found his table; he sat down and put his backpack away.  He looked a little serious.  I did not want to stay long to interfere with the class, so I quickly said bye to Connor.  Then I headed over to the parent coffee, and stayed quite awhile chatting with some parents.

    At the end of the day, the boys had planned to go to ME and they could just go on their own.  However I wanted to pick them up on the first day, so I arrived at school to wait for them.  Connor’s bell came first and he told me how his day was while we waited for Logan to come out five minutes later.  Logan told me that he had a good day, then we all headed over to the ME classroom.  I said bye to them again and walked home.  Finally at 4:15pm, our promise time, I returned to pick the boys up.  I took them to the public library, then we went for some ice cream.  In the evening, the boys were out on the street playing Kick the Can with neighborhood kids.  What a good first day of school the boys had.

     On Tuesday, Rohan had asked the boys to go play at his house.  Before we left the house, I had the boys wrote about their summer.  I initially heard some grief from them, but they both ended up writing a decent length.  Next I took the boys to buy new shoes; they needed a new pair of shoes so they could return to 4-squares playing at school.  Then I finally dropped them off at the Gopal’s and I returned to do some clothes shopping on my own and some studying.  A few hours passed by so quickly, and I did not get enough studying done, but the boys and I went home. 

     I was excited and nervous about finding out the boys’ class lists. After 5pm, Connor was not listening and I got mad at him, so only Logan and I took a walk to school to find out the assignment.  Logan was slightly disappointed that he would not be with his buddy in the same class, and I was disappointed that Connor was not assigned to the teacher I had hoped for.  However after walking home, I did feel better.  The summer had ended, and the boys were ready to return to school.