Last Friday was the 4th Grade annual tradition, Gold Rush Day at the park next to the school.  This was a parent run event and needed many volunteers.  I did not sign up to be one of the chairs but I had committed to help, so I took the whole day off.  Every volunteer and student were encouraged to dress up, so I bought a pioneer women outfit for the day.  Logan did not want to dress up initially but finally agreed to wear a plaid shirt with jeans. 

     Friday morning I arrived early to help; my station was the Assay Station and I met up with the chair mom at our station.  Some dads were putting together the wood shack for us, so I did not really have much to do.  I walked around to check out our stations, General Store, Ma’s Kitchen, the saloon, the game station, an Asian Experience and the photo station.  Right before the school bell, I also walked back to the school to meet up with Stuart who arrived with the boys.  I hung out with them briefly, and took Connor to check out the Gold Rush site before he had to head back to his class.

    When 9am came, the 4th grade classes slowly arrived; I think we were expecting 140 students.  The event were well organized; the kids were divided in smaller groups of 15-20s or so each and they were assigned to go to different stations at different times.  One of the groups was led to the nearby creek to mine for gold first, and 30 minutes later, our station had our first customers.  The kids came to us with the gold they mined and we helped them weigh them with the scale and gave them cash in return.  Some kids really filled their small muslin bags full of gold stained rocks.  Every time when there was a break between groups, I would walk around to check out what Logan or other kids were doing.  I saw Logan working at the Ma’s kitchen peeling carrots and enjoyed eating the carrot afterward.  The saloon was a popular spot as the kids learned to play roulette and blackjack.  I never headed down to the creek, but we heard that it was quite nice down thee and kids had fun finding “golds”.  In the middle of park, there was also a jail; there were sheriff going around arresting kids and taking them to the jail.  Some kids were thrilled to be arrested and had to do some pushup or jumping jacks to get out of jail.  By lunchtime, the groups took turns breaking to eat, and afterward, my station had only one more group to serve.  Afterward, Logan happened to be at the saloon, so I spent some time watching them play Blackjack and they definitely had fun there.

   By 2pm, the event ended and the classes gathered to sing a song and thanked all the parents.  This was a fun and educational event for the children.  Logan told us that he had a good time and he especially liked the saloon and the Asian Experience where they played a die game.  I guess the gambling games really got the kids attention

    Connor was so excited to make Mother’s Day things for me; he could barely keep the surprise and told me a brief preview of what he had made the day before.  On Sunday morning, Connor finally led me up to the game room after breakfast to show me every piece of art work he created, some from school and some he made at home.  They were all very sweet and beautiful.  Logan also gave me the card he drew for me; it had some very nice designs on it.

    For the morning, it was my choice to go golfing together.  It was a mild weather day; it was comfortable and nice being out on the course.  The boys and I did not start out too well, but a few holes in, our swings got better and we had more fun.  Logan this time did very well putting; he never took time before he hit but he managed to have some awesome long putts.  We did not keep score for the boys this time, so it was easier and more relaxing without worrying the counts for them.

  The cabana was open in the afternoon for Mother’s Day celebration.  Connor wanted to go swim, but Logan was not interested; however he was ok to be dressed just in case.  As soon as we arrived, the boys saw Cole and one of Logan’s classmates, they immediately ran off with them and quickly jumped into the water to play as well.  It had been months since the boys last swam in the pool, but they both did well.  Logan was able to swim back and forth the short side of the pool with his friends, and seemed comfortable.  Connor managed to swim around but not across the pool yet. All the boys also played tag in water.  It was a bit touching to watch Connor when he was “it”; he did not feel comfortable to swim across to tag the other boys so he swam around the edge of the pool to get to them.  But then the boys quickly swam away from him, and Connor had to find another way to go back to the other side.  It was cute though to see how patient he was and that he did not push his limit.  But Connor actually was swimming multiple times to the middle of the pool and swam back, so he did quite well.

    After swimming, we came home and Stuart barbequed for us; we had a nice dinner.  This was a very enjoyable full day of Mother’s Day for me.

    For the 4th grade science project, Logan paired up with his buddy Kayvon so he was quite excited about it.  The two of them apparently picked a topic together at school, and they were supposed to get started on it during the week.  Initially Logan did not tell us much about the project, and got us a bit worried.  Stuart and I wanted Logan to take charge of it himself, but we were worried if they could get it done in time.  By mid week, after we got the materials he needed, Logan did the first part.  On Friday, I encouraged Logan to prepare the second part and invited Kayvon over the next day to reveal the result together.  Kayvon came over on Saturday to play with Logan and Connor, and spent 10 minutes of their time looking at their project.  Now the kids will be doing their write up and poster in class.

While the kids were playing with Cole, Stuart and I finished cleaning up our front yard.  I got rid of some weeds, removed old mulch, and put new one on.  Stuart cut down some shrub.  Our front yard looks quite clean and pretty now.

    Logan had a birthday party to attend on Sunday; he was excited as it was a video game truck party.  Since Connor had free time, we convinced him to make up a missed martial art lesson especially he had fewer class credits than Logan again.   Connor finally agreed to go when I suggested that we could get T4U afterward.  This was the first time we went to a make up class; it was only 30 minutes long and there were kids with all colored belts.  The kids were told to run laps, do plank and work on punches and kicks on the punching bags.  It was a quick and packed 30 minutes.

    While Logan was still away at the party, Cole asked Connor to go play with him.  When Logan and I walked back home after the party ended, we saw the boys playing on the street.  Logan immediately joined them and he shared the candies he got from the party pinata with them.  Everyone was happy.

   It is the time of the year that the neighborhood kids play “Kick the can” on Saturdays again.  It started a couple of weeks ago, and it would happen whenever the weather is nice  The boys always look forward to it every week.  This Saturday they were anxious to wait for 7:30pm to go outside; the boys and Cole were the first to be out there.  Later, the older kids texted their friends and joined them.  They were out there for almost two hours and it took some calling before our boys were ready to say bye to others to come inside.