The boys will be going to Maxim’s birthday party next Saturday, thus they will be missing the last lesson and yesterday ended up to be their last for this season.  According to the boys, they had a competition during class.  Connor won 2nd place and Logan got 4th.  As we were walking out after class, I told Coach that we would miss next week and that we are still interested in having the boys take private lesson with him whenever that might be.  He actually said that he thinks the boys are ready to move on from the group lesson to more consistent practice with him.  He will look into his calendar and let us know later.  I am so happy with the boys’ progress. 

   After tennis, we rushed over to grab something to eat and onto their dentist appointments.  The boys cooperated and we were through quickly.  They both did not have any cavity which was great. 

    We all attended the school event on Friday night after Logan’s return from the Science Camp.  Once we walked to school, Logan saw Cole and they were off on their own.  Connor initially wanted to wear his costume, grim reaper, to the event, but decided against it right when we were there.  He was happy to stay in his event T-shirt instead.  He too went off with his friends Dylan and Jacob when they met up.  Stuart and I saw DeeDee, Hailey and Ashley, so we stayed and chatted with them for awhile.  Later we walked around on our own and gathered the boys to have some pizza for dinner.  After eating, the boys went back to their friends.  I watched Connor, Dylan and Jacob doing the Cake Walk, and later watched Logan playing different game booths.  We used up all the boys’ tickets at the end and we walked home for the night.

    It was Pharmacy Week last week.  Our boss provided us with drinks and free lunches throughout the week.  We were also encouraged to wear a color each day to show our spirit.  Here are the photos.

    For the 4 days 3 nights that Logan was gone, it was strange and quieter in the house.  We all missed Logan including Connor, but Connor was enjoying the full attention as well.  One of the nights he wanted to go out for ramen, and he enjoyed a big bowl of noodle.  On Thursday, Connor was excited that Logan was soon to be home, he and I arranged Logan’s stuffed animals to welcome him home.

    Yesterday, on Friday, Stuart arrived at school before 12:30pm to pick Logan up.  Logan was happy to see Stuart and gave daddy a big hug.  Stuart took a picture of Logan, so I could feel better as well while I was at work.  Logan actually looked decently clean, but Stuart did what was recommended, cleaned Logan from head to toe along with all his belonging.  Logan brought everything back without losing anything and he even brought home the tooth that came out while he was at camp.  After Logan took a nice shower, I called and talked to him over the phone.  He told me that he had a great time, and the best part was the skits and the songs in camp.  When I could finally come home later, Logan rushed down to give me a big hug too.  I tried to get more information from him.  He really had a good time and he gave it 10 out of 10 rating.  He spent most of his time with Maxim, Cole and another boy Winston.  He liked the food there; he ate pizza, burger, pasta, sandwiches and chocolate cake.  But one morning he skipped breakfast as he did not like the offering.  He slept well in his sleeping bag.  The tough parts were changing, and the shower water was either too cold or too hot.  Logan however managed to take care of everything fine, and he totally looked and acted slightly older to me in just a few days.

   Last night was also the school event, Pumpkin Bust; more on that later.  Afterward Logan slept well in his own bed and did not get up until past 8am this morning.  Logan and Connor were back to their routine of watching cartoon in the morning.

    Logan was nervous about this 5th grade science camp, and we were not looking forward to Logan leaving us for 4 days/3 nights either.  A couple of weeks ago, there was some funding issue for this whole camp, and later a difficulty getting enough cabin leaders, but eventually everything resolved and the camp was happening.  The next setback few days ago when Logan learned that he might not be with his buddy Maxim and he might not be assigned with any of his friends either.  We know that the kids would be in a big cabin with 15-20 boys, thus we convinced Logan that it would still be ok.  Finally on Monday, Logan was thrilled to tell me right before his martial art lesson that he was indeed paired up with Maxim, and he also had Cole and few other friends in the same cabin.  Seeing how happy Logan was was also a big relief for Stuart and I as well.

    Over the weekend, I had assisted Logan to pack his luggage, so he was familiar with what he brought to the camp.  Logan was worried and mentioned a couple of time to us that he would not be with us for a few days.  But by Tuesday morning, Logan was ready to go bright and early.  He wanted me to take him to drop off his luggage earlier than the instructed time; it turned out that many kids/parents were there early as well.  Logan dropped off his big duffle bag and sleeping bag.  Then Logan hugged me, and told me that I could go and he would just stay with Cole there.  But it was me who was not ready to leave him.  I hung around and took some pictures of them.  By then Stuart and Connor arrived to school, and I joined them to take Connor to his class. 

    I continued to stay and chat with other parents until the buses arrived by 9am.  Logan’s class and other 5th classes started lining up for the bus.  Logan was surprised that I was still there, and he hugged me again.  Lots of parents and I ended up waiting outside the school buses until they took off.  Logan was sitting with Maxim, and periodically waved to me and made funny faces to me.  Seeing him having fun made it much easier for me to let him go for the next few days.

   Monday was our 13rd anniversary.  We took the day off from work and went golfing.  We chose to play at San Jose Municipal this time and it was my second time there.  We used a cart and were paired up with just one young guy.  It was an awesome day and we had fun playing.  The fairway was wide, so we were able to stay on the fairway with most tee shots.  The yardage was long for me; I was able to manage to get to the greens with reasonable hits, thus I was pleased. Putting is usually my least exciting part, but I did not do too bad this time.  Stuart was able to use his driver more often for the wide fairways, so he was having fun practicing with different clubs.  At the end I was proud that I made it through all 18 holes and I was consistent.  I had one bogey and 7 hits at many of the holes.  We were exhausted afterward.

   We picked up the kids and took them to the martial arts lesson.  For dinner, we decided to pick up some sushi and enjoyed the Warriors game in the evening.  This was one good anniversary for us.