For our little tradition, we like to go out for Chinese dinner on Chinese New Year Eve, and this year happened to be a Friday 1/24/2020.  That night happened to have a school dance at Connor’s school, and Connor actually wanted to attend as two of his close friends had planned to go.  Thus we rushed to have an early dinner right after work; I met up with Stuart and the boys at the restaurant.  After dinner, Connor and I drove to his school.  The theme was Glow in the Dark and Connor wore a florescent yellow shirt for it.  The Superdome was decorated nicely and loud music was being played.  Connor met up with a few of his friends and he was fine that I left him to go home for awhile.  When I returned toward the end of the dance party, I spotted Connor and he was with a group of boys. The sight of him made me imagine him all grown up as a teenager hanging out with his friends.  Connor seemed to be having a good time; but later he did share that he was a little disappointed as his two good friends did not show up. 

     Connor’s class had this big field trip scheduled on 1/25/20 and I signed up to be a chaperone.  This field trip was part of their learning with the California history and the Gold Rush, thus it is a typical 4th grader trip.  Poor Logan and his class did not get to go on this trip as the school had an issue with the tour company during that year when he was a 4th grader.

    Going to Sacramento required a long drive, thus we met up at 7am in the morning.  We were supposed to have a luxury bus for this trip; the bus was better than a school bus but it was no where near luxury.  The kids had movie for entertainment, but it was just a small screen and some were broken; it was very hot and stuffy inside the vehicle.  I was lucky enough to sit with one of the moms who I liked and we could chat most of the way there to kill time.  It took us 3 hours to make to our destination.

    Once we were there, the trip was awesome.  The itinerary was set well with great tour guides.  We started off with the “Railroad museum”, “Wells Fargo Museum” and the State Capitol Building.  All the tour guides shared interesting information and were very interactive.  I was very impressive how engaged the class was and how much knowledge the kids had already learned in class as they were able to answer many of the questions during the tour. I have learned so much on the sideline listening as well.  Before the State Capitol, we also took a break for lunch and on our own.  Everyone sat by the river for lunch, then a few of us went shopping together.  We shopped at a candy store and other stores for some souvenirs; the kids all got something to take home.  At the end of our day, we visited the Sutter’s Fort on our own; self guiding tour was definitely not as interesting.  By 3:30pm, we hopped back on our bus.  Three hours later we made it home and ended our very long but very interesting field trip.

    Initially I suggested Stuart not to take a day off for my birthday as he had taken a good share while Connor was sick in December.  But as it turned out, Stuart did not feel the best thus he took a sick day.  It was rainy that day, so we went to the mall for a short shopping trip.  We made it back in time to pick Logan up so he did not have to walk home in the rain.  We took it easy the rest of the day. 

    Connor had another art lesson last Wednesday.  The art teacher gave a very long lecture before the kids finally could start their artwork, drawing a side profile of a face along with the front profile.  They also had to add on contrasting backgrounds.  The kids made some creative art pieces.

    Last Tuesday the boys were due for testing for blue belts; the boys were lined up right in front of the instructors during the testing.  I have to share that the boys were impressive that night, and they put so much power and efforts in their routines; even the instructors commented on that as well.  The boys earned their blue belts with no doubts and they were pleased with themselves too.  On an opposite note, both Logan and Connor feel that they have enough of martial arts and we just placed our notice to end the lessons.  This would be the highest belt they would ever received.

     Theresa invited us over for dinner one night to check out their new house too.  The boys enjoyed playing video games with Martin.

The next day was my lunch date with our girl friends for birthday celebration.  It was for Michelle, Kathy and my birthdays.  We had a nice meal and a great chat at a Mediterranean restaurant. 

On Monday, a few coworkers/friends took me for a lunch; it was rushed lunch but still nice to quickly hang out with them.