One day last week, Connor shared with us that there were a few girls who had a crush on him.  The next day he told Stuart that he had a crush on one of the girls, and he gestured that there was not much he could do to control it.  On Monday when I picked him up from school, he wanted to go to the big playground to play with her.  He also added that he likes to play with her as she is his girlfriend.

    Today was Logan and Connor’s concert with Logan at 9am and Connor at 10:30am.   After drop off, Stuart and I found our seats in the Superdome.  Since Logan preferred not to be filmed and filming was hectic, I was fine to sit tight with Stuart and enjoyed the show instead.  Logan spotted us as soon as the classes arrived and waved us a hello.  During the whole performance, he looked toward and seemed quite engaged.  The 2nd graders sang eight songs and they were very entertaining.  I also filmed two of the songs for keepsake.  After the concert, the parents followed the class to outside for a few class pictures.   The kids then returned to their classroom to continue on with their day.

    Next, we returned to the Superdome to wait for the next show.  Since it was still quite early and there were not as many parents, we moved up to slightly better seats.  Finally Connor’s class arrived and gave us a big smile when he spotted us.  The show began and the kindergarteners were doing as great as a job as the 2nd graders.  Connor was engaged and was happy up on the bleacher.  He was smiling and making small talks with his classmates in between songs.  More than 1/2 way through their 8 songs, suddenly Connor’s expression changed.  He looked sad and about to cry.  Stuart and I tried to gesture to him to be happy again, but Stuart noticed that Connor asked to go potty.  By then, Connor started to tear up and looked very sad.  Watching Connor like that really melted our heart.  With his headache situation, Connor seems to cry a lot easily than before.  I did not want to go up to get Connor myself to interrupt the performance; fortunately I saw the principle on the side.  I quickly went to ask for her help, and she immediately went to retrieve Connor for me.  I took him to the bathroom, then the principle took him back to join his class.  He was in time to do the last chicken dance song even though that was Connor’s least favorite one.

   After the performance and some class pictures, the kids were led to have a kindergarten potluck.  Connor along with the rest of the kids were thrilled to see all kind of breakfast food for them.  I hung out with Connor while he enjoyed the feast, then the kids returned to the rest of their day at school.

    Connor had an early game this morning.  We rested at home briefly, then headed out again to Bar’s birthday party.  Logan and Stuart skipped out on the party as Logan had a conflicting game time.  By the way, Logan made a basket in his game, his first basket this season.  When Connor and I arrived at the party house, many girls had started with the art and craft projects.  Connor jumped in to start decorating a cupcake and a cookie.  Periodically he asked me when Rohan would arrive.  Connor had mentioned earlier that Rohan only played with Logan, and so he was looking forward to playing with Rohan today.  However Rohan was arriving late due to swimming, Connor seemed bored but I tried to get him to play in the bouncy house and later made some bracelets with me.  Later, Guy made cotton candy for the everyone and it was a hit.  Connor was excited to try cotton candy for the first time, but he did not care for it after a few bites.  Finally Rohan arrived, he looked around and asked me Logan’s whereabouts; once he learned that Logan was not coming, he went off to see Connor.  For the rest of party, the two boys did stick together playing in the bouncy house or with the Tablet inside the house. 

    Logan’s classmate Maxim invited the boys over to his house to play on Sunday morning.  It was a last minute invite and of course the boys were thrilled to go.  Stuart and I decided to play tennis after we dropped them off.  We had a good tennis day; we played two sets.  Even though I lost both games, we played relatively well and we had a great exercise.

    We showered and had lunch, then brought the boys home to feed them lunch before heading out to the Kaos.  The boys must have played hard in the morning as they both fell asleep shortly after being in the car.  They were rejuvenated and were ready to play with Mckayla and Marcus once we arrived.  We were watching the Warriors with Michelle and Ted while the four kids played nicely with Legos.  They periodically brought us their creations to show off.  Later they went out to the backyard for basketball.  Since it was a relatively hot day, they came back in to the house later to play Monopoly.  They played quietly for quite a long time on their own.  Later, I heard that Marcus had been bankrupted, and Logan tried to survive against Mckayla and Connor who had teamed up.  Ted and Michelle started preparing dinner next and made one of my favorites, Cioppino.  We all gathered to eat the delicious dinner.  The kids had enough food just to fill up, then they were off playing and leaving us slowly enjoy the rest of the meal.  Some of us later had some bundt cakes for desserts.  I was still way too stuffed, so Michelle and I were off for a walk around the backyard while the kids played at the structure and with basketball.  Finally before 7:30pm, we had to pack up to go home.   This was a fun day with hours of playtime.  With the exercise, wine and a big meal, I was exhausted in the evening after the boys went to sleep.

    The boys were very excited about Stuart’s birthday on Tuesday.  Connor had been planning some little details for over a week.  He drew daddy a nice card, he wrapped up some cookies from our pantry, and he decorated the game room with Happy Birthday signs to surprise daddy.  Logan came in to help decorate as well.  It was funny to watch the two of them wanting to give daddy a surprise but yet kept drawing attention to it.  They told Stuart not to go to the game room as they were cleaning it and kept saying that it was still very messy. 

    On his birthday I took the day off; Stuart and I went shopping to get him some outfits for his upcoming trip.  We had a fun time and a productive shopping day. When we picked the boys up at school, they wanted to rush home to take Stuart up to the game room.  Beside the birthday celebration, Logan had an additional reason to be excited.  He was looking forward to playing the board game, one of the gifts, we had for Stuart.  He was definitely thrilled when Stuart opened that present.  Afterward, we all headed out to Connor’s soccer practice.  At the end of the day, we also enjoyed an ice cream cake to wrap up a special day for Stuart.

I had the last Art Vistas of the year for Connor’s class yesterday; portraits was the topic.  The two moms showed the class a couple of ancient famous portraits, and discussed some of the details in the painting.  The children often enjoyed looking at these prints and were eager to raise their hands to answer questions.  Next, we all became a portrait artist making a self portrait with the aid of a mirror in front of each child.  I first demonstrated steps by steps how to make a sketch of myself on paper with crayon, and the kids had a good laugh while I had them help me figuring out what’s next.  Then the kids were ready to make their own.  They had a blast looking at themselves through the mirror, and did not hesitate to start drawing.  There were many good looking portraits, and some nice details, ie. glasses and even freckles.  We were surprise how efficient the children were as well.  We were able to use the remaining time to finish up some previous projects and preparing for their portfolios.  It was a very productive class today.  It is hard to believe that we had completed all the Art Vistas lessons for the year.  The moms and I have truly enjoyed the time we had with the children, and appreciate the hard work they put in.  There will be an open house in May to display the wonderful artwork.  The moms and I will have to prepare for that soon.