We visited the Oakland Zoo on Sunday.  The boys were quite engaged looking at the animals this time, and we especially liked the giraffes, sunbears, elephants, bats and monkeys.  We were fascinated by a little baby baboon holding on to the mommy’s abdomen while she walked around eating grass.  Dora and the boys spent quite a bit of time brushing goats in the petting zoo area.  Logan later, followed by Connor, spent some time brushing one goat at a corner of the barn.  Logan told us that he wanted to spend more time with him as he did not get much attention from the other visitors.  We rode the Sky Ride and enjoyed the nice view of the zoo and the hill.  The weather was nice, cold but sunny, therefore the ride up high was quite pleasant.  Connor wanted to bring a stuffed animal home, and for some reason he kept asking for a bat.  So toward the end, we checked out the gift shop and Dora bought them both an animal.  Connor was very happy to have found a vampire bat and Logan chose an alligator.  They were cuddling their new friends while we wrapped up our zoo visit with a nice train ride seeing the final animals, some Wallaroos and Emus.  The zoo was not crowded at all which was an extra bonus for the day.  Everyone was exhausted and fell asleep on the drive home (except Stuart).  At bedtime, both Logan and Connor created a little zoo in their rooms.  They grouped some of their stuffed animals that could belong in a zoo in a little area.  But their new animals, instead of staying in the zoo,  were being cuddled all night long.

     On Black Friday, we wanted to avoid being anywhere near the stores, so we decided to check out the San Jose Museum of Art.  The boys had received a family pass from one of their school events, and Dora was interested to go.  The museum consisted of two stories with a few exhibit halls.  The boys followed our lead walking around checking out the paintings and sculptures.  Connor was interested in listening to the names of each artwork.  The museum was not too big, so it did not take long for us to walk through the exhibits.  We found some papers and crayons in the museum for the kids to use, and the boys were happy to start sketching.  They were so into it that we had to eventually rush them to finish so we could leave.  Once we were outside, we walked past the ice rink but neither boys were interested to play.  We enjoyed a snack with hot cocoa or coffee, then we took a stroll at the Christmas in the Park instead.  The park was not completely set up, but it was festive enough and fun to get some holiday spirits.

    On Saturday, Dora and I took the boys to go watch the Good Dinosaur.  The boys and I saw the preview last time and had been looking forward to watch it with Dora.  We arrived at the theater, and got situated with a big bucket of popcorn to share.  The movie was great, entertaining and a bit sad at the end.  I noticed Connor kept wiping tear off his face and Logan wanted to come over to hug with us.  We all enjoyed the film and talked about how favorite parts as we walked away from the theater.

    This year Dora was able to arrive the day before Thanksgiving and join us at the local turkey trot.  On Thanksgiving morning, the boys hung out with Dora for a little bit; then we all got ready for the race.  It was pretty cold; shortly after we started walking the 0.7 mi to the starting place at the high school, Connor suggested that we should have driven there instead.  After we arrived, we took a few pictures, then the 10 K was ready to start so Dora was off for her run.  Logan had been telling us that he wanted to beat his time from last year and Connor told me that he would run until he got tired then he would walk.  Ten minutes later it was our turn for the 5K.  Logan and Stuart took off on their own while Connor and I stayed together.  Connor was quite motivated and during the first half of the way, we ran a little and walked a little.  For the remaining half, Connor did not want to run anymore as he said his legs were tired.  But he was still good in walking and just needed encouragement periodically.  We finally got excited when we were on the last stretch, and we even met up with Dora who walked back to join us.  Close to the finish line, Stuart and Logan were cheering us on, and Connor and I picked up our pace and ran to pass the line.  Connor and I finished at 57 minutes which was 7 minutes faster than last year.  According to Stuart, Logan was motivated, and he alternated running and walking.  He also beat his time, 38 minutes instead of 44 minutes.  Dora made her best 10K time ever and was the 3rd female in the her age group.  After a quick snack there, we took our homeward trek with our sore legs.

     The rest of the day Stuart, Dora and I were tired, and we took a nap.  But the boys did not complain at all and looked quite energized.  They played video games, and later played Monopoly with Dora and Stuart while I made our dinner.  We enjoyed dinner and pumpkin pie afterward.  We took it easy the rest of the night as the adults were tired.  Happy Thanksgiving!

    This is a late post for last Sunday.  We started the day with Logan’s classmate Lucas over to play.  Logan was excited to get to know a new friend; as soon as he arrived, Logan showed Lucas around the house.  They spent quite a bit of time in Logan’s room.  Lucas was showing the boys how to make an origami windmill.  Later they migrated to the game room, and eventually came downstairs to play chess.  Logan played Lucas at the first game, and Connor joined Lucas in force against Logan at the second game.  Later both big boys wanted to get online to play with the school programs.  Connor spent majority of the time hanging with the big boys.  At the beginning when I tried to encourage Connor to help me make brownies, but he told me that he was old enough to stay and play with the big boys.  All three boys actually played well together, and at the end Connor did hang with Stuart for a bit.  The mom returned an hour and a half later but ended up staying another hour to chat with me until the boys were willing to end their playdate.

    The Tsaos decided to have an impromptu dinner and we were happy to join in.  We arrived at their house in the afternoon after a quick detour for the boys’ haircut.  Both boys were fascinated with Brandon’s collection of Skylander figurines and Beyblades.  They played for a long time before they headed outside to the yard.  They were happily playing tag with a mini soft football, but all of a sudden, Robyn and I spotted both Logan and Connor were crying.  It turned out that Connor tossed a real golf ball which ended up hitting Logan’s forehead.  Logan was in pain but fortunately the ball had missed his eyeglasses and eye.  We got some ice and immediately started icing the area.  Connor understood what he had done and regretted his action; he just quietly sat on the ground next to Logan and Stuart.  At this moment, the Zhangs arrived.  Jesselyn was her usual happy self coming over to say hi to everyone; and she ended up sitting next to the boys to hang with them.  Then dinner was served.  At that point, the icing had helped and Logan felt better.  Everyone enjoyed the nice meal in their backyard.  After dinner we all returned inside the house; the kids watched a movie while the adults continued to chat.  We enjoyed some desserts, then it was finally time to encourage the kids to leave the couch and thank the hosts before we headed home.

    The two moms and I had our second lesson for the kindergarteners on Monday.  We took turns in our roles, and I only had to be responsible for discussing a painting this time so I did not have to do too much prep work.  After drop off in the morning, the moms and I prepared for our lesson in the cafeteria, then we hung out until the kids arrived after recess.  Connor was happy to see me and ran over to give me a hug before he sat down in the front row.  The lesson then began.  As usual, we reviewed some art vocabularies; afterward, we showed the class two paintings with horses and discussed what they saw on them.  Finally we moved on to the hands-on project “crayon resist”.  By considering different shapes for the body parts, the kids drew a horse on their paper.  Then the kids pushed hard with the crayon to fill in the details on the paper.  Lastly they used a paint wash to paint over the drawing to see the “crayon resist” effect.  The final products were amazing and the kids were happy with them.  This was another fun lesson.