We had back to back celebration dinners with both boys’ soccer teams, and that meant pizza for dinner two nights in a row.  The boys were thrilled to receive their trophies and to have pizza too.  With Logan’s celebration on Sunday, most of the teammates were there.  After eating, the head coach prepared to hand out the trophies.  Connor was so excited about the trophies that he quietly left us at the table to stand near the coach.  The coach ended up asking him to help pass out the trophies and of course Connor was happy to take on the job.  He also helped the coach to call out one boy at a time to receive the trophies.  Logan was pleased to be called and receive his reward.  He was proud to hold his trophy for a picture.

    
     Tonight it was Connor’s turn and he had been asking me for the countdown of hours to this party.  These younger kids were a lot more rumbustious compared to Logan’s team the night before, and were also happy to see each other.  We accomplished getting everyone seated for dinner, but after eating, the kids were running around the room again.  The coach decided to give out the trophies to calm them down.  Then it was cake time.  One of the moms bought a cake with the team picture and all the kids were happy to get the slice with their own face to eat.  It was then time to go home, and it marked the end of the soccer season.  The boys were proud to parade their trophies around the house for the rest of the evening.

     We went to a used book fair at the Community Center on Saturday morning. The boys were excited about this event after learning of it during a library visit.  We tried to get there early but even so there were lots of people shopping already.  The boys eagerly went through the children books and both found a few books, mostly chapter books, that they wanted.  They were happy to use their own money to buy them and proudly held on to them.  One of the ones Logan bought was a Diary of Wimpy Kid, and he could not wait to start reading it.  He reads it aloud to us and sometimes to himself.  On Sunday, while he took turns with Connor playing Stuart at ping pong, Logan would pick up the book to read during breaks.  He also took the book with him when we went out to dinner the past two nights.  He even has read while walking up and down the stairs too.  Connor is following his lead and pretending to read a chapter book as well (a Magic Tree House book).  It is cute to see both of them reading together.  We are not sure how much Logan comprehends and retains what he reads, but we are happy that he is enjoying the act of reading.

    The boys and I had a day off today.  We decided to go to the theater for The Peanuts Movie in the morning.  We arrived 20 minutes before the first showing and there was a line to buy tickets.  It was also quite crowded when we walked into the theater room, but we found three seats next to the aisle with no problems.  Since we had been having popcorns at home the past couple of days with our home movie nights, we opted out on our usual preference at the theater.  The boys were fine and did not ask for anything at all the entire movie. 

     Charlie Brown and the gang were very adorable, and the boys seemed to really enjoy watching the film.  As we were walking out of the mall, we saw the multiple huge lines for the ticketing counter; it was lucky that we made to the early showing.  Afterward, we went for some grocery shopping before we headed home.  After lunch, we did our usual weekend routine, i.e. quiet time and some video game time, then I had the boys played in the backyard while I planted two low water shrubs by the backdoor.  Once we came back in, we decided to play Monopoly and the boys got quite into it.  Both Connor and Logan bought many properties while I was sent to jail often.  Later Logan had his fair share of Jail but Connor was kind enough to sell his Got Out of Jail Free card to him for only $1; Connor was happy to help his brother out.  We ended up playing close to 2 hours until dinner time.

     At the beginning of the year, I had volunteered to be a rainy day helper for Logan’s class on Mondays, and my help was finally needed this past Monday.  It was pouring in the morning, so I was prepared to go in.  I arrived to Logan’s class just at the end of the computer lab.  With the teacher’s instruction, I led to the class back to the classroom to pick up their lunch bags and then return to the Superdome to find the assigned bench tables for the class.  I, along with the help from the yard duty, kept the kids pretty much staying in their seats to eat their lunch for 20 minutes.  Most of the kids were nice and quiet.  Logan sat with one other boy at one end of the table, and as Logan has told us before, his ex 1st grade classmate came and found Logan and sat with him.  When it was close to the end of eating time, I had to rush a couple of kids to finish eating and pack up.  Then I led the class back to their room to watch a movie, Wizard of Oz, that was set by the teacher.  Some kids preferred drawings and doing some crafts.  All in all they behaved well and enjoyed the show.  When the lunch break was over, the teacher returned to resume class, and I assumed my classroom helper role on the side and assisted her with some chores.  This was probably the longest stretch of time that I spent at school so far.

     We did not end up having that much rain, but we had already decided to have a lazy day at home.  Stuart set up the ping pong table and we played quite a bit of it throughout the day.  The boys played some here and there, but often got distracted and went to the backyard to play instead.  Stuart and I played many games with each other, and with all the practice, I finally won a game and had a few close calls.

    In the afternoon, we made a run to Home Depot as Connor had been asking us to buy him some seeds for planting.  It might not be a good time for planting, but we bought a gardening kit and some daisy seeds just to try it out.  Both Logan and Connor were engaged; they followed steps by steps to plant the seeds.

    After dinner, we decided to do a movie night.  We picked Harry Potter but planned to watch only the first half of the long movie tonight.  The boys truly enjoyed watching the film especially with popcorn as a snack.  While they were putting on their pajamas for the night, they told me they were putting on their wizard outfits.