We went over to the Kaos to swim on Sunday, but the weather was cooler than we had hoped for.  The boys fell asleep during the drive over, and when they finally came into the house, they were happy to go wake Marcus up from his nap.  We then went out to the backyard to play for a bit.  When Mckayla came home, we all changed to go into the pool.  Logan was only interested to play with the water gun, but I basically put him into the water with me before he got too chilled on the edge being wet.  However Logan did not feel comfortable in the water.  Connor on the other end was excited to get in and happy to play while hugging me or Stuart.  We tried to remind Logan that he could put his head in the water the last summer, but he was very hesitant.  He finally did it one time and ended up drinking some water, and since then he just refused to try it again.  He had a little bit of fun playing with the water gun and with the camera that Michelle shared, but mostly Logan was not too thrilled and he was cold.  After about 30 mins Stuart finally took Logan out to shower.  Connor was still having lots of fun in water and with Mckayla and Marcus.  But we eventually had to get everyone out before it got too cold.  After we all had a warm shower, the kids snacked a bit then returned inside the house to play.  Logan and Marcus dressed up as Jango Jett and Boba Fett while Mckayla helped Connor to dress as a fairy.  Connor was so excited to wear the wings and have the wand in his hand; he kept the costume on the rest of the evening.  Since the kids had snacks, we started on our own first eating the chicken and steaks Ted barbequed, garlic rice Michelle made and the vegetables we brought.  Later the four kids slowly joined us at dinner.  The kids had so much fun being silly and laughing loudly while they sat at the kids table to eat.  They also took turns coming to us to tattletale on each other.  Finally they finished eating and they were off to play in the backyard, and we had some peace and quiet to chat again.  Later Ted brought them back to have ice cream and to try their homemade one for Michelle’s Mother day treat.  The kids went back inside the house to play for a bit, and we heard piano music and lots of drum noise.  Finally, after 7pm, it was time to round up the kids to say thanks and goodnight to the Kaos for having us again.

    On Sunday morning, the boys presented me their beautiful artwork for Mother’s Day.  Then Connor asked me to make pancakes for them.  When I reminded him that it was Mother’s day, Connor suggested that I should have the first piece then.  After the boys played some games, we headed out for a short hike and a picnic for my request.  We finally remembered to check out a county park that we passed by before and is only 10 minutes from us.  As soon as we parked, we had our picnic first while watching the boats passed by in the reservoir. We then headed for a slow hike around the reservoir, and Logan led us while Connor trailed behind.  Logan continued to lead us toward the water, and it was quite cool walking through the tall hays.  Since the water level was low, there were many little seashells by the shore.  The boys enjoyed poking a stick to the water and throwing seashells into the water, and I had fun taking pictures of us.  After awhile, we wanted to leave the shore to hike a bit further, but as we walked away from the shore, Connor tripped and hurt his knee on the rocks.  He cried and finally calmed down when we caught up to Stuart and Logan.  We continued on just briefly, then we turned around to head back.  Connor complained of the sore leg, but he managed to walk all the way back with us to the car.  It was a nice outing to explore a new area, and I had fun going through all the pictures we took afterward too.

    Logan attended Evan’s birthday party yesterday.  When we received the invitation a few weeks ago, I asked Logan if he was interested and he immediately accepted.  Since the invitation was not clear if it was a drop off party, I mentioned to him that it might be one, Logan thought about it for a moment and confirmed that I would come back to pick him up, and he said agreed.  Yesterday, Logan was quite excited for this party when it was time.  We arrived at Evan’s house; both Evan and another classmate Jaime immediately welcomed Logan with “Logan is here!”.  Logan went up to them and started playing with them.  What was surprising was that Logan quickly took off his shoes and went into the jumpy house.  No warm up time at all!  Logan was talking and giggling with his friends inside the jump house.  I talked with the mom for awhile, then later realized that there were no other parents but only their personal friends and family inside the house.  Since Logan seemed happy and content, I decided to take off to run an errand and Logan was fine when I told him. 

     After dropping off grocery and hanging out briefly with Stuart and Connor who were playing Lego at home, I returned to the party.  Logan and a few boys were inside the house playing foosball.  Logan told me that he was having a good time, and they just had some pizza and marshmallow.  We went back out to the yard, and a lady said hi to me.  It turned out that one of Logan’s ex-soccer teammates was a good buddy of Evan, and so I chatted with the mom for awhile.  We sang the birthday song to Evan; Logan declined the cake, later he copied Jaime and got a cupcake from inside the house.  However Logan only wanted the plastic ring on top and Jaime offered to eat the cupcake.  Logan continued to play with the friends at the jumpy house, at the structure, or at the foosball.  He came see me a couple of times; I asked if he wanted to stay or go home, and he chose to stay.  Finally when the soccer friend was leaving, I decided it was time for us to go too; Logan thanked the hosts and ended his first partly drop off party.

    As always, Connor was thrilled counting down everyday until his big program today.  Stuart found out that he had an important work meeting at the same time, and he talked to Connor about not being able to attend.  So I was the responsible cameraman and video man for the performance.  I arrived early and peeked through the window on the door; Connor immediately saw me and gave me a big wave.  All the parents waited outside, then right before the show time, the teachers led the kids out to line up so the guests could get seated inside.  The show began punctually with the kids singing and marching in at the same time.  Connor found me in the front row quickly and waved to me.  He had the biggest smile and locked eyes with me almost the entire show.  The show was packed with entertainment, several songs, kids answering questions, each saying a line, and a dance.  The performance was very cute.  Connor did well saying his line “Hola, my name is Connor.  My favorite country is Yemen”.  The dance was adorable too.  After the show and a group photo with the teachers, the kids were released to come to the parents.  Connor was so happy to give me a big hug and he was pleased with their performance.  I took some pictures of Connor with his teachers and friends, and then Connor joined the class for a story time after I said goodbye.

    It was Logan’s turn to take the school stuffed Curious George home for the weekend.  Logan was supposed to spend some time with George, write a few sentences and make a drawing on a page in the classroom journal.  Logan was happy to have George, but was forgetful to spend time with him.  Today Stuart reminded him to do something with George, so they had some material to write about.  After Stuart feeding Logan some advice, Logan managed to have this homework completed.

     After I read the bedtime story to the boys on Friday night, I went out to Santana Row to meet up with Revital and Vrinda for a drink.  It had been awhile since I went out late on my own, it felt weird to drive out in the dark and seeing how packed it was at Santana Row.  We all arrived on time and had a short wait for our table.  We talked, had a drink while shared some appetizers and later a dessert.  Before we knew it, it was two hours later and we all were yawning, so it was time for us to go home.  Stuart managed to stay up for me and it was a late night for us.

   Saturday night we had been invited by Nancy to a potluck gathering at their house and we arrived with a homemade chocolate mousse cake, some fruits and beers.  Besides us, there were four other families with seven more kids.  The house immediately filled up with loud noises.  All the guests were from the other first grade’s class, therefore, the kids, Stuart and I had some socializing to do.  One boy immediately recognized Logan and knew that he is from the other class, and there was a boy who apparently goes to CDC, but Logan claimed that he had not seen either of them.  Despite being in the house for the first time, both Logan and Connor made themselves at home playing with toys and later with some of the kids.  Not long later, Logan rushed down to grab me to see Connor; Connor was crying sadly as his finger got hit by a sword from a boy.  It was red so I took him down to get some ice on it and he calmed down.  By then it was time to eat.  All the kids settled down for some fun food, like corndogs and corns on a cob while the adults had gourmet burgers and other potluck items.  Logan and Connor sat together to eat initially, then Logan wanted to move to a small table to sit with the two boys.  Later Connor wanted to move down to sit with Logan too.  All the kids finished eating quickly and they returned to play in the house.  Awhile later, Logan came again to get me for Connor; he again got hit by the boy who played too rough.  I brought Connor down and encouraged him to play with the girls instead as they were just hanging out.  At some point, all the kids moved out to the big yard to play.  We heard from others that Logan played basketball for a little bit, but when I went outside to check on them, Logan was with a soccer but complained that no one was playing with him.  Most of the kids were playing softball while Connor and Malia were hanging out doing their own thing.  I encouraged Logan to try softball and one of the girls was very good telling him the rules.  Logan shyly got ready with the bat and had a good hit with the first pitch.  After that he was excited and was in.  Stuart and I hung out with the adults at the dining table but periodically went out to check on the kids.  Logan seemed to have a lot of fun playing softball and Connor was sitting with the girls to watch, but later he joined the game too.  Finally when it was dark, the kids had to return to the house to play.  At some point, the hosts turned on the Karaoke and we started hearing the girls singing.  Logan and Connor were fascinated watching them, and all the adults came over to watch too.  By then it was quite late, after a few more songs, we all thanked the hosts and had a short drive home for a late night for the kids.