We met up with Vrinda, Nanda and Rohan a couple of times this weekend.  On Satuday we were invited to their house.  Stuart had reminded the boys that Rohan likes Beyblades too, so the boys were excited to bring their Beyblades and stadium to play.  Once we arrived to their house, the boys ran around, watched a little TV and played some games.  Then they finally sat down and battled together with their Beyblades.  We broke for dinner, then they played so more.  Later we all went out to the backyard.  Most of us just relaxed in the backyard while Nanda had the pleasure of playing ball tag with the boys.  All three boys ran around the huge backyard so much to avoid being tagged by the tennis ball.  What a blast and good exercise they had; they were all drenched with sweat.  We finally called off the fun time and headed home for shower and bedtime.

   Monday we met up with Rohan and family again at the Almaden Lake Park in the morning.  It was so strange that there were lots of bugs in many areas of the playground.  We had to migrate to the big kid structure to stay away from the bugs.  The kids loved playing tag and they were lucky that Nanda was willing to play with them for awhile.  Our boys never really played with swings, but today Logan wanted to play with it and got the other two boys into it too.  Connor even said to me “We never played with swing and it is fun!”.  It was a hot day. so after over an hour at the park, we moved back to our house for the boys to play some more.  They built a fort in the bonus room and played in it until it was time for our guests to go home.

   We also made a couple of visits to the cabana club this weekend.  Logan did well in the wading pool and was still timid in big pool.  So we did not even push him and let him enjoy his time in the wading pool today.  Connor loved being in both pools and he liked jumping into the big pool like a cannon ball while holding our hands.  The boys also wanted to play in the playground too which gave us an opportunity to play ping pong.  I lost 21 to 15 to Stuart but it was fun playing a game without too many interruptions.  The cabana club time is coming to an end this year and we sure tried to make the most out of it.

    Logan is often nervous to ride his bike and we feel that the training wheels on his big bike might be not be that helpful, so we decided to try him without the training wheels this weekend.  On Saturday, we stepped Logan down to Connor’s smaller bike and let him try riding it on grass.  Logan was very nervous despite Stuart holding on to his shoulders.  He was very stiff the entire time, and he even cried a little according to Stuart.  We had Connor taken turns too.  He was nervous as well but was slightly less stiff.    He tried to steer a little.  The whole experience was very tiring for them and for us too.  We had to call it a quit after a couple of rounds.

    Sunday morning we changed the strategy a bit.  Stuart lowered Logan’s bike seat to the lowest and removed the peddles from both of their bikes.  Our goal was having the boys glide around with the bikes on foot to learn balancing.  We also decided to go to another location where they could bike on the playground rubber top.  Logan was doing better, trying to glide and steer a little.  He was not as scared this time and did his best.  Connor on the other hand was more timid and did not want to glide at all.  He basically just waddled around with his bike.  We did not want to push them too much; so after a couple of rounds, we moved on to playing tennis instead.  We know that we still have a lot of work ahead of us.

    It was Logan’s school Back To School Night tonight.  Since we don’t have a babysitter, it was decided that only one of us would be attending.  Stuart unfortunately had a work after-hour project scheduled today plus I am always the more curious parent, I was the chosen one to attend.  We had dinner early, then I was on my walk to school.  The first half hour was a general meeting with the principle.  The topics covered were similar to the the new parent orientation during the first week, but it was good to see a brief introduction of all the teachers in the entire school.  Then I headed over to Logan’s classroom and sat down in his seat after signing in.  There was a letter from each student to their parents on the desktop.  I was happy to see this great personal touch and surprise.  The parents were told to write a letter back to the child so they will see it tomorrow.  The teacher then spent the next 15 minutes quickly going through the curriculum, class rules and the homework guideline.  She also showed us the assigned volunteer list and I saw my name under my first preference, the Art Vista.  We were given a folder of information to take home too.  Parents were then free to browse around.  There were photos of each child with their drawings on the wall; it was good putting a face to a few names Logan had mentioned.

    When I returned home, the kids were already showered.  I tagged in to do the bedtime routine with the boys while Stuart tagged out to start his long hours of work.

     Connor was quite excited for school today.  He packed his backpack with a pencil box, Ellie (elephant) and the three Thank You cards he wrote for his summer school teachers.  When we arrived at school, Connor half-walked and half-ran into this classroom.  There were a couple of morning teachers who we have not met previously and a room of children already.  We put Connor’s things away and I tried to get him interested in some toys to play.  Then Connor suddenly put up a sad face and started crying.  One of the teachers came over to ask him to play with her, and he slowly calmed down as I said my goodbye.

     At the end of the day, Logan and I went to pick up Connor slightly earlier than a usual work day.  Connor was happily doing craftwork with the class.  He was pleased to see us but he also wanted to finish his work; fortunately he was close to being done.  He then came over to me and quietly pointed out the three or four friends who were in his previous summer class.  Afterward, he held onto the newly finished craft piece and we left to go home.  At dinner, when we asked Connor about his day, he was definitely more descriptive than Logan ever would and shared what he remembered.  He also added “Want to hear something bad? A boy does not like me!”, then he told us that the boy went away when he ran over to him, then when Connor ran toward him again and he ran away again.  Poor Connor!

    We attended Sawyer’s party at Safari Run today.  The party didn’t start until 1pm, so we walked to the park to play in the morning.  The boys were tired enough that they fell asleep during the ride to the party location.  I woke them up just 10 minutes before the start time.  After saying hi to the host and few others, we entered the play area. With the first time for the boys in this place plus just woken up, they were a bit hesitant initially.  But before long, they were familiar with the play area.  Logan quickly decided that he did not care to climb in the structure, and he made friend with a staff member, and started kicking the soft soccer with her.  Connor explored the structure a bit, then played soccer with them too.  After awhile, the soccer game turned into a friendly ball tag and chase.  The staff climbed around the structure so the boys did the same following after her.  They had such a good fun that they wished that they did not have to leave the play area when it was time.  We cleaned up and moved to a room for pizza.  Connor was a good follower; he waited for us and followed Logan’s lead to sit down.  They enjoyed the food and Connor enjoyed the cake too.  We then moved again to another room to hang out.  Logan was playing with an 8 year old boy while Connor and I watched Sawyer opening the presents.  Then it was time for us to leave and go home.

    Since we watched the hockey game at Logan’s basketball celebration party two weeks ago, Logan has become interested in hockey.  He has been using different things in the house or yard to pretend to be playing hockey, ie the floating noodle for swimming or building a hockey stick with Tinker Toys.  So we finally decided to buy a couple of sticks on Saturday, and we have been playing in the backyard and Logan is loving it.  Surprisingly Logan is handling the stick quite well and has good aim.  He even asked once how much it costs to take ice skating lessons.