We all decided to walk Logan to his first day of school this morning.  It was interesting to see a lot of kids walking to school too.  Logan never complained once and seemed curious to see his new classroom.  We were told to go line up at the playground and Logan was following the instruction well.  When it was time, the teacher walked the whole line of students and parents to the classroom.  Parents were allowed to go in for five minutes to help the children get situated, and of course I was happy to do that.  Logan and I found his seat; he placed his backpack on the seat and sat down.  The children put the name tags on and wrote their names on the folders, then it was time for the parents to leave.  I said goodbye to Logan, then the three of us went over to the parents welcome back coffee.  Connor enjoyed his breakfast while we chatted briefly with one family before we walked home.

    I walked over to pick Logan up after school.  He was happy to see me and told me he had fun.  We walked over to CDC to familiar Logan with the walk even though I was going to take him home.  During our walk home, I asked many open questions, but I got many bits and pieces of information that did not really tell me too much.  The only one thing he clearly shared was that there was a bumble bee trying to eat their food during lunch time.  At home, Logan and I played a couple games of chess until Connor woke up from his nap and then we went swimming to end the evening.

   Today was the last day before school starts.  We decided to take Logan to spend some time at CDC (where his before and after school program is) to learn the new environment.  Logan was not too excited to go as he knew Connor was staying home, so he negotiated with me to just spend less than two hours there.  Logan and I left the house on foot to school while Connor waved goodbye to us from the window.  Logan seemed fine while we walked and had a little skip in his steps.  When we arrived CDC, there were two teachers and only two kids.  We said hi to the teacher, then a girl (probably a second grader) came over and grabbed Logan’s hand to take him to see their guinea pig.  Logan did not resist and followed her to take a look.  We learned where his belonging goes; then I said goodbye and Logan was off playing Lego with the two kids.

    Stuart had to work today.  So Connor and I spent some time together at home before we left to pick Logan up and for our outing.  Logan was at the playground when we arrived; after he was summoned back to CDC, he told us that he did have fun.  First we stopped by Target for some shopping and mainly to gather the remaining items for Logan’s school supply list.  Afterward, we headed over to our planned entertainment of the day, miniature golf.  The boys were thrilled and they talked about the order of hitting among the three of us.  We chose a different course this time, so it was interesting to see new scenery and new obstacles.  Logan was excited and wanted to be the first to hit at every hole.  He did fine with most hits, but would have been better if he took a moment to set up better.  Connor allowed me to help him set up and did his best.  It was hot but fortunately not too crowded.  We took a break for snack, then afterward, Connor sort of lost interest, so he just watched us finishing up the rest of the holes.  Logan would have loved to spend some time at the arcade, but I just directed them home for lunch instead.

     After nap, we went over to the cabana club to swim.  When Stuart finished work and joined us, we could then hit the big pool.  We swam for awhile; Logan and I got out and tried some ping pong.  Connor had so much fun being dragged around in the pool by Stuart that he did not want to get out until much later.  After we all dried off, we walked over to Logan’s new school again to check out his class list.  Now that we have learned Logan’s new teacher and classroom, he is ready to start tomorrow.

    Can’t believe the summer is over.  With Logan’s camps and the cabana club this year, this summer break feels different than any other ones, and I am sad that it has come to an end.  Today Stuart took a day off so we could take a day trip to Monterey and Carmel.  The boys were very excited when we told them the plan.  We first arrived at the Dennis the Menace Park in the morning as the boys enjoyed it last time.  They had the most fun running through the hanging bridge and crawling the tunnels playing hide and seek.  We then took a short walk at downtown Carmel and had a seafood lunch there.  Then we headed over to the beach and we all immediately loved the warm weather and the soft sand.  It was a nice surprise that the weather was a lot warmer than we anticipated.  The boys could not wait to play near the water.  They had a blast and laughed so much while running toward and away from the waves.  They returned back to our tent to play with sand then back out to the water.  Stuart and Logan played with the football for awhile while Connor and I walked up the hill to use the restroom.  Before we knew it, it was already 4pm, so we packed up to take the drive home.  It was a fun family day!

      Connor finished summer school as of Friday.  Connor transitioned very well when we moved him to this new school for the summer.  It took him a few days initially to get to know his new teachers and now he loves them.  He had fun during the past few weeks and continues to learn a lot.  He brought home many nice drawings.  He earned a few more little books that he has learned to read, and he also now knows about the solar system and about the Wright Brothers.  On Thursday we received Connor’s report card.  When Stuart asked him if he likes dancing and singing in school, he told us “Dancing is for girls.”

     Logan wrapped up the summer with the last camp at our local community center.  Logan has gotten used to different locations and meeting different people during the summer that he only slightly hesitated when we walked in the new place on Monday morning.  Once he asked me to help him put his backpack down, he wanted to explore the place on his own, so he said bye to me.  It was a packed camp with 50 + kids at age 5-8 with 6 camp leaders.  They just played games and did different activities indoor and at the courtyard all day.  When we picked him up at the end of the first day, we learned that Logan received “The Camper of the the Day” award for “Great Effort”.  We were told that he participated in everything and answered a question to earn the award.  Logan was happy that he also got to choose a small toy as a prize.  Other than that, Logan did not share too much more what went on during the day or the rest of the week for that matter. 

    Another important thing that went on was a field trip on Wednesday.  Logan had not gone on one for a couple of years as field trip was not part of the curriculum for Challenger.  As a result, I was a bit nervous about it and reminded Logan to stay together with his team leader or campmates.  Logan was excited about it especially when he learned that kids could bring some money with them.  The destination was Happy Hollow and the kids rode the bus there.  We tried to get information from Logan at the end of the day, but not much.  He said he had fun; he rode a couple of rides, watched a show and climbed on the structure.  We did not really talk with Logan ahead of time about what he should buy with the money we gave him.  He told us that he only had a few minutes and he quickly brought a few things at the shop.  He ate a Kit Kat bar at the park. and ended up bringing home a melted Kit Kat bar and two candy sticks.  The rest of the week, Logan mentioned about having “astronaut ice cream” and he liked the fused beads projects that he made. 

     I asked Logan to tell me his favorite camps during this summer.  He said he likes all of them, but Lego camp was his least favorite which was to my surprise.  He liked the Galileo one as it has skits daily and he likes Camp San Jose for the prize that he received.

   We played few different sports this weekend.  It started with Logan’s basketball game on Saturday morning.  Logan was goofy and played with his teammates a lot when he was on the bench.  He was good in defending and blocking.  He however is still not aggressive enough to rebound.  He made some good passes; he attempted a basket and made it.  I knew he would make the basket and was able to capture that on a photo.

     We swam a lot this weekend.  Logan starts to enjoy being in the big pool now, and he appears slightly more comfortable everyday.  I too am making tiny improvements in my endurance in water; I am actually looking forward to attempting swimming a lap.  Connor loves playing in the big pool, but he still does not want to put his head in water yet.  Both kids wanted to play tennis today and we had a good time as usual.  Afterward, we played soccer.  Logan wanted to be the goalie, probably because he would be allowed to use both legs and hands, and he did a great job.  Connor had fun running around attempting to make goals.  In the afternoon when we went back for some swimming, the lap pool was closed, so we did something else.  We played volleyball with a bouncy ball, and the boys tried their best.  Logan had some good bumps and Connor was great holding his hands together at all times and enjoyed bumping a few times.