Michelle invited us to their house for dinner on Saturday.  Mckayla and Marcus really wanted us to bring Buddy too, so Buddy was happy to come along.  As soon as we arrived, Mckayla’s first words were “Where is Buddy?”; she immediately met up with Stuart and Buddy at their backyard.  Mckayla was great with dogs and Buddy followed her commands nicely; she took Buddy for a walk around their huge backyard.  We were happy that Buddy was relatively gentle with her and not too crazy.  Buddy was busy with Mckayla and the new environment that he did not really go say hi to Michelle.  Later that night, Buddy also greeted Marcus and Ted as they came home.  Buddy stayed with us on a leash the entire evening at their backyard porch where we hung out and had dinner.  Mckayla and Marcus periodically came out to play with him while they were playing with Logan and Connor inside the house.  After eating, they also played with Buddy running around at their tennis court without the leash.  Buddy definitely enjoyed the attention he received on this first real outing for him.

    On Connor’s birthday this year, it was initially meant to be the annual carnival on the last day of Math Enrichment, but unfortunately it was cancelled this year due to the school construction.  The boys were a bit disappointed; however since it was his birthday, Connor was happy to have a day off with me.  Maxim’s parents and I had made plan to take turns taking care of the boys on the two off days (Thursday and Friday), so for Connor’s birthday, we had Maxim with us as well.

    The boys had some game time first in the morning, then I took them out to eat pizza for lunch.  Connor somehow had pizza daily since his birthday party and he was pleased that it was the 6th day that day.  After lunch, we went to see the Aladdin.  The movie was much better than my expectation, so all of us really enjoyed it.  After Maxim’s parent picked up Maxim in the afternoon, the three of us went to the pool to swim.  It was very quiet on a Thursday afternoon, so we had fun having the pool mainly to ourselves.  For dinner, Connor finally chose something other than pizza, so after Stuart came home and we went out for ramen.  Connor looked forward to the evening to eventually find out if he had more presents.  We wrapped up the day with our family favorite ice cream cake and then played a few rounds of family laser tags with his new toy.  Connor loves birthdays and he enjoyed this year very much as well.

    Last Wednesday ended the 5 and half weeks of Math Enrichment which meant the majority of the summer has passed. Wow!  The boys seemed to have enjoyed the program again this year; it was likely due to the daily video games.  Afterward we hit the cabana for Wednesday night dinner as we have been during this summer.  Especially with the heat, the boys enjoyed a little swim after dinner.

    Last Sunday the boys and I rode our bikes around the neighborhood and met up with Stuart and Buddy at a local park. Buddy was intrigued with the structure and watching us running around it.  He also got freaked out when we slid down the slides, and we were so mean keeping doing it to him.  Since the park was empty, we let Buddy up and down the slides too.  He got the hang of it at the end.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDZWdBVwwPE

      Connor was going back and forth about wanting a party, and finally decided that he wanted a small party at the cabana.  With a few scheduling issues, we decided to have the party on Saturday, and thus we were able to send out the invite only a week prior to the party.  Fortunately 7 of his friends were able to join us.  Saturday morning was busy for us; I had my hair appointment, Stuart took Buddy to the obedience class, and the boys had their martial arts.  After all those on our schedule, we brought our prepared things to the cabana, picked up the pizzas and set up the pool area prior to our guests’ arrival.

     After all the kids arrived and a few parents stayed to hang out with us, we started a late lunch.  The finger snacks I prepared along with the pizza seemed to be going well and fed everyone before the kids went off to play.   All of them gathered to play at the big pool; I heard they played Silence and Shark and Minnows.  The waterguns we gave the kids as a favor were a good hit; they were being used in the water and as they were running around the lawn too.  We also saw Connor and a few kids played a PG version of Spin the Bottle.  Later while a few kids were diving into the diving pool, Connor and his friends played judges for their dives.  It was cute watching them have fun together.  Some of them also played at the sand later as well.

     In between plays, the kids came to our area for food and snacks.  Half an hour before the end of the party, we all sang to Connor and enjoyed the cupcakes along with the rice krispies and brownies that I made too.  One of the great things about this party was that the cabana was quiet that day and allowing us to have 1/2 of the facility all to ourselves.  A few kids and parents ended up staying past the party’s end time.  We finally packed up after being at the cabana for 4 hours and went home being tired.  As soon as we were home, Connor was not tired and could not wait to open his presents from his friends.  This was a great day for Connor.

    We met with my old friends and coworkers on Saturday for our yearly picnic at the park.  It was nice seeing them and their kids again, and catching up with everyone.  Logan had just recently started playing with Pokemon Go; somehow he got other kids to play too, and all of them were off walking everywhere together looking for pokemon.  Initially we had planned for Stuart and the boys to leave earlier to make their martial arts class.  But since they all seemed to be enjoying their time there, we decided to skip the class after all.  While we were there, I had a good time holding Tina’s adorable and chubby baby Max.  He was so well behaved and it was fun carrying him around.  Connor was curious about this cute baby and eventually let me talk him into holding Max too; they were so cute together.

     Eventually Stuart took the boys home first as he needed to rest up for his volunteering later that day. I stayed behind and hung out longer with the ones who could stay as well.  By the time I drove home I was tired being out in the sun for hours.

    By mid day, Stuart headed out to the Obon Festival to help out.  It was a hot day, so the boys and I went to the pool to swim.  I let the boys talk me into playing Silence, so the three of us swam around the pool quite a bit.  We had fun.  Afterward we also watched a home movie; a random pick of “White Fang” turned out to be a great movie and we all truly enjoyed it.  Since there was no Kick the Can this Saturday night, the boys went to Cole’s house to play for a bit as well.  Stuart finally came home before bedtime.  This was a long day for us.