Connor was invited to a birthday party at Laser Quest.  Connor was very worried how laser tag worked and if it hurt as he had never done it before.  While I was driving him there, he was happy to know that many of his buddies were invited as well.  The boys hung out together at the lobby until everyone arrived, then they were taken into the game room.  They played one game, then broke for pizza lunch, and returned for the second game.  At the end, everyone was gathered again in the party room to have birthday cake.  Connor looked sad then as he showed me an owie on his knee.  He said the laser tag playground was open to the public, and there was a big kid (not from the party) who tripped him and lasertagged him afterward.  Other than the owie, Connor had fun and liked laser tag.  After Connor enjoyed the cake with his friends, we said goodbye to others and went home.

    The intervention teacher who is also a school mom along with another mom had decided to start up a STEM (Science, technology, engineering and math) group this year and invited 10-12 third graders to join.  Connor was invited and their first meeting was last Sunday.  Each meeting will be 2 hours long.  Connor initially was excited when we received the invite, but on the day of the meeting, he was not too thrilled to have to leave us for 2 hours.  When we arrived at the organizer’s house, there were tables and chairs set up in the garage, and Connor could finally find out who were the other kids invited.  Connor then quickly went off to the backyard to play with them before the meeting began. 

    When I returned close to the end for pick up, 3 parents and 10 kids were still busy working on their projects  They were creating holding devices with any of the provided materials to carry a raw egg.  The objective was to protect the egg from breaking upon being dropped.  Connor was very serious while building a cardboard box from scratch; he said hi to me and handed a bite of his snack.  Shortly after, everyone finished making their designs and waited for their turns to have it drop by a parent standing on a ladder.  Many kids were happy to find their eggs intact and Connor was one of them.  All the parents quickly helped clean up the tables and materials before we left to go home.  Connor was thrilled to tell me what he had made and how much fun he had, and he could not wait for the next monthly meeting.

    I love going to this art and wine festival every year, so we had planned to go on Sunday morning.  This year we had decided to hike in just like we did for the July 4th firework.  The boys chose to use their scooters while Stuart and I walked.  On our way to the park, Logan and Connor took breaks to work out at every exercise stop along the trail.  As soon as we arrived the festival, the boys remembered the Dipping Dots.  We walked through all the booths while Stuart and I checked out what they had to offer, and the boys had only one mission in their mind.  They finally made it the ice cream booth and enjoyed a treat.  We then walked around the kid area, but the boys were not too interested.  Instead we walked back toward the few booths to play with the Wheel of Fortune and the boys enjoyed winning the little prizes.  At the end, we returned to the stage area so we could buy lunch and listen to the performance.  After taking a break on the mat, the boys used the scooters and we hiked our way back home.

    Connor really likes the scooter he received for his birthday, and he often asked Stuart to pick them up from school with it.  To be fair, Stuart would bring the skateboard for Logan as well.  Instead of carrying it, Stuart would end up riding the skateboard all the way to school, and he is getting good and comfortable on it now.  Logan, on the other hand, has not built up enough courage to really glide on the skateboard yet.  He seems to be more interested in the scooter, so Logan agreed to use his birthday Amazon money to buy one.  Tonight Logan was able to try his new scooter with Stuart on the skateboard and Connor on his scooter.  What a team!

   We signed the boys up for tennis again; since Connor is now 8 he could join Logan in the intermediate class.  The class started today, and it was a full class.  I watched them from the sideline while we played basketball.  The coach had the kids do some forehand and backhand drills, and practiced serving.  Logan was great following through with his hits, and Connor had a chance to work on his backhand.  They both did great.  An open court finally became available, Stuart and I could then play 25 minutes of tennis on our own until the boys finished their class.

    We did not have any solid plans the past two weekends which was what we needed so catch up on a few things.  We played tennis several times as we really love it these days.  Once only Stuart and I played while the boys were at Maxim’s, we played two whole sets and had a close battle.  With the free time, the boys were thrilled to have a few playdates, ie. with Maxim, Cole and Rohan.  After dropping the boys off at Rohan’s yesterday, Stuart and I went for clothes shopping.  We had a very productive two hours. 

    One thing we tried for the first time was riding bikes as a family.  We are taking small steps, riding to the school only as a start.  On the second time, we also took a detour on a neighborhood trail homeward bound.  The ride was quite enjoyable and the boys are getting more comfortable on their bikes.  We returned to our board game hobby as well.  We finally tried this new game Civilization with the boys.  They are quite into it, and did not mind that we have spent over a couple of hours on it so far the past few days.