Stuart helped Scott out at the annual Obon Festival last Sunday, so the boys and I spent the few hours together.  Connor and I first took Logan to a martial art make up class, then the boys had a hair cut.  After lunch, we timed it just right and arrived at the Obon at the start of the Taiko performance.  We found a good standing spot and watched the 30 minutes show.  Then we headed inside the food court to find Stuart and said hi the few people we knew. Stuart was still working, so we went to play the carnival games on our own.  Logan and Connor had a good old time trying all the games.  Logan was so lucky that he won both times he played at the Tic Tac Toe game, and he earned two cute stuffed animals.  Connor was envious, but of course Logan could not make another win while trying for Connor.  Connor however had also won some little toys from other games.  Their favorite game was Plinko.  They played multiple times there; while Hailey was staffing this booth, the boys stood in her line so she could help them.  We went for some smoothies afterward, then met up with Stuart and we headed home together.  It was a hot day; after working the few hours next to the grill, Stuart was exhausted.  For some reasons, I was too.

    We did quite a bit of exercise and walking this weekend that we were still exhausted on Monday morning.  Since we were free on Friday night, we walked to the high school field and played football.  We did a punting contest, and we played a 2 on 2 game afterward.  We then walked to get boba drinks as a treat.  On Saturday morning, we went to play tennis.  Logan had good control with his hits, and when we asked him about it, we were surprised with his response.  He told us that after watching the Wimbledon game, he decided to bend his knees and have a better stand.  Speaking of Wimbledon, we also spent a couple of hours watching this incredible game in the afternoon.  By 3pm, we went swimming.  One of Logan’s friends came to the pool to hang out with Logan, so Connor and Cole ended up playing together on their own.  Logan and I also jumped in the diving pool; this was the first time this year that I dared to jump.  On Sunday, before it was too hot, the boys also got on their bikes to get more practice riding again. 

    We had a packed day on this holiday Wednesday.  We started the day by joining the cabana parade at 10am.  The boys immediately spotted Cole, and the three of them stayed together to follow behind the fire truck.  The boys periodically looked back to find and wave to us.  When the parade was over, both Logan and Connor wanted to stay in the cabana with Cole, so Stuart and I went home without them to gather our things.  We came back to the pool just in order for the National Anthem sang by a little girl and the festivities begun.  Lisa had saved us a table with umbrella, so we situated in this nice spot where we spent the next few hours.  We later found the boys, and they were having a snow cone.  We had the boys come with us and be the first to go buy burgers when the BBQ started, but then they left us to sit in their “secret spot” to enjoy their lunch.  After eating, the 3 of them agreed to play one round of the “cake walk” and next they were off to free swim.  Right before the “coin dive”, they had chosen me to be their collector, and the three of them decided to share their loots.  Cole, being a better swimmer, collected the most coins, but the three of them all brought me some coins.  Connor was very persistent and was the last to stop searching among the three.  At the end the boys had earned enough to buy themselves an ice cream treat each.  Finally after we watched the watermelon fight between the lifeguards and the dads, we were tired and ready to head home.  The boys finally said goodbye to Cole.

    After hours being outside, Stuart and I were tired and we took a nap.  But the boys were fine; they played some games and did some reading.  I did finally convince Connor to take a nap right before we had dinner.  By 8pm, we headed out; we parked our car near the trails, and hiked into the Almaden Lake Park.  The boys were interested to stop and do the exercises along the way, and we made it in the park in 25 mins.  Since last year we had some trees obstructing our view, we decided to head to a different area in the park and situated on a grassy area.  We brought some glowsticks for the boys to play until the firework began at around 9:20ish.  We had an awesome view of the firework this time with no obstruction and it was so close that we felt some ashes on our face and legs.  This was an incredible show that even the tough critic Stuart thought it was great.  We had all enjoyed the show very much and were all satisfied, then we packed up to walk back.  The length of hike was not bad at all and the boys did great walking too\][ .  Connor even sang me songs until we got back to our car.  This was a great end of a good July 4th.

   The grandparents drove up to pay us a visit last weekend.  They arrived on Friday and only stayed a short weekend.  We had a nice time spending with them; we hung out locally and spent mainly indoor as it was a a warm weekend.  We also had the World Cup to entertain the grandparents and Stuart as well.  They also enjoyed spending some time in our backyard in the evening too. 

    Logan did not want a birthday party as he told us that he did not want to be the center of attention and definitely did not want to be singed to.  But since this was his special 10th birthday, we finally convinced Logan to have a low key gathering.  We invited his buddies over on Sunday without telling them that it was for Logan’s birthday.  However all his friends know Logan well enough to figure out the reason for the gathering and they all came bearing gift cards for Logan.

    All four kids also arrived bringing their electronics as we requested, and they set up shop in the game room.  It was so cute seeing 6 boys sitting together playing and chatting with each other.  They all were playing together in the same game on their own PC, and we never heard any issue from them at all.  Connor got along with all these older kids very well; he just seemed to be part of the gang.  While they played, we provided them with popcorns for snack; later we had them come down for pizza and rice krispy treat popsicle that I made for lunch.  The three hours went by quickly, and the boys were picked up slowly one by one.  We think the boys all had a good time, so this was a success gathering.

    Rohan stayed behind to play for longer as Logan requested.  We took Rohan with us to go swimming.  We played there for awhile and had an ice cream before we returned home before Nanda came pick Rohan up.  It was a fun day.

    We still could not believe that Logan is now 10 year old.  For the first time, Logan was counting down being 9 year old and was excited to be 10.  For his birthday, he was contemplating between having a free day with Daddy or going to camp day as usual.  He finally decided to take the day off, and was looking forward to it; he told his camp teacher and buddies that he would not be there that day.  Connor was jealous that Logan was getting attention and having a day off.  Connor was a bit grumpy and claimed that we didn’t care about him as much as I dropped him off in the morning.

     Since the only one good kid movie out was Incredibles2 and the boys will have a field trip to the theater for that movie soon, Stuart decided against going to the movie.  The one thing Logan had asked for for his birthday was a skateboard which was such a surprise to us.  Because of that, Stuart decided to take him to a skate shop so he could pick one out himself.  Stuart told me that Logan was quite excited there, but he was not too choosy; he went straight to the one he liked and was ready to take it home.  Logan tried it in the afternoon, and so far, he just wanted to sit on the board and rode down the street. Stuart and Logan played games together before picking Connor up and before I returning home. 

   Before we headed out for dinner, we had Logan opened his presents.  Connor could not wait for Logan to open the present he got for him.  Logan was totally surprised that there were few more presents beside the skateboard that he asked for.  Logan also showed us his skateboard and allowed me to take a picture of him.  Then we went out for pizza for Logan’s request and also stopped by Barnes and Nobles so Logan could buy a couple of books for his collection using Grandparent’s certificate.  To wrap up the day, we did cake when we came home.  It was Logan’s favorite type of ice cream cake with Roblox decoration.  He was embarrassed when we sang Happy Birthday to him, but we know he enjoyed it.   Logan is now a big boy; he has already passed my shoulders.