Started probably few months ago, Stuart and Connor walk around the school field for one or two laps every morning to get steps.  Logan does not join their ritual as Logan has his own which is meeting up with Maxim to talk.  Logan’s bell is five minutes before Connor’s, so Stuart and Connor have plenty of time to walk.  I used to feel missing out and feel that I was hardly at school anymore, so over a month ago, I had requested to start my Tuesdays later at work.  Now I can walk the boys to school every Tuesday which I love.  It is also nice to see the morning action at school and know who the boys hang out with.

   Today, both Stuart and I took the day off for his birthday, so as a special treat, Connor had both of us walking with him.  He was feeling special as well.

    The boys had two birthday parties on Sunday to attend.  In the morning, it was Marcus’ Ninja party.  We arrived at this big place full of big and tall wooden boxes and other apparatus.  The boys went straight inside and joined Mckayla and Marcus.  When the instructor began with the instruction to the kids, Stuart and I took off.  We went to Willow Glen to stroll around and later took a break at a coffee shop.  When we were driving back to the party place, Michelle shared a video of Logan jumping down from a tall block.  We also caught the trail end of the fun activities when we arrived; it was good to see the boys participating.  After the activities ended, the kids got washed up and grouped for pizza.  The boys shared with us who they did.  Logan pointed out the tall block where he jumped down multiple times, and Connor told us he jumped from that high ground into a pool of mattress. They both were proud of what they did; they truly enjoyed the party and being trained to be ninjas.  It was funny that for the next two days, Logan could barely stand up from his sore legs.

    In the afternoon, we went to attend Rohan’s birthday party at the K1 Go Kart place.  This venue was intriguing as the boys had never done this, but the wait there was long before it was the kids’s turn to get on the race cars, and only 1/2 of the kids for the first round.  Logan, Rohan and 5 other of his friends were called first.  Logan followed the lead, put on the helmet and situated in the race car.  From the way Logan was sitting, we could tell that he was nervous.  But we were very proud that he just went with the flow.  After some more waiting, the kids were off onto the track.  Logan was going slow, but he was steadily increasing his speed throughout the laps.  After 14 laps, the race was finished; we were definitely very proud of Logan.  Logan was in good mood when he returned to us, but he told me that it was scary as the car was going too fast if he stepped on the pedal too hard.  Before that, Connor had already decided that he did not want to do the race.  Then Logan also did not recommend it for Connor, so Rohan went again to take Connor’s spot.  The rest of the party was a bit tough as some kids were unruly while they were hanging out, and Stuart and I felt stressed watching them.  After pizza and cake for Rohan, since Logan decided that he did not want to go on 2nd round, we headed out as it was already late.  This party was a cool experience for Logan.

    After the Friday field trip, I went home just to take a short break watching a TV program before heading back to school for pick up.  Then it was also time for martial arts.  This was the testing week and Logan just got enough class credits to be eligible.  I was glad that I was off on this day to watch the event.  The testing this time was easy; the kids who were qualified were placed on the front row and they did the moves as a group instead of individually.  The good thing was that the Master was the one, among other instructors, who critiqued Logan, and he gave Logan some great advice.  He said Logan’s moves were great and he looked like a purple belt out there.  He wanted Logan to work on more energy in general, to be louder and be more assertive.  Those were the things we often want Logan to improve on. 

    On a side note, Connor was short by ONE class to make the testing.  He was quite sad about it.  When they were changing into the suit before class, Stuart found Connor almost in tears in his room.  He wanted to move up to the sophomore class with Logan.  What we should have done was watching the boys’ class credits more closely the couple of weeks prior to the testing week to prevent this from happening.  So to make Connor hopeful and also not to have the boys in two different classes for convenience, we decided that we will pay for an private testing for Connor when he meets the requirement.

   We did not have tennis lessons last Saturday but we still went out there to play on our own.  While I was taking the break, the boys played against Stuart and they did well.

   After we cleaned up, we headed over to the Meron’s for brunch.  It had been awhile since we saw them, so we hung in the backyard to chat while the kids stayed in the girls’ room to play.  They were not even hungry until I brought them some food to eat later.  All the kids did a good time taking breaks from their video games; every now and then, the whole group would come out to play tag in the backyard.  It was a nice afternoon hanging out.

    The second graders went on a field trip to the Children’s Discovery Museum last Friday.  I did a last minute re-arranging at work to get the day off to be a chaperone; Connor was happy that I could go with him.  I was assigned to have three other boys, Dylan, Neil and Kevin, in my group.  The bus ride was smooth, and we arrived at the museum in good time.  Once the kids were given instruction by the staff, all the groups were free to roam around all the exhibitions.  It was a bit challenging to make sure the four kids stay interested in the same area and not run off on their own.  It could be a disaster to go look for a missing kid.  Connor is close with Dylan and Neil, and so they often stuck together while Kevin seemed to have his own interest.  But fortunately they all listened to me and would stay around until everyone was ready to migrate to another area.  The exhibitions where they spent more time in were the water area, the room with foam blocks and the outside new tree house playground.  The four boys worked together building a base with those foam blocks, and they did well; later other classmates arrived and joined in too.  What surprised me was that Connor, Dylan and Neil were patient working on a couple of art and craft projects.  They made corn husk men and drew pictures of themselves in the art room.  Kevin was not interested but he was content waiting around for the others.  Just before noon, the teachers gathered everyone to go outside for lunch.  Since Neil preferred to be in the shade, all five of us found a spot by the building to sit and enjoyed our lunch.  After everyone ate, the kids hung out at the big grassy area until it was time for the return bus ride.  These second graders might just be the oldest who would enjoy this children’s museum, so I am glad that they had the field trip this year.

   Over a week ago on Sunday, I was hoping to put the kids in the one hour golf lesson, but it was full.  So we just headed over to the range to play on our own.  Connor actually wanted to go on the course instead of just practicing our swings at the range.  So as a result, Connor was not as patient and took many breaks, Logan stayed playing a lot longer this time which was a change from usual.