Lego chess and Lego building with Baba.

Petting a real bunny after the comedy/magic show. How cute. 

Some of NJ's prizes and his dinner. Some of his favorites, rice and beans, and tacos and watermelon juice! He ate more than me. We caught him piling on the rice and beans into his taco too. It made them fat and he'd take huge bites out of them. He was one of few kids eating, most were off playing games. Not this one, he loves his food too much. 

NJ stood in a long line with a long wait to get a balloon animal made. Actually he said he wanted a sword. But seeing what this guy was doing, it had to be a better request than that! Everything he made was so elaborate and cool. These were no ordinary animals, they were giant sized and so detailed with lots of balloons. He made characters really well. NJ asked for Batman and he had a cape and everything! 

A better photo before it's destroyed. He's already lost a foot. :(

NJ and Connor driving around in their tiny cars together, it was cute how they followed each other around. 

I couldn't leave without a picture with two of my favorite people! My goodness I miss them! Every time I see them it feels like it's been way too long. Enjoying the time we have now. Somehow I ended up with The boys' name tags as well as mine. And Christine added hers to further confuse everyone. 

Ah-ma stayed with NJ last night and helped us in the morning. Someone has been spoiled! A happy meal for dinner, a new outfit, and candy crush and M&M's in the morning! Oh my. 

We were surprised to see this huge photo on the wall in front of NJ's classroom when we dropped him off this morning. I don't know if I've ever seen NJ's face so huge! Cute picture, though from the room mom. 

We picked up an extra kid today at school. NJ's classmate and friend came back with us. He asked where our car was. When we said we're walking, his sad reaction made me laugh. We told him not to worry, it's not far. Ha, ha. They played legos for the most part while Baba and I prepared and cooked dinner together. It was a challenging afternoon. We realized we need to expose him to more play dates with more kids. He's totally an only child and wasn't handling situations well. Definitely a learning experience. Later his two sisters came over and before going home we all had a spaghetti dinner together. 

Hillsong United

He told the story about having friends over for dinner and carving pumpkins together. 

Homework is done and NJ is all ready to go to dinner and shopping with Ah-ma. Please behave and be polite! 

Concert date night. Our friends had the tickets and asked if we wanted to go. We gave an enthusiastic YES! I was already so sad to miss the last Hillsong concert. I really wanted to go, but had no one to go with to that one. I've been so excited about this! The music and atmosphere were amazing and we had a ton of fun together. We had to take a photo together with the Forum in the background because I've never been. And never knew it was in Inglewood. Ha, ha. More importantly, we were both wearing our Nozomi Project necklaces! Can't wait for another. 

Pumpkin Spice Bread and Pumpkin Carving

Mmm... fresh bread for the morning. Some warm pumpkin spice bread. Went well with a bit of cream cheese on top. We all had some for breakfast, yum! 

Time to start making an egg casserole for tonight. I ended up adding extra eggs. Plus we scrambled some eggs, and made a double batch of pancakes. I made them minis for the kids (and for me). 

NJ did homework in the kitchen while I cooked. 

What isn't in the picture is the bagels, cream cheese, sausage, orange juice, fruit, and cookies that everyone brought and contributed. It was a great breakfast for dinner. 

So glad the kids seemed to eat well. It was great to have everyone on board for having breakfast for dinner! 

This might have been my first time gutting the inside of a pumpkin. I don't remember ever doing it before. It was weird at first, but then it was fun trying to get all the seeds out. NJ really wanted to carve, but after helping him with cutting out the top, I tried to convince him to paint instead. I'm not that strong, the little saws were flimsy and dangerous with a slippery round pumpkin. 

Some carved, some painted, some carved and painted! How fun!

Baba washed the seeds, seasoned and baked them. So crispy and yummy! 

Haircut and Dinner

His hair's gotten quite long. Ah-ma wants to take an early Christmas photo tonight so we took him to cut his hair. The sweetest lady cut his hair. The two of them were really chatting it up! Baba and I were in the waiting area just snickering and listening to all the things he had to tell and talk about. A lot of it was talking about Legos, building them, the characters, about school, his likes, dislikes, his teacher, friends... It was really sweet how interested she was in what he had to say. And it was great to see him being so social and talkative. She was much too kind to compliment us on him. How funny. 

Ah-ma and Gong-gong wanted to meet for dinner and we took a family picture together. 

Wearing his new sweater to school, it's a nice cool morning. 

Getting better and neater with his writing. I love his concentration face. 

Mom altered the many non-slip socks I get from my hospital visits. I can't stand them because they're itchy and too big. But I know even if I don't use it, it gets tossed. So I give them to her. She made them smaller for NJ to wear around the house. She wants his feet to be warm, but not slip on the tile with his socks. 

At first I thought, how cute they are sitting on the couch reading together. Then I thought, wow NJ is almost as long as Ah-ma. He's growing fast! 

Mom brought lunch and a lot of persimmons and guava from her trees. He was really enjoying eating all of it. 

Ah-ma, NJ, and Dot went for a neighborhood walk. She hung out for a while, it was nice to have her visit and stay the day. 

Tanaka Farms