Some birthday fun. The kids decorated their own cakes. He really wanted to eat it, but never got to (thank goodness)! He also got a ton of candy and some play-do from the piñata. We let him have one and the rest has disappeared (he didn't notice). He had a lot of fun running around with the kids, it was nice to hang out with some friends too. 

Stop at Ah-ma's  house for a bit. This is why we don't have one in the house, he won't even look up for the photo. 

smART Night

I rejoined the women's group on Friday mornings. They started a new serious on hearing God. I invited my friend and her daughter over for lunch. I had chili cooking from last night so it's ready to eat for lunch. Dot was getting pet nicely while eating her food. She seemed to enjoy it. 

I taped up some construction paper I had to make some lining for NJ's new book shelf. I think he'll really like it! Turned out better than I imagined and it turned into something more useful than random storage. 

A night of arts and sciences.

NJ and Baba working on their robot. I helped with cutting up a pile of wings or ears or something. 

Baba taped the motor to the top going through it. 

It was great to see them working on it together! 

Moving robot done!

On our way out of this station, a robot rolled through. The one controlling it said it can hold a person. 

NJ's class mate working on a lego robot.

Snakes in his classroom! And a huge iguana that the lady was kissing and holding inside her sweater. 

He made some rock (chocolate and butterscotch that you can eat).

A dinosaur femer. I can't remember what dinosaur.

A table full of dinosaur poop that he's pointing at. Interesting.

We went out to the telescopes in the yard. 

They were huge. In each one you could see something different, saturn and three of it's moons, venus, and I forgot what the last one was. 

We all sat down to etch. How fun! 

We rolled paint over it.

We each made our own designs. I'm sure it's easy to guess which is which. Such a fun family night at his school. 

Some of NJ's work up on the wall. Another parent commented on how they liked NJ's drawing of his dragon. I think this was for the Lunar new year? 

He spent more time sharpening his pencil than on writing, it drove me crazy. The pencil snaps from being too sharpened, from pressing too hard, cracks when it drops off the table over and over. 

Dot is crunching away as NJ does his homework (or sharpening). 

Baba is out in the garage putting a shelf together with these crates we've had forever. They've had many uses and have had a number of random things in them... photo gear, cleaning supplies, stuffed animals, cars, trains, books... Now it will be for NJ's books. If we can dig out the boxes of his books in the studio. 

Looking through NJ's toy boxes I found the paster from Ah-goo! So that's where it was! I went to get a cheap frame for it to hang right away. Otherwise it will lay around and get ruined or get lost again. NJ was so happily surprised to see it when he got home from school. I asked him not to touch it, but I caught him almost falling off the chair trying to get a closer look!

I asked him why he colored the leprechaun's skin yellow. His answer to me, "I color all faces yellow." 

I laughed to myself and wanted to say something like... because you're yellow too? Or something like it, but I asked him: "So why are his hands brown?" 

He shrugged. 

Some greek salad and chicken curry salad with naan and bread crisps. We got a call that friends are dropping by to pick something up. We just started dinner so we insisted that they stayed to eat. I asked my friend what they had planned for dinner since we kind of highjacked it. She said that they didn't have plans. With perfect timing, NJ interrupted with: "So you came here to eat dinner?" 

That made us laugh. I said, "No they didn't come to eat here just because they didn't know what to eat for dinner, silly."

It almost looks like they're making the same face. 

Dot is snoring with her tongue out while I type.

I love his innocence. To him there's no difference between his old (Christian) school, his Sunday school and church. 

I asked him to make a card for his friend. His explanation on what he drew: (From left to right) Red skull in a truck. Spiderman, Spiderman, Spiderman on cake. Dr. Octopus with Ironman shooting lighting at him out of his hand.

We're loving his neat writing and creative sentences. We don't have to breathe over him for neat writing anymore. And he doesn't really need help with spelling either. We'll help him sound it out to spell it correctly. But he mostly gets it himself. 

His teacher wrote a nice note on the homework sheet too... NJ is doing great and pushing himself. 

Doing some coloring, he does a lot neater coloring with pencil than crayon. But he spends so much of the time sharpening the pencils. 

Sneaky girl, there you are! I was wondering where she was until I saw the pillow on the couch moving. We just vacuumed the couch missy! How can you get mad at that face? She knows how to look innocent.

Noodles with chicken and bok choy. NJ loved it slurping down the soup and all. 

NJ hasn't played with his trains in a while. He made the track connect from his room to ours. He was pretty excited about that.

I thought it was odd that the monkey was facing the corner. Probably because he's trying to fit on the chair with the monkey while he reads. Also his spiderman books were laid out like they were on display. Strange.

At bedtime I noticed that he seems to be obsessed with inspecting and cleaning his feet off. He doesn't want any dirt or dust on his bed.