The weather forecast said ‘100% chance of character building…

Thanks to a big push from another mom on the twins’s club team, we were able to put together an amalgamated team of players to compete in the USA Target Cup in Blaine Minnesota.

We have never been to this tournament and I must say, it was one of the funner ones we’ve been to. Even the extreme heat didn’t dampen our spirits during the tournament. Before every game Jack and I filled a cooler full of gatorade and waters in slushy cold ice water along with mini towels the boys could put on their head to cool down during breaks.

They had a great opening ceremony which really made you realize how big the tournament really way. I think they had teams from over 25 states and over 20 different countries.

There were a few other Chicago teams there. The twins were able to see some of the guys who used to play on the same team of them who have changed clubs since then.

The first game we played was against Minnesota Rush on Tuesday, July 14th. We won this game 3-2.

Wednesday July 15th we played Edina SC, another Minnesota team and beat them 2-0.

Thursday July 16th we were scheduled to play St. Paul Blackhawks, but due to the wildfires burning in northern Minnesota and Canada, all games were cancelled and everyone was given a 0-0 score. Between the extreme heat and wildfires, I wondering if soon we would be seeing swarms of locust?

But no locust appeared. Instead we headed to the Mall of America.

The air quality cleared enough for us to play our first playoff game on Friday July 17th against Manitou FC – another (you guessed it!) Minnesota based team. There may have been many different states and countries there but we didn’t play any!

This game ended in a tie 0-0. Since this was a playoff game, we went into a PK shootout. Our incredible goalie saved TWO goals, leading us to a victory of PK: 4-3.

After this win, we headed over to Surly Brewing to celebrate.

Saturday July 18th we played our second playoff game, this time against Bloomington United. Yes, it’s another Minneapolis based team. The boys played a great game but unfortunately they had an unstoppable player on their team, Zeek, who dominated the field. In the end we lost 2-6 and were eliminated from the tournament one game before the final. Bloomington ultimately won the bracket.

It was still a great week and I was surprised and please to see how well this team that never played together before managed to come together to win so many games.

Our close family friend (Chantal and Chris) invited us to their daughters Med School Graduation a month ago and it came with the bonus of getting together with one of my Hong Kong Groups. Tom, Greg and I used to pal around together all the time in Hong Kong when we all lived there together.

The get together motivated us to have another meet up at Greg and Margie’s house in the Hamptons. Within a month we were able to secure a date that all of us could attend. No easy feat with Tom flying in from Hong Kong, my 4 boys schedules, and Greg and Adam’s work schedule!

Margie was the hostesses with the most, cooking us authentic Hawaiian food that took days to prepare, booking reservations and planning outings for us each day.

As much as I enjoyed sight seeing in the Hamptons, I would have been perfectly content to just hang out at the house the entire time.

The house is so amazing that you probably don’t need to leave the property at all!

We made good use of the tennis court in the backyard. Margie even gave us an hour of her private tennis instruction one day for the boys to play.

We spent many hours in the basement, the kids used the weights to lift every day and we also had some serious competitions in ping pong and pool.

We also spent a lot of time in the pool.

And as an added bonus, Ben convinced Margie and Tom to dye his hair lighter!

He was very happy with the results!

Was a lovely trip and we are hopefully that something is in the works for next summer. Stay tuned to more adventures soon!

The twins 8th grade graduation was the first time I experienced the hoopla that goes into the end of the 8th grade year.

Jack graduated during Covid so there were no activities, just an outdoor ceremony. Ben’s school was very small, only 3 graduating 8th graders, so a lovely ceremony but not a month long celebration of graduation.

The twins got it all! I trip to Washington DC, a trip to Six Flags, a boat cruise luncheon, a trip to Indiana Dunes, a send off from the 7th grade parents, and a huge graduation ceremony hosted at the local high school. They also attended a few graduation parties. And of course, in my previous post, a trip to China. My lucky double dragons!

Many events I did not attend and do not have pictures of, but I was lucky to be able to go to the Dunes. I along with a bunch of volunteers help organize the day (more volunteers not included in the photo below), which included a hike to the Dunes, a BBQ lunch cooked by the parents, and a water gun fight. Most of these photos were taken by another mom who is a professional photographer – Jodi Harris.

I also helped organize the photo slide shows along with my friend Jane for the graduation ceremony and the after graduation party. I included part of the one of the photo slideshows in the video below, this one was played at the end of the graduation ceremony and showed each kid in 3 photos – kindergarten, 4th or 5th grade, and now. The video also includes the twins singing in the language they learned at school – Mandarin. And more….

Next year the twins separate, they will attend different high schools. I’m very proud of what they have accomplished so far and feel very confident that they picked the right high school that fits them the best.

The twins were the first of our kids to attend a language academy elementary school. For the past 9 years they have been studying Mandarin for an hour a day. This lengthy study is rewarded with a trip to China in their 8th grade year.

The trip they took was part of the YES program (Young Envoys Scholarship) which helps bolster relationships between China and the US. The program they were sent to was in Beijing, and they studied Traditional Chinese Medicine. I couldn’t have been happier with both the choice of city and the choice of study.

First, there are many aspects of Chinese Medicine I believe in, most prominently the philosophy that everything in the body is related and it’s important to strike a balance. Western medicine with all of it’s glories often treats the symptom and not the cause which bothers me.

They learned about acupuncture, cupping, Chinese herbs, hot and cold foods, and Baduanjin – a traditional Chinese health exercise similar to Tai Chi.

They also shadowed at Jingshan Middle School. Later, his teacher wrote and told me after Sam introduced himself to the group, a girl pointed to the girl next to her and said to Sam, “I wanted to tell you she says you’re really handsome”

And did lots of shopping.

Here is a video of both of them bargaining in China…

They used the subway to travel many places around the city.

They also went to eat lots of amazing foods. Dumpling and noodles, Hot pot, treats like milk tea and (yikes!) McDonalds McFlurries and Dairy Queen, Peking Duck, and special rice noodles from the teachers hometown.

The Summer Palace. Which was Sam’s favorite spot of the entire trip.

Also the Forbidden City.

They also visited the National Museum of China, the Birds Nest, and QianMen, an iconic landmark street in Beijing famous for its restored Qing Dynasty-style architecture, shops and food.

They visited Tiananmen Square. While they were there the Chinese State leaders were welcoming the President of Mozambique to the Great Hall of the People and they got to see the fanfare – guards everywhere and cannons blasting.

My favorite part was hearing they visited The Great Wall. I think a big part of it was the amazing video Aaron compiled that made me really feel like I was right there with him.

While the twins were away we were down to one kid. We were able to say yes to many invitations that we normally wouldn’t have if we around keeping us tethered to carpool duties and copious amounts of shopping and cooking to fuel their growing bodies.

We were able to say yes to an invitation to see Micheal McIntyre at the Chicago Theater. We said yes to pickleball at Grant Park. And we attended Ben’s school’s annual Gala, of which I am president of the parents association.

Adam also took me out to many dinner and lunches, taking the opportunity to lighten my cooking load even more. Kameya, ZaZa’s pizza, Bongo Room, Blue Door, Maggianos and Robert’s Pizza to name a few.

I also took the extra time as an opportunity to do all the bigger chores I can never seem to get to. I donated 11 boxes and 6 bags of old clothes, also readied 2 bags of cleats for the AYSO cleat exchange, redid Ben’s closet, hand washed every cushion on the couch, and with Adam help deep cleaned the top of our kitchen cabinets. My project list is still huge but at least I I was subtracting for once instead of just adding.

The twins are back now, but not for long, stay tuned for many more adventures coming soon!

This year for the first time ever, the boys all had different Spring Breaks (except for the twins).

Jack’s Spring Break was first. He spend a week recovering from the start of a tough semester. The this point, he thought he was failing out of Physics. Now we know he is on track to get a B! We did our usual, trying to fatten him up as he seems to have reversed the Freshman 15 trend by actually losing weight his first year in college instead of gaining it.

The week after Jack’s Spring Break the Twins had school only 3 of the 5 days, then a full week off for Spring Break, so they skipped 2 days and we headed down to Florida early.

We also got to see my Aunt, my father, my girlfriends (missed getting Jessica in the picture!), and cousin Jackie.

We also went to the West Coast of Florida for a shelling trip, visit to the Salvador Dali Museum and Busch Gardens.

Besides all this we still managed to go for runs, play soccer, basketball, volleyball and pickleball and even go for a bike ride. Another wonderful time in Florida!

The next week – Ben had his Spring Break! It consisted of lots of catch up for all the time he missed while he was away.

Last Saturday I turned 53! I can hardly believe it myself!

It was a busy day for me, in the morning we had a Parent Connection Group at one of my son’s school. I am the President of the Parent Association for this school, so I try to make as many of these things as possible. This time around was especially important as we stayed on to help with the holiday gifts for the staff which our group helped collect money for.

Afterwards I met Adam and the boys at the gym. Adam and I played pickleball while the boys boxed. This Saturday was my last as a pickleball beginner. As of this week, I have moved up to intermediate. This was the best birthday present the instructors could have given me!

Afterwards I opened my gifts – was spoiled by many different gift cards and chocolates from my family.

We also celebrated at our go to spot – Shine Restaurant for dinner. We didn’t make as big of a dent as we did with Bubbie and Jack the week before, but we did pretty well!

It was a really lovely day. I was so thankful that my family worked so hard to make it special for me. Despite the growing evidence of age, I’m very happy to have travelled another journey around the sun!

The kids had the entire week off for Thanksgiving so we were able to have a really nice holiday together.

After changing his ticket 2 times to accommodate the last minute cancelled classes, Jack arrived on Friday night. He looked pale, with dark circles under his eyes. At home later, we weighed him and he had lost 13 pounds in the two months he has been at college.

When Jack arrived, Bubbie was on the tail end of her visit to Chicago. We were lucky to have some overlap with all of us together.

Bubbie treated us to a dinner at Shine on Saturday night. When we were done ordering, the server said he couldn’t wait to see us eat it all. I don’t think he believed we could finish it all. Not only did we finish every single thing, but we ordered dessert as well!

Sunday night Adam treated Bubbie and I to a night at the theater – we saw A Beautiful Noise, The Neil Diamond Musical. It was awesome. The lead singer, Nick Fradiani, won American Idol ninth season in 2014. His voice was like velvet and butter. Plus all the songs reminded me of growing up with my father, who played Neil Diamond for us many times.

As we had the whole week of Thanksgiving off, the boys decided they wanted to try boxing. We set them up 3 different times with lessons at the gym. Below is the video montage….

The instructor (a 2012 Chicago Golden Gloves boxing champion and a 2013 National USA silver medalist in Muay Thai) was impressed at how hard the boys worked and how strong they were.

Thursday morning we ran the Turkey Trot. The temperature with the wind chill was around 18 degrees. Still everyone decided to get up and go for it.

Ben won for team Calisoff, finish in 23 minutes flat (it was a 5K) so that’s 7:24 pace. He finished in the top 5% of ALL runners (over 4000 runners). Jack was 24:17, Sam was 25:59, Aaron was 26:40, I finished with 31:20. Adam got a DNF, he pulled a calf muscle. Because Ben was so fast I missed him in the video below, but you can see the other boys pass me by at the turn around.

Afterwards we felt no guilt stuffing our faces with food….

The end of the weekend Mother Nature dumped lots of snow on us and the twins took the opportunity with a friend to go sledding.

It was really nice to spend time to spend time together as a family. We spent a lot of time trying to fatten Jack up, going out to eat or just making his favorite dishes. The boys got to spend time together gaming, working out, or playing poker.

The best news is, in less than 3 weeks, we get Jack back again. This time for almost a month!

Sorry for the late post, life has been hectic!

I’m so pleased to finally sit down and write about Jack’s Graduation and move to college.

First let me start by talking about how much I’ve enjoyed watching him during this final Senior year.

So many wonderful Senior moments….

And as soon as it was all over, a new chapter was about to begin.

Jack chose to attend the University of Minnesota. He was accepted into their Engineering program.

We drove him up there last August and had a very tearful good bye. It was bittersweet. I know he is where is is suppose to be to get to the next phase of success, but as he was the first to go, it was quite a blow to break up out tight night family unit.

However, we came back a month later and got a chance to see him for Family Weekend.

It’s been about 2 months since he’s left and I would say it’s been quite an adjustment for him. But I’m please to report that he’s been keeping up with his studying and successfully feeding himself, laundering her own clothes, and still managing to find time to work out.

From coast to coast us Calisoffs travelled. Home for a few days after California then in to the minivan for an adventure east.

First we stopped in Pittsburgh for an over night stay and dinner at our favorite Pittsburgh restaurant, Burgatory.

In fact, spolier alert, this trip included a lot of eating! For breakfast we stopped by P&G Pamela’s Diner. It was another great meal, which led us to the next food fest was a stop at Hershey.

Here we got MORE milkshakes, lots of candy, clothing, and stuffed animals.

Next stop, Philadelphia! We got a quick glance at the Liberty bell. Did you know that the bell cracked in its first use and even after multiple repairs it never really worked again. Yet despite it’s flaws it became a symbol of America. While we dined on homemade pasta at Spasso laster that evening, we joked how something so flawed could symbolize our country so absolutely, and what this said about America.

The next day we walked over 30,000 steps, traversing the city from Penn’s Landing on the Delaware River to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and down to South Philadelphia to Pat’s King of Steaks for their famous Philly Cheesesteaks.

Aaron made this video of us running the Rocky Steps at the Museum of Art.

No trip to Philly would be complete without trying the cheesesteaks! This was my first one. Did you know they serve them with Cheese Whiz as a topping?!

But these culinary adventures were just the beginning. The next stop was New York City.

We arrived in time for a late dinner of Famous Original Ray’s Pizza.

After all that gluten, you’d think we would be too stuffed to eat more but we managed to find more room when we passed the HOT DONUTS NOW sign at Krispy Kreme.

Adam went crazy and got the kids expensive New York Apple Donuts. They were so special that when you buy them, the entire staff give you a cheer.

The next day we started the morning with New York Style Bagels at Liberty Bagels. They had so many different bagels and smears! It was a lot of fun to order.

Afterwards, we went to see the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. I was living in Hong Kong when it happened and after moving back to the United States and talking to people about their experiences, I’ve come to realize I missed a real moment in American History.

Because of this I’m really glad we saw the museum and not just the memorial fountain. After all, the kids were not alive during this moment either. I didn’t take any pictures but there was one moment, when you first walk into the museum, where they show the faces of everyone watching the towers fall that put a lump in my throat. To see something like that first hand must have changed those people forever.

Then it was time for a New York style Deli. We ordered Matzo Ball soup and Pastrami at Friedmans. We also went to see The Fantastic Four First Steps that evening.

The next day we explored Central Park.

That evening we booked a special dinner for Ben’s birthday. His birthday was a month ago but he did not get a special dinner because there was a track meet that night.

We also got another dinner in Din Tai Fong. Yes they opened on in NYC recently. Twice in one month I got to eat at my favorite restaurant in Asia!

We also booked a show – The Book of Mormon. It was hilarious and the boys thought it was really good. There were a lot of naughty language and some adult themes and I did notice we were the only one with two 13 years olds in the crowd, but I think the boys were mature enough to handle it.

Finally on the last day we met up with my friend Greg for a quick breakfast. It was really nice to see him in person and catch up. I love all our group texts but it doesn’t replace a face to face hang out.

It was another fun vacation. The kids really enjoyed it and at the same time after all that travel, they are enjoying being back in the comfort of their own home.

In a week, school starts for the twins and then soon after we drop Jack off at college.