First day of school!

Last Friday was the Open House in the afternoon, which we went to. We dropped off our school supplies and ran into Nico's friend from preschool last year, Michael. Nico was excited to see him, and likewise! Here's his classroom. The teacher is in the white dress on the left. Ms. Lung.

His first day was on Monday, it was an early release day which meant his class started at 11:30 (instead of 12:30), and got out at 1:15 (instead of 3:15).

Nico wanted me to take a picture of him while he was pretending to fly his water airplane. So this is him in action:

We walked to school, and on the way we ran into another mom and son walking to kindergarten. Silas was the boy's name. Nico and Silas:

We are supposed to wait at the playground until the bell rings. Then they line up and on we go into the classroom. The parents were invited in for a story. All the kids sat down on the mat and Ms. Lung read them "The Kissing Hand". It is a story about a mommy and child raccoon. The child didn't want to go to school, so the mom had him open up his palm and she kissed his palm. Then he could grab onto the kiss and use it to kiss his own cheek whenever he missed his mom. Then, as the child raccoon is saying goodbye to his mom at school, he comes up to her and has her open her palm and kisses her palm, so that whenever she misses him she can open her palm and use his kiss to kiss her own cheeks.

After the story was over Ms. Lung had all the children go find their parents and have the parents kiss the child's hand and the child kiss the parents' hands. Ms. Lung said if you don't have someone there then kiss your own hand. She also said that it could be your mom or your dad or your grandparents or whoever was there with them. Nico was sure to point out to her that his daddy and grandma and grandpa were not with him, just his mommy. So he came over and I kissed his palm and he right away pressed it to his cheeks. Then he kissed my palm.

In the previous picture, the teacher had just read that the child raccoon didn't want to go to school. She added that she knows some of the kindergarteners probably weren't excited about school but that's okay. Nico called out "I am excited for school!" heehee. Ms. Lung had to put her finger to her mouth to show that they had to be quiet, that's what she's doing in the picture. 

When she called roll and got to Michael, Nico called out "But Michael isn't here!" Ms. Lung pointed behind him and so Nico looked and there was Michael! Nico smiled and did a little wave to him.

Nico asks sometimes for me to pick him up in the car next time because he doesn't like walking. It's usually right in the middle of walking home in the hot sun that he says this. We continue walking to/from school, though. We wear hats to keep the sun from scorching us, and it's about a 7 minute walk.

On Thursday morning we took Evelyn up to the cabin for a quick morning visit. Grandma Salisbury fed us apples, asian pears, and cheese. Evelyn helped pluck the seed-hats off of the sunflower sprouts, and she also really loved eating them. They played really well together and Nico enjoyed showing her everything. We raced back before school and ate lunch and then off to school. Thanks for the fun visit, Grandma!

A few funny things Nico has said this week..

Snuggling before bed one night, Nico asks me what comes after Kindergarten. We go through all the grades and then I tell him about turning 18 and moving out and getting a job to make money and maybe going to college. He asks me why we need to make money and so I tell him we need to make money to buy food, shelter, clothes, cars, and then other things that you want.

Nico instantly started listing the things he was going to buy when he turned 18.
#1 Go to Fred Meyer and buy a Thomas the Train Engine toy
#2 Go to Fred Meyer and buy another Thomas the Train Engine toy
#3 Go to Pojo’s and play games
#4 Play another game at Pojo’s
#5 Come home

Then another time, Nico and I were talking on the couch and the topic of Jesus came up. Nico jumps off the couch and goes into storytelling mode, animated and acting everything out.

"Jesus was on a boat, and he was going and then a STORM CAME! The waves were really big. Then Jesus PUSHED JONAH OFF THE BOAT! He got swallowed by a big fish. He was in his stomach and he was really gooey and slimy. Jesus was talking to the captain and asked him "Where's Jonah?" and the captain said "Hmm.. THERE HE IS!" Then Jesus flew away off the boat and all the animals were safe."

heehee...

That's it for this week!

A-OK

Everything is fine, just forgot to update last night! Expect a new blog post this afternoon (Friday)

G.G., Pojo's, Paddle Boats!

On Friday Nico had another trip to the cabin and another sleepover! I went up on Saturday to pick him up. We had a great time as always! My brother Jeremy and my nephew Kai were up there helping Papa chop down a tree. They used a chainsaw and I was hoping to see the tree fall, but it is still standing! It is HUGE! The chainsaw started smoking so they figured they'd give it a rest. They had been at it quite a while.

Monday was dance class, and I took a video! Unfortunately Nico didn't want to dance that day, so the video just has Evelyn in it. Well it does have Nico in it for a short second, but he's not dancing. Still, I will post it at the end of this entry. You'll get to see the moves they were learning in class and the dance and the cheer that they learned. Nico was happy that it was over and kept saying instead that he wanted to learn Hip Hop dance, like the dancing found in the video of his favorite song, Ready Set Go by Royal Tailor (I've often caught him singing "Oh! You put my life in motion so Oh! Your Love makes me want to give my ah ah ah ah ah ah ah all, ready set go ready set go oh oh!"). Or one of the songs from VBS, like the marching song, or the power shuffle. I overheard him telling his dance teacher about the Ready Set Go song.

So anyway, interpretive dance, ballet, and cheer, are not forms of dance that Nico enjoys. At least now we know :) Next year we'll choose the Hip Hop class.

On Tuesday we went to see G.G. I got to see her new smart phone. I am so proud of her using that thing! I showed her how to do some things, she is learning fast! I even set up Scrabble on my own phone so that we could play scrabble back and forth with our phones. Speaking of which, let me check if it's my turn... nope not yet :) Playing Scrabble with G.G. has been the highlight of my days since Tuesday. She gave us some green beans, tomato, and cucumber from her garden, yum!! Looking forward to seeing her again next month.

Wednesday was a grocery shopping day. We were planning to go to the School PTO Social at Municipal Park in the evening, but Nico fell asleep in a snuggle a little after 5 PM and slept until 3 AM, when he changed his clothes into PJs and then went back to bed until 5:30. Wow! He must have needed that.

Today I took Nico and Evelyn for a fun adventure. First to the dollar store where they each picked out a toy. Including me. My toy was index cards and some labels. Then I took them to Pojo's where we played for about an hour. Then it was off to paddle boats. I was feeling pretty seasick by the time we returned the paddle boat. I'm sure it was because I was trying to take video while on the water.

Tomorrow is when we go meet his teacher in the afternoon, and bring his school supplies. Nico is excited that Michael and Acelyn from his preschool will both be in his class.

Forgot to add some pictures..

Drinking soda at Whole Foods. He spilled half the can on the floor.

 Dawson Taylor's on Sunday picking up some coffee.

Now to the videos...

Dance Class

Pojo's, Paddle Boats

Cabin, School Supplies

Today will likely be short and sweet. I am watching Ivy tonight in about 15 minutes so I need to be done with this entry by then. Can I do it?? Let's see!

Friday was another henna booth night, and Nico had a sleepover at the cabin! He got to pack his new suitcase and take it up there with him. Then on Saturday, the Grandparents Salisbury brought Nico and we all met at a restaurant called Locavore. It was my first time eating there and it was very good! Nico got a pb&j sandwich with potato crisps, I got a grilled chicken salad with an amazing sweet mustard vinaigrette. Then there was potato crisps for the table, and boy were those good.

This is the only picture I got this week, Nico is going through his bag of school supplies. He picks up each piece and stares at it for about 30 seconds, turning it around in his hands, then he puts it down and picks up the next one. He is excited for school to start!

This morning Nico and I took a trip up to the cabin! We ate lunch there and hung out until the afternoon. We had a great time! 

Guy is waiting to hear about a position that recently became available at Photronics, and engineering position. The hiring manager made sure that Guy applied for it. Many of the key people have been taking turns being out of town the past few weeks, so nothing new on this front.

.....

And, I didn't finish this entry in time! Now it is way past my bed time and I am going to hit the hay. Nothing else to report this week, unless I forgot something..... hummmm.... it's possible. If I remember then I will update with it next week! Until then!

Birthday Party, Grandparents, Fun!

Grandparents Russell came for a visit!! Pictures are lacking due to not remembering to take them! But I did get a few. Nico's birthday party was on Saturday and though it was HOT, we did have some misters to help keep us cool, and a pool for the kids with our new improved canopy over it. We ordered pizza from Chicago Connection, and then ate cake and opened presents.

Nico making soup. "There's a key ingredient missing... YOU!" Nico was quoting one of his new books. He had me say this line to him and then push his head toward the bowl when I'd say "YOU!"

On Friday Nico and Guy got to hang out with the Grandparents while I did my henna booth in the evening, Nico and Evelyn and Grandma Russell had a fun time in the pool that night!

On Sunday we all went to church together, Grandparents Russell, G.G., me and Nico. The rest of the days we spent just hanging out, one of my favorite things to do! We are going to start planning a trip to Arlington for next Spring Break. Yeah!!

This morning I took Nico and Evelyn to Settler's Park. They have a splash pad and a playground. They played on the splash pad, then we ate a snack, then they played on the playground. A full morning.

This update seems pretty short and sweet. This was definitely a good week!!
Until next time!