Games, VBS, and the Grandparents Russell!

Last Friday our church had a family game night. I accidentally left my phone at home, so we have no evidence! It wasn't board games, it was outdoor games, most of which included water and water balloons. It was fun but wet!

On Saturday I did henna at the market and then for pizza that night Nico chose Three Stooges to watch. We had the downstairs available because our housemates were out of town. We spent a lot of time down there this past week playing video games!

Long range Match-a-Pair-of-Birds game.

VBS started on Monday.

Tuesday was Grandma Camp day - Box City! They used up old boxes to build stuff - Bruce and Nico built a penguin! Nico is inside the penguin, you can see a bit of his face. The part at the bottom is where eggs come out.

This is from Papa's Grandpa Camp project. These are cuttings from another plant that he's showing them how to grow.

His tallest card stack yet!

On Wednesdays Nico is going to start going to the Youth Group at Papa's and Grandma's church. They are taking all the grandkids there! What fun! This Wednesday night was Messy Game Night. They played Twister with ketchup, mustard, syrup, and flour on the different colors. Nico came home smelling like syrup! He had a lot of fun though. He told me that they talked about "messy hearts", and about how sin makes your heart messy.

And then today, Grandpa and Grandma Russell came into town!! Grandma brought a new shape of cookies with her so we could make Sponge Bob cookies! I put some of the colors into henna cones so they would be easy to apply. Nico did a great job!

He opened some gifts from Grandma and Grandpa, one of them was a pair of SpongeBob pajamas! Grandma made the bottoms, they fit great with room to grow!

A book before bed time.

We will see them again tomorrow! We've got a fun birthday weekend coming up.

City of Rocks, G.G., Grandma Camp Overnight!

On Friday Nico and I finished packing and preparing everything for his and Guy's trip to City of Rocks. He diligently put all the camping silverware back in their sleeves after I washed them.

In the afternoon, Evelyn and Nico helped me bag up and label some ribbon on its way to Amazon.

Then they traded Pokemon cards.

Guy left work early and met us at Jonny and Alanna's house. I was still dog/house sitting there at the time. We finished packing up Guy's car for the trip.

They arrived late that night, set up camp, and went to sleep. Then Saturday they went for a long hike!

Nico spent most of his time with a boy named Max, he is one year younger than Nico in Cub Scouts. Guy said they were being silly together the whole time, but not crazy silly. They told riddles and made up puzzles and were being very punny the whole time they hiked. Sounds like a good friend!

Guy said to Nico, "Go climb up on that rock so we can scare Mommy!"

Relaxing in the "Clubhouse" they called it.

They went to the Hot Springs nearby on Saturday afternoon. I had packed trail mix with chocolate in it, which melted. Nico ate it anyway, of course!

The camp coordinators provided all the food except dinner on Friday. They knew Nico was gluten free and so they made him gluten free pancakes on Sunday morning!! On Saturday morning it was bacon and eggs and oatmeal with coconut milk and bananas. They had chicken, and other good foods too.

Sunday they packed up camp and came home. Here are their road trip snacks!

Sunday we made pizza over at Jonny and Alanna's house. I chose the movie - Meet the Robinsons. It is so good! It is one that Jonny & Alanna own. Afterward, Guy went home for the night and Nico stayed over at the house with me. He chose a few games for us to play.

I was not thrilled about Wet Head, but I had told Nico: "Pick out any game and I will play it!" You wear a helmet with a tiny bucket of water on your head, you spin a dial and pull out that many pins from the bucket. If it's the wrong one, you get wet!

I lost!

Allicia and I have been trying to hang out on Monday mornings. Evelyn and Nico did more Pokemon trading, and some legos.

Avery came running inside while we were talking and told us he had found a black widow spider outside our door. Allicia grabbed the Bug-A-Salt gun to kill it. We found one black widow and a super ton of egg sacs.

Monday afternoon Nico and I went to visit GG. We played Upwards (a Scrabble variation).

Monday night, Guy met Nico and I at the house for dinner. We played Cranium and then Guy headed back to the Clubhouse for the night and Nico stayed with me.

The next morning I took him bright and early for Grandma Camp! This week was the overnight Grandma Camp that lasted from Tuesday until Thursday. They stayed at a hotel and swam a whole ton in the pool.

They also went bowling.

And then today they went to Roaring Springs water park. Nico said his favorite part was the Avalanche ride. Grandma Salisbury rented a cabana, so they had a nice base camp.

Papa dropped Nico off to us tonight at church band practice after they were done at Roaring Springs. Thanks Pa!

And when we got home, Nico fell right to sleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. He was wiped!

Another week of summer is in the books!

House sitting, and Matilda!

I was a day late with this July 4th treat, but it was still yummy! The cream cheese frosting turned out brown because I used coconut sugar to sweeten it. It turns out Nico is NOT a fan of cream cheese frosting. Oh well! All the more for me and Guy ;)

After pancakes and chores on Saturday morning, we headed over to the Idaho Food Bank where we volunteered for a few hours bagging up cherries. We had signed up for this a few months ago (they are booked that far in advance!) so the day finally arrived! Afterward, Nico and Guy went to the birthday party of two brothers and friends of Nico from church. They have a 3rd brother as well. Nico and them have gotten close lately, they are often "stranded" in the game room at the church together while both of their parents (me and Guy, and the brothers' parents) are practicing in the band on Thursday nights and early Sunday mornings. They play Minecraft together and watch Minecraft videos back in the game room.

It was a pool party. They stayed for several hours!

I texted Guy to ask if he was having fun and this was his response. This means YES he was having fun.

On Sunday we went for a walk after church. Guy and I walked the dirt loop next to the park while Nico played on the playground.

On Tuesday for Grandma Camp, they went to the zoo!

This week I have been dog-sitting and house-sitting Jonny & Alanna's house while they are away in Kentucky. On Wednesday, I brought Nico over to the house and Guy joined us after work. 

Playing Pokemon.

We ate camping food for dinner. Hot dogs and Smores.

Nico and Guy are going camping this weekend with the Cub Scouts and Guy wanted to try the tent out (we haven't opened it up for 10 years!), so we brought the tent over and they set it up in the back yard.

They slept in the tent last night and I stayed inside (heehee). It went well. They konked out early (8PM!) Nico went right to sleep and had trouble waking up at 7AM. He must have been tired. We learned that it would be good to have sleeping mats. They are going to borrow some from Jeff & Allicia for this camping trip. They leave tomorrow after work!

Today at Grandma Camp they went to the Kleiner Park splash pad.

And then tonight Nico got to cash in an early birthday present from the Grandparents Russell! They got us tickets to see Matilda the Musical in Nampa, ID, put on by The Music Theater of Idaho. We weren't allowed to take photos or video during the performance, but here's some before!

After it was over Nico said his favorite part was when Miss Trunchbull did somersaults through the air. They had her hanging from invisible strings. 

It was very nicely done! Nico stayed engaged the whole time.

Here are some pictures from this week with the other kiddos. We played Zelda and went to the park with them this week. And of course talked about Pokemon! Here Nico is showing Ivy a Pokemon in his Guidebook.

Nico teaching Avery how to play a new game on the iPad.

That's it for this week!