Photronics Phun, and Back to School Night!

A few pictures from last Friday. Nico arrived home from school with an acorn hat on his head. 

After school snack.

Saturday afternoon we watched Detective Pikachu, quite an adorable movie. We coordinated with Allicia so that the whole household could watch it downstairs. We were only missing Jeff, who was out of town. Even some friends of Jeff & Allicia joined us. We all fit just fine on their huge sectional couch. Allicia popped a bunch of popcorn for us.

Right after the movie was over, we came upstairs to make pizza. It was my turn to choose the movie, but since we didn't have a lot of time I said we could watch a Yoshi's Island speed run that Guy wanted to show Nico. I was curious about it, too, and it was fun to watch. Nico has been playing Yoshi's Crafted World on the Switch and has been really into Yoshi.

Nico had a dentist appointment on Tuesday. Nico started talking about braces right away to the dental hygienist and how he wanted them. He said "I wanted glasses, and I got glasses. I want braces, and I hope I can get braces!" The dentist told us now is the time to get the consultation at an orthodontist, so we have that scheduled for November.

Tuesday night was Cub Scouts. Guy told me Nico was the only Webelos there, and that night was the night they planned their events throughout the year, so Nico got to make a lot of decisions.

Wednesday night was the Photronics Phamily Phun Day, to celebrate Photronic's 50th anniversary.

There was a magic man there that also made balloon animals, Nico got a parrot hat.

They had catered BBQ and an ice cream truck with free ice cream. But also 95 degree weather with a trampoline in full sun, plus two bouncy houses. Nico came home a little bit heat exhausted. He felt very sick so I ordered him to lie on his bed for 30 minutes and not move. I gave him an ice pack to put on his chest. At the end of 30 minutes he was completely recovered and was jumping around asking for nachos.

Zoom!

Nachos has been the normal snack every night. He goes through bags of shredded cheese like nobody's business. And speaking of snacks and food: I was not aware of the fact that Nico had money on his school lunch account, he has never had hot lunch or bought anything from the cafeteria. I got an email last week with a low-balance alert saying his account was at a certain level. I got the same email the next day, but the balance was lower. I kind of brushed it off, but then Nico came home from school and told me he had started buying milk from school, alternating between chocolate milk and regular milk. Oh! Ok. That's fine. I reloaded the account so it should last a while.

Tonight was back-to-school-night for the parents! I think I'm really going to like his teacher. I mean, all his teachers have been good, his teacher last year was great, but his teacher this year has a different personality than any teacher he's had so far. She is outgoing, and I have the sense that she likes to have fun, and even may like to be silly at times.

Right outside his classroom window, his class has installed two bird feeders. At any time the children can look through the window and interrupt the class to report a bird sighting. Woah! That's pretty cool.

Here's the note that was on his desk for me. He never finished it, and when I got home, he couldn't remember what he intended to write.

The exciting news this week is that we SIGNED THE LEASE on the house I mentioned in the last blog! Our move-in date is Saturday Sept 7th. I can't believe it happened so fast! Thank you, God!

Nico has had mixed feelings over the matter, but I think he is on board now. After a full day of playing the Switch with the kids downstairs last week, he said, "I don't want to move out. Why don't YOU move out and then me and Dad can come visit you once a week?"

Then after we visited the house last week and we talked about him having his own bedroom, the next day he said "Actually I don't really want to move out." After some gentle prodding, he said he liked having a small space, he didn't want his own bedroom, he wanted to be closer to us.

I picked up some moving boxes today and the preparation begins...

Dog Man, First Day of School, Pirate Party

Last Friday after lunch, Nico and I went first to Barnes and Noble so he could buy the latest DogMan novel. It had just been released that Tuesday, so there was a big display case inside the store that had a bunch of copies. 

Then we went to the mall to finish up his school shopping, and while we were standing in line at Kohl's, Guy texted me saying he was leaving work early. I called him and asked him if he wanted to meet us at the mall, and he said YES! So Nico and I waited for him arrive, then we all ventured to See's Candies first to get some treats, and then up to the food court to get lunch for Guy.

We also stopped by the game store and Nico found a used Switch game that he had been wanting, and so he bought it with his leftover birthday money.

When we got home I commissioned Nico to make a crock pot meal that he received all the ingredients for from a recent Grandma Camp. Seafood chowder! He happily dumped everything in there and turned it on. Dinner 3 hours later!

Saturday morning I did henna at the market. Allicia sent me this text while I was there. Avery needed some help with a toy and Nico was helping him.

Sunday was a fun day. Long morning at church and then I drove Nico straight to Big Al's where his cousins and Grandparents Salisbury were gathered to do some bowling. He came home that afternoon and went straight downstairs where there were kids waiting for him to play the Switch. Sunday, Jeff and Allicia had friends over for "Even Sunday", which is like "Odd Saturday" except they couldn't do it on Saturday and so they did it on Sunday. Guy ran a role-playing game for everyone. And Nico played the Switch until bedtime. This year we did not do a last-day-of-vacation treasure hunt like usual. Hmm.. oh well!

The first day of school arrived. 4th grade!

It was a half day, and after school he was invited downstairs to play some Switch, so he played until dinner time. We are still taking advantage of summer rules, not quite ready to crack down on video game playing. Nico and Allicia have been playing buddy-system on the Yoshi game, it was fun to watch them play together!

Nico has been playing Switch downstairs after school every day.

Nico's report after his first day of school was that he liked it and he liked his teacher. His teacher uses an app to communicate with parents, and she can also hand out points to students via the app and the parents can see which points she gave to their kids. Points for teamwork, participation, and good-job type stuff.

Tuesday night was the first Cub Scout Pack meeting of the season. It was a Pirate Party. Guy sent me these pictures telling me that they both got "Lucky Beard" as their pirate name.

Every morning before school Nico and I have been playing Monopoly. It's not the original version, I don't know what the version is called but instead of cash money it uses credit cards. The game goes a little faster that way. Usually we don't finish before school starts so we sometimes save the rest of the game for after school.

We have officially started looking for places to move. Today we went to see a house on Bacon street in this same neighborhood. We really liked it. We're trying to figure out if we can make it work, but we're hoping it's a GO for this one. But if not this one, we will keep on looking, it could be a while yet, it's really hard to say!

Legos, Video Games, Grandma Camp Awards

I came home from Spokane last Friday and picked up Nico from my parents' house, bringing home with us a crock pot full of sausage and sauerkraut that Nico had put together: dinner!

Grandma sent me these pictures from their day together on Friday. Apparently Nico REALLY won Monopoly!

Nico has ALL the money and properties!

Friday night it was a very simple decision to open up our lego from Grandpa Russell to start putting it together - we were finally all together in the same spot! Nico started in on it and got a lot done, we picked up the rest on Saturday and finished it on Sunday.

The lunar lander! Nico played with it for quite some time on Sunday night.

Saturday it was also imperative that in the afternoon we go to Fred Meyer to BUY Monopoly. Guy took him, and they didn't have the version he wanted, so he bought the regular version. Nico and I played it after they got home.

That night we watched Wonder Park (Guy's choice) downstairs (Jeff & Allicia and kids were away), and ate yummy pizza. We've had a long string of great movies, we haven't seen a bad one in a long time.

This week was the LAST week before school starts! And it's one of the only weeks this summer that Allicia and I were both home on a Monday, which is our day to hang out. So on Monday morning we sent the kids downstairs to play video games while we stayed upstairs to play board games. She taught me a new board game called Azul, and I taught her how to play Pokemon.

Tuesday, Grandma Camp started out at Bruce and Rory's apartment complex's pool. It's huge!

Guy and I had a date that afternoon for lunch. We went to Pho Le.

Afterward, we went to St. Vincent's next door and found an A&W mug we bought Nico, and a new shirt for Guy. Nico loves A&W root beer. 

Wednesday was another video game day.

Today was the last Grandma Camp of the summer. To celebrate, there was a BBQ and Awards Ceremony. Check out the video at the end of the blog! Each grandkid was awarded a serious award and a silly award. It was a great way to end the summer and look back at the same time.

School starts next Monday. Nico received a post card from his speech therapist, Mrs. Williams. 

What a great bunch of people he's got at his school.

The promised video is below. This has snippets dating back to June! Enjoy!

Wedding and Webelos Woods

Last Friday morning we woke up in Portland, OR, the day of Tom and Emily's wedding. Guy figured out the coffee maker, and we spent the morning resting and playing the board games that our Airbnb had available. 

We went to a nearby Fred Meyer to buy some things we forgot to bring with us. Makeup for me, a plate for the cookies we brought, and a spoon for the salad we brought. Then we picked up lunch from a Thai restaurant, and while we waited for the food, Nico and Guy went to the Baskin Robbins next door for a before-lunch dessert.

The wedding was that afternoon around 4:30. Nico quickly found some kids to play with, two brothers. He played hard with them all night long, running and playing tag, dancing, playing cards, and hitting a pinata.

Tom and Emily both had beautiful vows. After the ceremony there was so much food downstairs to choose from!

After the food downstairs, there was dancing back upstairs where the ceremony was. Nico and his friends dropped in for a brief moment to show off their moves, then they were back to chasing each other around.

They did help clean up the globes from the reception area at the end of the night.

Congratulations Tom and Emily! We love you both and are so happy for you. It was a beautiful wedding.

The next morning we started our trip home. We drove to Pendleton where we stopped for gas and treats and coffee, and then I went one direction to head to Spokane, and the boys went the other.

Monday the boys drove to McCall for Webelos Woods, a Cub Scout camping trip.

Here's Nico looking at the schedule once they arrived. There were several activities each day for the scouts to participate in.

Now Guy is going to take over writing this part of the blog:

Day 1

Met at albersons parking lot to meet other members, 4 other boys were on the trip.

Trip was uneventful (but the road is twisty)!

Got to camp and got registered, then setup camp.  After that we met at the firebowl, which was like an open air theatre, where the leadership team introduced themselves. Later (at the main building) we had flag ceremony (taking down the flags) then dinner.  Dinner was mac and cheese with hotdogs, with green beans and salad and ice cream. Nico skipped the mac and cheese, and ate mostly green beans, with a little bit of hotdog. And chocolate milk.  After dinner was a firearms safety meeting so that it wouldn’t take up all the time during shooting the following day, it was more detailed than in needed to be in all the wrong places.

Day 2

Up at 6am (nico still sleeping). Once we all were up we sat around camp trying to guess what would be for breakfast. No one guessed Cinnimon rolls, which is what we had. They had gluten free donut for nico, as well as gluten free cereal.  Everyone was jealous of nico’s donut.  

First activity of the day was bb shooting, nico grouped his shots quite well. (see video and pictures). 

After that we did sling shots, shooting garbanzo beans at plates.  After that ,we did archery (nico’s favorite).  All during this time, Nico’s pack members were planning a skit to perform at the nights fire bowl gathering.  

Then, it was lunch time, which was chicken nuggets and tater tots.  Nico had a grilled chicken breast, but didn’t like the tater tots. More cholate milk. We had KP duty, so we spend about half an hour cleaning up, because the kids didn’t know how to mop or sweep or anything. After lunch was a first AID class, where Ironically nico got a sudden and gushing bloody nose.  We went to the first aid area and had it attended to, but it was several minutes before it stopped bleeding.  We returned to the first aid class, apparently missing nothing. After first aid was a “cast away” class where the kids got to learn some survival tips. They attempted to cook biscuts on a stick over the fire (mostly they just fell in the fire) and then cooking poached eggs in the fire (nico got mostly shell in his and didn’t like it) they also learned about some native plants some dangerous and some edible. Nico tried some “bear moss” which he thought tasted like salad. Ayden, one of his packmates thought it tasted like wet shirt.

Dinner was early this evening, to allow for some free time to swim. Dinner was hamburgers. (gluten free bun for nico, and chocolate milk) Nico also got a squishy toy thing at the trading post, and tipped a little so that the tradepost workers would sing the tip song. Nico elected not to swim, so instead we played apples to apples at the main building, then he did some bead work (which he didn’t finish)  Then it was off to fire bowl, where various people did skits. Nico’s pack did a skit related to a person getting ready for hiking, and defeating various obstacles including sun, bugs and fire, only to be defeated by a bear (played by Nico)  I didn’t film that.  They also retired two flags (via burning) which was pretty incredible to see, including a gun salute (4 shots total)  Then it was bed time.

Day 3

Nico was very sleepy (see nico’s hair and sleepy face picture).  

He said he would have kept sleeping if I hadn’t woken him up. We mostly packed up camp in the morning before Nico’s troup did the flag ceremony in the morning, with some help from some of the leaders (we didn’t have enough kids for a full ceremony) they did pretty well. (video). 

Breakfast was cheese omelets and sausage, with watermelon (picture). During the class I snuck away and packed up the rest of camp. By then, nveryone was ready to go home, and the ride was uneventful. 

There was one final class for nico, which was a cast iron cooking class. They made pankaes (one for me) and cobbler (picture). 

We unpacked the car, then got to relaxing (on the switch).

Ok now it's Joanna again.

Today was a Grandma Camp day and tonight Nico is staying the night at Grandma and Papa's house. I am picking him up tomorrow when I get back into town from Spokane. Here are Nico and Papa reading together.

A major video of snippets will be coming next week! I have a lot of video snippets to catch up on. Stay tuned next week for birthday video snippets, and snippets from camping.