Grandparents Russell!!

Last Friday, Nico had an early release from school, and guess who picked him up?? Grandma Russell! The Grandparents Russell came into town shortly before the end of school day, so Grandma walked over to the school to pick him up. That afternoon we made our way to the Botanical Garden.

That evening, Grandma Russell had an activity for us that she had planned superbly well - sugar cookies in the shape of a circle, yellow frosting, and a variety of colors of squeezable frosting. We were to make EMOJI cookies! This was so fun and that first night we made two pans full of them.

Reading a new comic book from Grandma Russell

The next day, Saturday, we went to the James Castle House. This was the house where the artist James Castle used to live, in Boise/Garden City off in the Hill Rd area.

The last time that the Grandparents Russell were in town, we visited the art museum and had seen some of James Castle's works. James Castle was deaf, he made a lot of his drawings using an ink he made himself from charcoal and spit. I loved seeing the house where he used to live. It was inspiring. I saw several of his works that reminded me of art that Grandpa Russell has done. The similarities were astounding!

A few pictures of James Castle's work.

After that, we went to the Boise Art Museum. We're typically not allowed to take pictures in the Art Museum, but they had an exception this time. There was an exhibit by Jae Yong Kim called Donut Ever Forget Me. Several hundred donuts he created (not edible) and decorated.

Tacos for lunch

Nico ate both of these! This was at Madre, a gourmet taco restaurant close to downtown. Excellent!

After lunch, Nico went to the Grandparents Russell's hotel and did some swimming with Grandma! For dinner on Saturday, of course we had PIZZA! We watched Three Stooges while we ate. 

Nico building his pizzas

 Making more emoji cookies after pizza

Sunday was church, and hanging out!

On Monday morning, Grandpa, Guy, and Nico went out to breakfast. Nico ate a pork chop, two slices of bacon, and scrambled eggs. After they came back home, I stayed back while the crew went to visit the Discovery Center and Zoo.

We said goodbye to the Grandparents Russell after dinner on Monday, and they headed back to Arlington Tuesday morning. We will see them again shortly at the very end of May when we make our trip to Arlington! We are looking forward to that. 

Tuesday was a lucky day for Nico because his glasses arrived!! He is taking great care of them, cleaning them often with his little spray bottle and cloth.

Guy and I had a trip to Moscow planned for Wednesday, so we spent a bit of Tuesday packing and getting stuff ready. Plans changed on Tuesday evening and it was decided to postpone our trip. My mom still offered to watch Nico for a few nights, so Guy and I decided to turn our next few days into a staycation. We went to the library, we ran errands, we watched shows and went to Chipotle for dinner. On Wednesday night we took Guy's acoustic bass guitar that used to belong to his Papa (his mom's dad) and had it restrung with new strings. 

You could tell that the guy who did it really enjoyed his work. After taking the old strings off, he conditioned the neck of the guitar with a castor-oil based oil and let it soak in. It instantly brightened it up. 

This afternoon was Ivy's birthday party. Nico wasn't with us but we went anyway! It was at Quarry View Park. Pizza and cupcakes, a pinata, and presents.

Oh, and what has Nico been up to???

They went to Altitude

They went swimming at the hotel that Nico and Lexie and my parents are staying at just for fun.

Hotel breakfast. HAVE to have bacon!!

And now for a thrilling spring break adventures video! Some videos taken by Grandma Russell and Grandma Salisbury. Oh, and some of the pictures in the post were taken by them too!

Pocket Knife, and New Friends

Nico saw that I was starting the blog and he wanted to tell everyone a story about something that happened today:

Mr. Bunn, my music teacher was looking around the room to see if anybody could get switched. (What does it mean to get switched?) Like switch places with someone else. (Why would someone get switched?) Some people like to chat while we're in music class. They talk too much and so they get switched so they don't talk to that person. Mr. Bunn told us to stand up so he can look around and see if anyone could get switched. And while he was looking around, I picked up my hand, and started picking my nose.

Then he demonstrated.

Last Friday I picked Nico up from the Grandparents Salisbury house, it was the last day of Grandma Camp and the Grandparents had dinner for all the kids and parents that night before we took our kids home. They ordered Chick-fil-A chicken nuggets, and Grandma made a pasta dish for a side. She made special gluten free chicken nuggets for Nico.

Nico showed me the race track they had set up that day, with a glow in the dark track.

After dinner, we headed home.

Once home, Nico opened a package from Grandpa Russell - a pocket knife for Cub Scouts! He opened up each of the things on the knife, and when he came to the bottle opener he said "I can open Izze Pops with this!"

We were able to test that out on Saturday night. Izze Pops come with a screw-top lid, so after much trying and no success, we decided to just twist the top off.

Nico chose Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul for the movie that night. We all enjoyed that one. 

Earlier in the day we had assembled our cabinet that had been waiting in the garage for us until after Christmas. We needed to wait until after we put Christmas away before we could put it together, because it was to sit right where we had our Christmas tree. Nico had a lot of opportunities to practice using his pocket knife while putting the cabinet together. He keeps it in its case and carefully opens it every time it's needed. 

Guy and Nico also got a lot of work done on Nico's Pinewood Derby car on Saturday morning. They added weights and sanded it. They just need to paint it and then it will be ready to go! The race is next Tuesday, the 15th.

Nico has been hanging out with some new neighbor boys that moved in on the corner. They have 6 kids? 4 boys, 2 girls. I think. The boy he is closest to is in 5th grade. The first time he hung out with them was when it had snowed a while ago, one of the boys invited him over to his yard to build a snow fort. Then a few weeks ago Nico asked if he could go knock on their door and see if they wanted to play. So Guy went over with him, introduced himself to the mom, and Nico hung out there playing board games (Risk) with 3 of the boys. Both Guy and I went over there to pick him up, and then I was able to meet the mom, too. They are a super nice family, "down to earth".  He's been over there several times since. Yesterday, after he was done with his homework, he went and knocked on their door. I told him to be home at 5:30. He came home about 5:20 with the 5th grade boy (Rylan) and Nico asked me if he could stay for dinner. I said... Yes! 

He was very polite.

After dinner, Nico pulled out his microscope for them to look at. They hooked up a webcam and took pictures through the microscope.

They invited Nico to go to Urban Air after school tomorrow. I said... Yes! Everyone at school received a free Urban Air pass from the library. 

And Nico is working on reading 600 minutes to receive a free Roaring Springs Water Park pass. He is at 450-ish minutes so far. On Monday he read 3 hours! He is reading and rereading all his Dogman books. I'd say they are definitely his favorites. Guy reads them to Nico at night and he uses a different voice for each character. It's fun to listen to. 

Now a video with some snippets!

Birthday Parties, and Grandma Camp!

Last Friday was a busy day for us. Nico's friend from church, Reese, had a birthday party at Circustrix in Nampa. Lots of trampolines and foam pits to play in. Check out the video for a slow-motion jump! Nico did lots of flips.

After Circustrix we went to Reese's house for cake and presents. Reese's mom had made a gluten free pie for Nico's sake! She let us bring the rest of it home so Guy could have some too.

Friday evening was my brother Jonny's birthday party. His wife Alanna put it on and she did a wonderful job. It was Star Wars themed and I got a kick out of all the Star Wars names for the food, like "7 Leia Dip". Hah! They also had Star Wars episodes 4, 5, and 6 playing in various places around the house.

There were friends there that I hadn't seen in a while, and it was great catching up. Nico played with the kids that were there, including Lexie. He had a good time too and I barely saw him. The kids spent some time in the garage fighting with light sabers made from huge floppy foam cylinders, kind of like pool noodles but much thicker.

Saturday we had another birthday, Evelyn's! She had her party at her Aunt Julie's house. They live about a 2 minute drive from our house, in the same East End neighborhood. And they have a geothermal pool in their backyard! Check out the steam on the pool!

Whenever anyone would leave the pool and come back inside, you could see the steam rolling off of their skin.

After pool time was over, all the kiddos gathered inside and made their way to the huge windows in the living room that look into the back yard. Every year, as you might remember, we do fireworks on Evelyn's birthday. This year was no exception.

Then we had pizza, and opened presents and ate cake.

On Sunday, we made pizza! It was my turn to choose the movie, and I picked Big Hero 6. It was well-liked by all of us.

Monday we made sure to match our shirts. We wore the shirts that Grandma and Papa got us for Christmas. Nico and I headed over to my parents' house and Guy joined us later that evening for dinner. We ate good food and answered questions around the table. Nico was asked: "If you could choose any pet to get tomorrow, what would you get and what would you name it?" He said he would get a cat and name if Fluff McGuff. We also had interesting conversations about ants and tornadoes.

Tuesday, I left the boys at home and had a shopping day with my Mom at the mall. Yay! I got a text from Guy while we were there, telling me that Nico was very sad that Grandma Camp would be starting tomorrow instead of that day, and Nico wanted to know if he could stay over at Grandma's house a night early. Grandma said YES, so after we were done at the mall, Grandma Salisbury came and picked Nico up from our house and took him back with her.

Grandma Camp officially started the next day, Wednesday, when all the other kids arrived. And he's been having fun from what I hear! They went roller skating again, and though he didn't seem to like it last time they went, Lexie spent some time helping him skate and he has started to enjoy it. I also know they went to a new jump place called Altitude.

Various Grandma Camp pictures:

Now you can check out the video! Mostly from Circustrix, but also a shot of him skating.