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!

8th Birthday!

Friday the whole crew of us (Us and the Grandparents Russell) went to the Art Museum. We passed through the Rose Garden on the way there.

Nico was drawn to art that had shapes and numbers in it. When we found the kids exploration area, he tried out all the toys and built a symmetrical shape on the wall.

Afterward we went to the Boise Fry Company for lunch and then walked over to the library, then headed on home.

Grandma and Nico went outside and had boat races in the water.

Saturday, we split forces, the Grandparents with Nico and Guy went to the Saturday Market, I picked up the cakes and got some last minute things for the party. On their way home they stopped by a shop to pick up some stuff so Grandpa could improve our table a bit.

He used markers and then later some leather dye to fill in the rough spots on the table. Then he polished it. Verrrrry impressive.

It's like a brand new table!

Grandpa brought us this tiny build-it-yourself arcade game. So stinkin' cute and it plays lots of games. 

Saturday afternoon we went to Blue Cow Frozen Yogurt. We saw a sign for an open house and decided to follow it on the way home! We toured a house across from Municipal Park. It was very nice.

Before bed on Saturday night I set up the table with presents for Nico.

One of his gifts from us was a monthly subscription to "Little Passports", he will receive a new box with stuff about the United States in it every month for 6 months. This first box contained a US Map and a field journal, plus some other stuff.

We celebrated Nico's birthday at Smoky Mountain Pizza. Check out the video at the end of the blog to see some of the highlights!

Waiting for friends and family to arrive!

His super-cute hug of the pink elephant GG made for him

Playing tag

 Playing Ball

When we got home he went straight to work playing with Kanoodle. Consistently this has been the game he keeps coming back to after playing other games. He loves it!

On Monday, Nico and Grandma Russell and I joined Allicia and kids at the Natatorium to swim. I forgot my phone so I have no evidence that this happened, but it did! :) They have a nice kiddie pool there, big, only gets up to maybe 1 1/2 feet perhaps? It was a bit warmer in there than the big pool, so Nico lasted much longer swimming this time! It was also over 100 degrees that day, so I think that helped too ;) He did spend some time in the big pool, but most was in the kiddie. 

We ordered Chipotle for dinner that night! Yum!

Tuesday morning we said Goodbye to Grandpa and Grandma Russell. We had a blast with them here and are looking forward to their return at Christmas!

We packed Nico up shortly after and I drove him over to Papa and Grandma Salisbury's house for another Grandma Camp! I received some pictures and video throughout, here is Nico riding the zip line at Urban Air! (Also check out the video at the end of the blog!)

Playing Scrambled States of America

While Nico was gone, I worked hard to sort through his toys and clear out the area underneath his bed so we could set up a little play area. I boxed up 3 boxes of toys for the storage unit. Guy sawed one of our cube shelves in half, giving us two 2x3 cube shelves, one for either side of the area. We also purchased LED lights to hang under there so he can see what he's doing.

I picked him up from Grandma Camp this afternoon, he showed me his new light-up shoes! They even came with a charger!!

When we got home I showed him his new play area and he was happy about it. Evelyn came over for dinner tonight and I let them eat under his bed while watching funny shows. Then tonight instead of reading in bed, he went under his bed and played. He spread out his US Map for a bit, then discovered some other toys and played with quite a few of them. He did keep bonking his head. And after a particularly hard bonk he whimpered and said "Mommy WHY did you put this play area under my bed?? WHY didn't you put it somewhere else?!?!??!"

When he was done playing he unplugged his LED lights and crawled into his bed.

Goodnight! But first watch this video!