Last Friday was Avery's birthday, and his party! He had a Mario birthday.
There was a pinata, and Koopa Troopa cupcakes and yummy barbecued pizza.
Saturday was a slow day at home, pizza at night. Nico has been really enjoying the old MacGyver shows. It was his turn to choose the show on Saturday and he chose to watch MacGyver. Nico asks a lot of questions and Guy tells him everything. It's been quite a learning and entertaining experience for him. Guy and I enjoy watching him be so interested in all the things that MacGyver is doing. We watched an episode on Tuesday night that he didn't care for, though. One of the people in the show died being eaten by ants. Shortly after this happened he said he didn't want to watch it anymore and to go to the next episode. I totally agree, Nico. Sorry you had to see that :(
Here's our setup at our new table, watching MacGyver on the iPad.
VBS started on Monday. All the kiddos went. Allicia picked them up today, the last day of VBS, and Nico remarked to her that he didn't want to do the VBS next year! I will have to ask him why when I get a chance. Every day he would take his name tag off after getting home and put it on the fridge. He wants to keep them.
There is a video at the end with VBS scraps.
Playing in our new hallway.
Nico and I played Hang Man one morning, and one his words was "GG". I told him that wasn't a word and he said "YES IT IS! Grandma GG!" We went to see GG and Aunt Pat on Monday after VBS. She gave me a peek at his birthday present :D
On Wednesday we went to Bricks & MiniFigs to get some party favors for the kids coming to Nico's party on Sunday. He built a MiniFig for each kid who is coming. I love the one he made for Evelyn.
Guy fixed the corner booth chair by attaching a wooden leg that Papa had cut for us (Thanks Pa!) Guy added a cut at the top so that it was stair stepped and attached easily with screws to the chair. It is now safe to sit on!
Today was travel day for Grandpa and Grandma Russell! They arrived this evening!! We went right to work putting together the puzzle we needed to do for a birthday party game on Sunday. It was a fun way to jump into it.
Grandma and Nico read comics before bed. Then she tucked him in.
I'm so happy they're here! It will be a great weekend!
Here's the VBS video. Plus Nico playing "The Floor is Lava". There are so many new obstacles to learn how to jump over in our newly arranged house. And now that he's a stuntman, thanks to Parkour Camp, he knows how to take risks ;)
On Saturday Guy and Nico both had haircuts. Here are their "new" styles.
Saturday we had the pita pizzas again. We are going to transition to doing these pizzas for a while, even after our toaster oven is fixed. Everyone seems to like them! We watched a collection of Disney shorts on Netflix while we ate pizza. It was very good, several of them tear-jerkers.
On Sunday after church and lunch I took Nico over to the Grandparents Sailsbury's house for a sleepover with cousins. This is what Nico needed for 1 overnight stay. 4 stuffed animals take up most of that backpack space. :)
When we got there, Grandma had an activity set up where the kiddos were teamed up and had to plan and execute a plan for the boxes. Bruce and Nico built a toxic waste city. The girls built an animal hospital.
Grandma also got Nico to eat and enjoy Kipper Snacks. I had tried to get him interested in the past, with no luck. Leave it to cousin pressure to convince him he had to try them! He came home with his own can of kipper snacks.
On Monday Guy and I met at their house for dinner with Jonny and Alanna and the kiddos. Grandma made a yummy salmon loaf with dill sauce that was incredible. With mashed potatoes and salad and rice and all the fixins. Everyone loved it. Nico ate all of the food on his plate. 😳😳😳 The Schwann man delivered some ice cream bars and push pops right after dinner. Perfect timing. All the kids ran out there like he was the ice cream truck! Then Nico had his very first push pop! After that they were sent into the living room to read books for 20 minutes while the grownups talked at the table. When it was time to go home, he begged to stay.
Thanks for the fun time Papa and Grandma!
Wednesday was grocery shopping day, and I forgot to buy a very important ingredient for dinner that night and so when Nico asked what we were having for dinner I said "I don't know... nothing?" Then he asked about Jimmy John's, and I thought to myself, "Hey, today is budget day! Let me just adjust the budget a bit.. and... voila!" And so Guy picked up Jimmy John's on the way home from work.
Today Nico had a dentist appointment. I picked him up from school for it. One of the sealants on his molars had fallen off so they redid it. The hygienist said sometimes food can dislodge a sealant, which prompted me to ask about chewing ice and she said "YES! That will do it". She told us that Nico's teeth looked surprisingly clean for his age. The only trouble spot was along the gum-line in the bottom front. She said "Nico you're doing a great job!" When she gave him his mouth back he said "Thank you."
He got to pick out 2 prizes because he had to have the sealant put back on, he chose gum for both of his prizes.
Afterwards we walked over to Bricks & Minifigs to pick out a Minifig.
This is the one he made!
On our way back to his school, he ate his lunch. While I was walking him into his school he said "This was my favorite day of school EVER!"
Last Saturday was the first Saturday in a while that we had nothing going on! In the afternoon Nico and I went to the Discovery Center to see their new display, Mythbusters! They had several stations set up to test things that the show Mythbusters had tested. This particular one is: When you drop a piece of toast does it always land butter side down? There were several different ways you could "drop" bread. We tried all of them and used the provided Abucus beads to keep track of which way the toast landed. It was about 50 - 50. As expected.
Build a house, and see if a gust of wind will blow it down.
How long can you hang on a ledge? This is HARD. I got about 5 seconds in before I couldn't hold on anymore. Apparently it takes strong muscles in your fingers. I thought it would be more of an arm thing. Nico did better than me.
Other cool exhibits: Try to remove the tablecloth from a table with stuff on it. I was able to try it and succeeded! And do you get more rain on you when you walk, or run? They had two corridors where you could either walk or run through rain. Then you go check yourself under black lights to see how wet you got. Apparently the test on the show showed that with simulated rain, you get more wet when running. With actual rain, you get more wet when walking.
Nico discovered his book of paper airplanes that was tucked away in the desk, and has spent a lot of time the past few days putting planes together.
He also started asking if he could wear two shirts, one over the other. He did that for several days this week.
Then of course, trick or treating! There is a video at the end of the post of that. Nico has become more aware of candy, and the fact that we've been keeping him from most of it for most of his life. So we're becoming more lenient. Nico ate M&Ms for the first time on Halloween while we were trick-or-treating. When I was pregnant with Nico I would buy the huge bags of M&Ms. I remember leaving a church service once at Marysville Naz while I was pregnant and sitting out in the lobby, just so I could reach into my purse and shove M&Ms in my mouth for a few minutes. Nico loves M&Ms and has declared them his favorite candy. On Halloween he also ate a Crunch bar and a piece of gum. That next day he had Nerds and an Airhead for the first time. Then he ate a Dum Dum! This is big news. We figure it's only once a year, right? But then while trick-or-treating he started asking people at their door if they had M&Ms, and he would spend time flipping through their baskets trying to find something he could eat. At one house he refused to take the glowstick they were offering. We talked with him about that. After we talked to him we told him he had to do 3 things every time someone answered the door: 1 - Say "Trick or Treat!" 2 - Take what they give you and 3 - Say "Thank you!" He did great after that!
Nico the Ninja. Ivy the Bumble-bee. Avery the dinosaur. Evelyn the witch.
On Wednesday night, Guy & I, and Jeff & Allicia took turns watching the kids so we could all go to our parent/teacher conferences. Ours was first, so we walked to the school and sat down with Ms Lung to talk about Nico. He is doing really well in reading and in math. We are so proud of him! She showed us his first short story. He wrote the story by hand, it was edited, and then he typed the whole thing into the computer.
Ms Lung said he insisted on doing chapters.
Then his first poem. Nico was adamant on not using their format when writing his poem. Ms Lung said he could do what he wanted as long as he included some of the stuff they were learning about (the 5 senses)
On Wednesday we also got a new Laser Moose book in the mail from the Grandparents Russell! Thank you! He brought it to the dentist with him this morning and read it while we were in the waiting room. As we were leaving the office after his appointment, the lady who was in the waiting room with us at the beginning was just getting into her car, and she stopped us to ask us what the Laser Moose was. I told her it was a comic book where a moose can shoot lasers from his eyes. She said she used to live in Alaska and that she has never seen a Laser Moose before. He he.
The Laser Moose book has a ton of disco balls in it. They get knocked off a cliff and come raining down on the forest and smashing into the ground. After Nico had his cavity filled at the dentist, he went to the treat drawer and found a disco ball keychain! The timing was impeccable.
Then of course we went over to Bricks & Mini-Figs next door and Nico made a new Mini-Fig. He made this one to look like Emmet from the Lego Movie.
Then we ran some errands, went to Target where Nico spent his own money to buy a Minecraft backpack. He is very excited about that. Then we met Grandma Salisbury at Costco! We had fun wandering around. I don't know how it happened but we ended up with a HUGE bag of M&Ms and a new car toy (Thanks Grandma S!) ;)
Brats and sprouts for lunch.
Nico has today and tomorrow off for parent/teacher conferences. This afternoon Guy called to tell me he locked his keys in the car at the dentist. So Nico and I drove to the dentist before realizing that the Ford has a keypad he could have used to get back into the car. Whooooops. Well, neither of us could remember the code anyway! Hah. I'll have to look it up.
Last weekend I had another henna booth on Saturday and Sunday, my last one for a while. Guy and Nico went to the coffee shop and to a garage sale. Nico found a chess set and a game called Mastermind that he bought with his own money.
On Sunday, Guy and Nico went to the Grandparents Salisbury house to pick up milk and eggs. Nico brought his chess set and played a few games with Papa. That night we had our Bible Study group at the Pastor's house. Nico's friends Leona and Lazarus were there, and they huddled into this little corner so that Leona could plug in her Nintendo Switch. Nico brought the Mastermind game with him but I don't think they played it.
He started reading Dogman #2 again, and chose this character, Flappy, for me to give him a henna tattoo of. Flappy is a fish.
Today and tomorrow are teacher inservice days, so Nico doesn't have school. Today he had a cavity-filling appointment at the dentist. Nico loves that his smile is crooked after he gets the novocaine shot.
He got a voucher for a free Mini-Fig from Bricks and Minifigs nextdoor so we went over there afterward to cash it in. Our dentist told us the story behind them opening that store - The guy who owns it is the CFO of Scentsy, and him and his wife have a 20 year old son with autism. They wanted him to be able to work, so they started Bricks and Minifigs so that he would be able to work there. He is talking on phones and interacting with people like he never has before. Very cool!
After that, we ran some errands and then came home for lunch. This afternoon Nico played Mario Kart with Evelyn and her cousin Jade. After that we went to the Discovery Center but they were closed because they were switching the exhibits. It must be a big one because it's not open again until October 21st! So we ended up at the Library. We checked out a comic that Nico hadn't read in a while.
And we played a game called Sum Swamp at the library, a good exercise in adding and subtracting. It was a fun game and Nico beat me both times.
Side note. The pumpkin flavored RX Bars.... YUMMY!!!
