Birds birds and more birds and some other animals

We spent all of Saturday morning working to rebuild our Eiffel Tower lego, and in the afternoon we went to an engagement party at the church. We were planning to leave Nico here for Jeff and Allicia to watch but the kiddos in the main house caught a stomach bug, so we took him with us, which turned out to be the BEST thing we could have done. It was a family-friendly event at the church, there were games for kids and he had several church friends there with him. It was announced that whoever found the most toy rings won a prize at the end, so Nico searched everywhere for rings throughout the whole event. There were games that Nico and I participated in too. Then a "jeopardy" type game with questions about the couple getting married. Whoever raised their hands first got to answer first, and Nico raised his hand almost every time. He answered enough questions right to win 2nd place and picked out a BIRD FEEDER for his prize!! When he brought it over to me I was so excited, it was beautifully hand crafted by the father of the bride. Everyone was cracking up that Nico was answering all the questions right. He stole the show.

Then the couple opened presents and Nico brought them all their gifts. He had so much fun.

Then everyone counted up how many rings they had found and Nico had 13, which means he tied for 1st place! He chose a Squirrel Feeder for his prize and with all that we came home with I am just exceedingly grateful. We are SET for watching birds and squirrels and we can't wait to hang them. We are going to let Tiffanie use our squirrel feeder until we move since she has 2 lively squirrels living in her tree and we all get a kick out of them. Check out these little stools for the squirrels to sit on!

I'm so glad that it worked out that Nico came with us!

He says he wants to study animals and birds when he grows up, and wants to be an ornithologist (we had to look up what a bird scientist was called. I didn't know. Guy probably did but he was at work). We spent a few minutes looking online for what it would take to be an ornithologist and he said he wanted to go to college in Seattle near Grandma and Grandpa Russell. We signed him up for a nature camp this summer that's just a week long over at the Botanical Garden, it's called Bugs, Birds, Bats, and Botany. The description reads: This week focuses on winged wonders and the plants they call food and home. Use nets to capture insects, hold a wild bird’s nest, and learn how living things fly."

He's been taking pictures of animals with our phones. Not just real animals but pictures of animals in comic books or wherever else he sees them. He also snaps pictures of birds with my phone on the way to school.

I understand there's room for him to change his mind about what he wants to do when he grows up, but it is awesome to see him so passionate about something and it makes me want to give him everything he wants that is bird related. 

Coloring some mandalas

Guy let me put henna on his foot, which we washed off right after.

Sorting lego bins.

He's been playing over at Aadam and Sammy's a lot after school.

He's been reading...

Heidi Hecklebeck books

Bird and Squirrel comics

Dogman

Family, School, Friends, Jan Brett

The Grandparents Salisbury invited us up to the cabin on Monday, it was nice to see them after missing Thanksgiving! We also celebrated Chrtistmas! Nico got a Fireman costume and legos which he loves. We also had wonderful food, all gluten free, and very very tasty. Nico ate a ton of sausage and meatballs. Thank you Pa and Ma!

Guy and Nico put legos together while we were there and then more when we got home, then the next day Nico decided to put the legos together himself. He followed the directions and put together an excavator all by himself. He brought it up to me with it hidden behind his back and then he said "Surprise!" and showed it to me. I was so proud of him!!

Lately Nico has been fond of Color-by-Numbers. I print free ones from a website. He has done about 4 of them so far and is on his fifth one.

Next up: A slew of pictures from school. I think these are from his field trip to BSU where they did Special Olympics. Nico said they got to let their balloons go in the air after they were all done. Cool!

His whole class. Miss Erica (teacher), Miss Joanne (Assistant), and Miss Karen (Speech Language Pathologist). Nico can name some of the kids.

The next picture is Nico and his class dancing along to the DINO STOMP. Nico had us search for this on YouTube. I wasn't sure what he was saying at first but he insisted it was called "Dino Stomp" so that is what I searched for. He saw the video and pointed to it. voila! And then later that week I get this picture and see all his class dancing to it.

We decorated Christmas last night with Jeff and Allicia and kids. We used our own ornaments and decorated the silver tree. They are not putting up their HUGE tree this year, too big, nowhere to put it, and it takes a lot of time. I totally understand! So we did the silver tree.

Nico keeps coming home with surprises from school, a slinky yesterday and today some cool star sunglasses. He says he got the sunglasses out of the treasure box. And the slinky he says he got because he made it "all the way to the top."

Today we went to the library to see Jan Brett! She is a children's author that Mom Russell introduced to me/us many years ago. We got there at 9:30 (it started at 10) and were lucky enough to find a parking spot in the library parking lot. Yay! See the video below for our adventure. We sat very close to the front and Jan's husband needed help carrying the box that the LIVE bunny was in, so he asked me. So yes, I had a conversation with Jan Brett's husband as we walked the big box back to the TOUR BUS which I got into. We talked about Boise and bunnies and hedgehogs. Apparently Jan's husband really likes bunnies and the particular one they brought with them he calls "Spoo" and it hangs out with him in a cage in his office while he works. They used to have hedgehogs, four of them, but he said they are too wild and are hard to take care of, so they stopped. But they do keep chickens. He was also very worried about the amount of people stuffed into the library room, he told the bus driver that they were breaking a lot of fire codes. hehe. It was super crowded in there. The video shot of the crowd was taken about 15 minutes before it started, and by the time it did start, there were many more people.

I bought a copy of her new book Animal's Santa, and they had signed name plates to put in the book if we didn't want to stand in line to have her sign one for us. We did have to leave early to get back in time for lunch and school, so we didn't stand in line for an autograph, but Allicia took our book and stood in line for us and had it signed. They were apparently 3rd in line and were out of there pretty darn quick!

Now the video! Plus another video about our first day of December with Nico enjoying his two advent calendars.

Colors and Phone

Two pictures today! perhaps to make up for the lack of posts lately.

First one is of Nico at the table having stacked the lids of his do-a-dot paints onto one of the markers. He was very proud. After this he would bump the tower with his head and then rebuild.

Next picture.. We found a phone in a box in Nico's closet, so I pulled it out and it's now his play phone. He likes to put it next to the iPad and randomly answer it while he's playing.

Coloring

Nico asked to color 3 different times today, always with VBS music playing. He is quite a fan! In the picture, you can see his plate, he was eating a "cookie" (a few slivers of a lara bar).

Also, every evening Nico and I do our computer-based advent calendar gifted to us from Grandma Russell. Tonight we built a train! Nico picked out the cars and I dragged them into place, then we got to watch an animation of our train on the move.

Coloring

Nico likes to color on the floor while listening to our VBS CD given to us by Grandma Russell.

Nico is recovering from a cold! Caught another one.

Markers

Nico drew all over his arms with a brown marker today. I am grateful that it was so easy to wash off!

Coloring

Today I brought the crayons out for the first time in a long time, and Nico colored in his very own coloring book. It was a gift to him from my Aunt Jill and her girls. Nico mostly scribbled back and forth really fast.