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!

GG, Treasure Hunt, First Day of School!

Last Friday we visited GG and Aunt Pat. A great visit as always. They told us about the trip they're going on soon, they are excited!

We also went to Walmart on Friday to buy Nico's school supplies, and also a rug and reading pillow for under his bed.

He chose black. I wanted to buy him a first-day-of-school outfit but Walmart doesn't have a great selection so we skipped it. We also got him a hair cut! Friday for lunch we visited Grandma and stayed for a few hours. It was a fun day!

On Saturday we woke up super early so we could be at a garage sale right when it opened at 7:30. They were selling Nintendo 64 games for $1 each. By the time we got there (at 7:25) they were already gone! doh! Nico had brought some of his money to buy games with. Instead, he bought some lizard goggles. Totally worth the trip. You can see behind yourself! He wore them the whole way home.

Saturday night we watched the animated movie Coco while eating pizza.

Sunday was the last day before school started which means we did our yearly TREASURE HUNT!!

Allicia came up with the bulk of the clues, I wanted to make sure that each kiddo had clues that they would be able to figure out themselves, that were specific to them. It turned out really well. While the grown ups hid the clues we put the kiddos downstairs in front of some cartoons. Then, it began!  Watch the video at the end of the blog to see clips from it.

The boys hanging out while the kids ran around

After they found the treasure, eating their candy and hanging out.

Putting together legos side by side

 Then of course the next day was school! Nico woke up early and was dressed and ready to go by 6:30AM. He put his backpack on and laid down on the couch: "I'm just going to lay here until school starts."

Other things he told me that morning: He wants to live in Japan because they don't have summer vacation. And also "I feel like I'm going to throw up." hehe... I asked him if he wanted to stay home from school and he said "NO!"

Here are Evelyn and Nico on their first day of school. 2nd grade for Evelyn, 3rd grade for Nico. I walked with them to school this first day.

Nico in his classroom with his desk behind him.

As soon as he got home from school he opened his backpack and took his homework out. He had to read through the classroom morning and afternoon procedures three times. He has had to do that every day this week. Tonight his homework was to wash his feet. He he.

He has had a good week at school so far. Last night he told us that he was feeling something in his heart (I like the way he put that), about how there are kids on the playground that are mean and that he's afraid they're going to start bullying him. Everything else he's told us about school has been great. His library day is Thursday. We've been praying with him about the possible bullies.

Today he had a dentist appointment. No cavities! A few months ago he did chip one of his front bottom teeth. Guy and him were rough housing and I think Guy's elbow somehow ended up on Nico's mouth and his tooth got chipped. The dentist recommended waiting to see how the teeth grow in before they try to patch it up. There is no pain or sensitivity, otherwise they'd do it now. The dentist said that boys tend to get banged up a bit in their youth.

Evelyn came over for dinner tonight. They put together legos at the table before dinner.

Other photos from this week...

Playing The Cure

Eating cheese and reading DogMan before bed.

Now it's time for the video!! Enjoy!

Wahooz, Treasure Hunt, Eclipse, School!

Guy stayed home from work last Friday because I had to be at my henna event very early. Him and Nico went to Wahooz and played miniature golf! Guy sent me a picture after they were back at home:

And here's me and my crew at the Uplift Festival

Monday was a fun filled day. It was the last day of summer vacation, and according to tradition this requires a treasure hunt. Evelyn and family were out of town, and Aadam and Sam no longer live here, so I did a treasure hunt just for Nico. In the video at the bottom of this entry you can see part of it, the part where he returns from running around the block to find his map. For the treasure I bought him a comic book. He was a little skeptical, and instead chose to play Rush Hour.

It's a game which he found while searching for the treasure. He forgot he had the game. Since then, he has played it every single day, trying to get through all of the cards.  You set up the board with cars and then you move them around to try to get the red car out. He is very very good at it! We are missing a few cars so he has used micromachines in their place, no biggie.

Then we had a trip to the gym, followed by the eclipse! We had eclipse glasses given to us by Allicia, who had a few extra. We sent one pair with Guy to work, and we had two at home. The video at the end shows some of our eclipse experience.

Tuesday was the first day of school! Evelyn and family were still out of town, so we walked to school just the two of us and we went into his classroom. He has his old kindergarten teacher, who has moved up to 2nd grade. She told me that teaching 2nd grade is her dream job. She is very happy with it, and Nico was happy to have her as a teacher again.

We started walking with Evelyn on Wednesday, and I've been teaching them how to look for cars so that they can start walking to/from school together by themselves. We're almost there.. they chose a spot to meet after the bell rings so that they can find each other to walk home.

Last night we lost power for about 2 hours. And tonight we have a thunder storm and SO much rain! A power outage and a thunderstorm are both very good reasons to not go to bed. Or so I've heard. ;)

Here's the video!

Treasure Hunt and First Day of School!

Monday was Nico's 1st grade Sneak Peek. We went and found his classroom, found his hook and his very own desk with his name on it! We put his folder and notepad in his desk and his crayons and other supplies into his very own bin. We found out which of his friends are in his class this year.

Tuesday morning was the treasure hunt!

We gathered at 9 AM right outside the clubhouse. I told them all the rules, gave them popsicles to eat and then Allicia hung out with them while I went and hid all the clues. Some of the clues were in the park so I rode my bike there. I came back and we started. They took turns grabbing the clues (youngest first - Ivy!) and Sammy was our reader. We were done a little after 10 AM and then they spent the rest of the time writing their own clues for their own treasure hunts. Sammy, Evelyn, and Nico, all made their own treasure hunts and had the others go through it. We broke at 11 AM for lunch!

Here's some pictures that Allicia took!

Check out the treasure hunt video at the end of the post!

Wednesday was the first day of school! The bell rings at 8:40, so we left at 8:25-ish. There is a line outside that those in Room #2 line up at when the bell rings, so we found that. Then he ran onto the playground and... goodbye! It was quick. 

Wednesday was an early release day, so today was the first full day of school for him. He loves it. He had homework today, just reading through flash cards. We need to do this every day and then on Friday is "Flashcard Friday" where we go through our stack and any that he can read quickly "in a flash" we discard, and only keep the words in the deck that he still struggles with and needs to practice.

Guy and I decided to embark on a "No Spend-tember". We are so close to paying off debt that we are going to try to finish it off by the end of September! We are selling things and reducing our budget significantly. We still have to spend money on stuff like food and gas and rent, etc., but all other spending is cut off for September. We also decided to go through Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace Univeristy (FPU) again to keep us motivated to stay out of debt. Our church is having an FPU class and we have decided to go to it! Our first night will be next Monday. After we pay off debt we are going to celebrate. Not sure exactly how yet but it will be extravagant (for us) and probably involve a lot of food.

Guy is also going to be helping out at church in the sound booth on Thursday nights and then will be running the sound sometimes on Sunday. He is there tonight for his first training session.

Enjoying pizza on Saturday using GG's tomatoes. The sauce was REALLY good!

Nico didn't want to go to bed so he moved his pillow outside his bed and fell asleep on the floor. He's asleep in this picture. I turned the light on just so I could take his picture :)

That's it for tonight... enjoy the video!