GG, Guy's business trip, a pair of parakeets

Last Friday we visited GG and Aunt Pat in Nampa, they had brought out the keyboard for Nico to play on and he enjoyed that! We also talked cake decorating and watched a bit of cartoons. Next time we visit we are taking them out to lunch!

On Sunday we dropped Guy off at the airport after church, he left for a business trip to Monterey, CA, and is coming home tonight! He sent us lots of pictures from his trip. He went to the Aquarium today and sent us tons of bird pictures!

Inside the aquarium

Semi palmated plover

Bird rescue area

A treat for Nico

I watched these kiddos today for a few hours, we had a snack "In the Clubhouse" which is like, unheard of! They were both so excited!

We had some special guests overnight, two parakeets! Nico didn't know what kind of birds these were, I guess we haven't studied the domesticated ones very much! The people we were watching them for actually offered to let us keep them. If we had a little more space then that would have bene a YES! Perhaps some day!

Nico helping me put labels on my henna kits. While Guy was out of town I was super busy pretty much non stop preparing for my 3-day henna booth this weekend. Hyde Park Street Fair. Hope to sell a lot of henna kits!

Nico has been using Guy's pillow.

Oh! We Facetimed with Guy last night. He was eating some yummy restaurant food and left the table for a minute to Facetime with us and the restaurant was right next to the water and he showed us the water and a seagull.

He comes in late tonight and a coworker is going to drive him home!

See ya'll next week!

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!

Lego Landmarks, GG, Squirrels, Swimming

On Friday Nico got to spend some time with the Grandparents Salisbury in the afternoon! I had a henna booth to do so he hung out with them until Guy got off work and picked him up.

Nico has declared that Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays are Minecraft days, so on Saturday, Guy and Nico play Minecraft while I'm at the market. Nico is getting pretty proficient in building things in that game. He loves it.

On Sunday, Nico woke up with a slight fever. I didn't know about it until breakfast was ready and Nico said he wasn't hungry for his pancakes. NOT hungry for pancakes? Yikes! His fever was only 99.1-ish, and he ate his pancakes shortly after, but we did miss church that day.

On Monday we ran errands in the morning, and at the end we stopped by the Mall. They were displaying large US Landmarks made out of legos. We saw Mt Rushmore, the Liberty Bell, the Statue of Liberty, the White House, Capitol Building, and then various other fun lego assemblies.

I got a kick out of this next one. You can see that several letters from the mall's name have been removed, they were lying on the floor of the lego display like they had fallen off.

The middle of the mall held miniature lego displays of the larger lego monuments that were in our mall. Clever!

Then on the other side you see the mall sign in-tact, but you can see Darth Maul preparing to cut some of the letters off. heehee.

On Tuesday we stopped to see GG in the afternoon. We get a double bonus when we visit her because we also get to see Aunt Pat! GG Showed us their new patio furniture and we sat outside for a while in the lovely weather. Not too hot that day! GG also gave Nico her old laptop, and he right away found a place to plug it in and start it up, we downloaded Minecraft onto it right there and then realized we needed a login so had to close it up until we could get Guy involved.

It was a really lovely visit!

The squirrels have found our bird feeder. This one has removed all the bird seed from the bird feeder and snacked only on the sunflower seeds. At least he left the rest of the birdseed, though it's scattered everywhere now! hehe

On Wednesday we went grocery shopping. This is usually what I have Nico bring inside. He likes to pile it high.

Swimming lessons are going well for him. He has learned how to hum underwater. I may have said that last week, but he is getting better at it. He LOVES his goggles, I'm so glad we got some for him! They are blue, and whenever he takes them off he tells me everything looks red. We've run into several of his classmates at the pool also getting swimming lessons, including Linus and his sister, and Eli. We also heard back from Nico's friend Olivia, her mom let me know that Olivia would be coming to Nico's birthday party. Next week I plan to send out invitations to family, but if you aren't already aware, his party is happening July 29th at 1 PM at Pojo's! Anyway, in swimming class, tomorrow they will get to go down the Hydrotube all by themselves!

Fidget Spinner, Church Picnic, Turn up the Beet

Saturday was a full day for all of us, I had a henna booth at a festival and Nico and Guy helped with sound at a wedding for a couple in our church. In the morning they went downtown to the market and over to a bookstore that sells fidget spinners. Fidget Spinners are the new thing, apparently! He came home from school one day talking about them and asking for one. He saved up a few dollars and they went and bought one at the bookstore. Blue.

At the festival, Grandma Salisbury was at the booth with me being my helper. Thank you Mom! We had a fun day, it was the perfect temperature to be outside.

After the festival was over, the Grandparents Salisbury helped me pack up and load up and unload at home. Thank you!! Then I headed over to the wedding to pick Nico up. It was past 8 already and he was tired. He had made some friends at the park there that were selling slime. The whole ride home he talked about what he was going to sell at the park next Saturday. "Maybe cars?"

Sunday was the church picnic at Municipal Park.

They had games for the kids, and the area was all in the shade. Yay! It was fun. Then Nico and I went over to pick up the milk and eggs from the Grandparents Salisbury's house. Nico played Minecraft with Papa on the iPad. While we were pulling away from the house Nico called out of the open window, "Bye! I hope you have fun building your house in Minecraft!" 

Monday was a holiday that Guy had off. Nico and I had doctors appointments in the morning, then we stopped by Boise Juice Co. to get us each our favorite juice, "Turn up the Beet". We took note of the ingredients and decided we would try to make it at home. 1 apple, 2 carrots, 1/2 a beet, 1/2 a lemon, and 3 slices of ginger, that's what we're going to try. I got all the ingredients on Thursday and we will try this next week.

We had pizza Monday night since the weekend was too full for us to enjoy it then. 

Nico has had a full week of fun and party things at school. Wednesday was science day at Municipal Park. Thursday was Field Day, and Friday he has a half day. He came home with all of his school stuff yesterday (Thursday) including his journal! Here is a sneak peak. 

This was early in the year. They didn't put dates on anything, but it was in the first few pages.

That's about it for this week. Summer is starting!! I wonder what next week will hold!

G.G., and a postcard from 1st grade

On Friday Guy worked late and I had a henna booth that I had to leave early for, so Nico got to hang out with Evelyn for a few hours and eat dinner with them. It was a busy henna weekend, I had a henna booth at the Nampa Art Festival all day Saturday and Sunday. Guy and Nico came to say hi on Saturday. I gave Nico a quick owl tattoo and then he played on the playground that was right behind our booth.

Guy and Nico made pizza by themselves on Saturday night and watched Three Stooges and Wallace and Gromit.

Monday we had a play date at the park with just Allicia and kids, no Tiffanie. The kids pretty much know I carry fruit strips with me, so Avery asked me for one even before we left the driveway. When we got to the park I gave them each one and they like to eat it while sitting on this big rock.

On Tuesday we went to see GG! It was a great visit. On Monday night Nico had looked at the calendar and remarked "Tomorrow we go see GG! Yaaay!" Then on Tuesday morning I reminded him what we were doing that day and he said "Awww GG is my favorite Grandma!"

GG had some books for him there, a little book that used to belong to his Great Grandpa Bud. It's a small yellow book called "Bugs of America" the date inside says 1939. It has pictures of bugs and descriptions of them. She also had a book called "Jeremy Draws a Monster" that is very cute. Thank you GG! Nico loves them both. In fact Nico is in bed right now reading Jeremy Draws a Monster.

I had another henna booth on Wednesday at the College of Western Idaho, their new student orientation. Nico spent a few hours with Evelyn since I had to leave before Guy got home from work.

Today he received a post card in the mail from his new teacher, Mrs. Smith! Nico read it.

When he got to the end where she signs off with her name, Mrs. Smith, he says "What??? Mrs SMITH?? But I told them I wanted Mrs. Hoff!" He was pretty sad. He wanted to write a card to Mrs. Smith to tell her that she's not his teacher. With more probing he told me that he liked Mrs. Hoff's classroom and that they get to do lots of fun stuff and go to recess THREE times per day! I assured him that in Mrs. Smith's class he would still get to go to recess three times per day.

A random funny - Nico was leisurely washing his hands in the sink, he was mumbling under his breath like his hands were talking to each other. I turned the water off for him (he can't reach it at the kitchen sink) and he stood there and said softly "I like the rain, and now the rain has stopped. I am not a happy pig!" that is a quote from a Piggie and Gerald book.

I've got two videos today! One from Grandparents Russell visit and one from his Birthday party! Enjoy!

Typo ahead...

Grandparents Russell!

Grandma camp finished up with success. They were planning a water fight when the parents got there to pick them up, but Grandma was notified of a water shortage Friday night, so they canceled it. Two wells had run dry and on Sunday they were notified that there was no more water. She was without water until Tuesday! And now they are on a boil order. This means that before drinking the water, you need to boil it. Here's the pictures from Grandma Camp: Movie Marathon!

Nico is reading his book "Stinky" to everyone

On Saturday GG came to visit me at my henna booth, she brought me green beans from her garden and sat and talked for a while. I even gave her a henna tattoo! 

This week Nico and Evelyn and Aadam and Avery have all gone to VBS. Avery is 3 years old now and was able to join the bigger kids. This has been the most fun VBS so far.  Nico says he wants to go to this one ALL the time.

On Tuesday Grandpa and Grandma Russell came into town! We weren't expecting to get to see them that evening, but they got in early enough to head over. Wahoo!

On Wednesday they brought GG with them, and we all went to the Discovery Center. Their new display is called ZAP, lots of things to do with electricity.

Nico also opened some presents.

Grandma and Nico working hard to put all Nico's quarters in his collection folder. 

Reading a book before bed

Today was the last day of VBS. I showed up a bit early to pick them up and they were starting a prayer line so anyone who wanted to pray out loud on stage could get in line. Nico did it! Unfortunately I couldn't hear what he said and the video I took, the background noise was very loud and you can't hear. He told me he forgot what he said when I asked him about it later.

Then we saw Grandma and Grandpa again this afternoon. I put some henna on Grandma Russell! (I'll have to take a picture of this to post next week). Grandma and Grandpa took Nico to the library and they came home with some great books.

Tonight I am putting Nico's presents on the table so that when he wakes up he will see them. He has spent a bit of time this week searching for where I hid them. Heehee. I'm excited for him to open them. 

Here's the video from Jeff and Avery's birthday party. I put it together with them in mind, so it's not really a "Nico" video, but I put it here anyway if you'd like to watch, Nico is in it too. You can see him light the birthday candles, and hit a piñata, and throw water balloons :)

Grammy, G.G., Roller Derby

Saturday was my very first henna booth at the Nampa Public Market. On Friday Nico and I practiced setting up my canopy so I could see if I could do it all by myself. I could!

Saturday I woke up to a card on the desk that Nico had made for me for my birthday. It was very sweet. Guy had given me his card the night before. Saturday at the Market went smoothly except I forgot to bring chairs with me, so Nico and Guy had to rush over to bring them to me.

Saturday afternoon, Grandma Salisbury came over and she brought with her a very special guest, Great Grandma French (aka Grammy). Grandma had brought Grammy back from Moscow for a visit. The last time Grammy had seen Nico, it was up in Moscow and Nico wasn't even a year old. Grammy brought Nico a toy car and then they sat on the couch and chatted for a while about all manner of things. I got a few exchanges on video, but alas this week has gotten away from me and I was not able to put a video together.

We got to see her again on Sunday at church and then afterward we all went to the mall to eat. Sunday evening I also went over to the hotel where they were staying so I could hang out with them for a few more hours before they were going to head back to Moscow the next day. I'm so glad we got to see her and spend time with her! 

Saturday evening was another special event, Allicia (aka Aleesh the Beast) had her very first Roller Derby game that night!! Guy wasn't feeling well, so he didn't end up going, so Nico and I went. Nico was very excited to see Allicia skate, and also very excited to park in a parking garage and walk downtown to the Centurylink Arena. The derby game started and Nico said he wanted some roller skates so that he could do that. I explained how the game worked to him and we were following along as the "Jammers" would break through and get ahead.

Allicia is in the white helmet in the center-right.

Nico's bedtime is usually 6:30, and the game didn't start until 7 PM, so around 7:20 he was asking when we would be going home. We left after the first half, at 7:30 PM. Once we got outside and started walking downtown to get to the parking garage, Nico said "I'm not tired over here, so can we walk around some more?" I said no, that we had to get home to bed. 

Tuesday was our visit to GG. Nico brought more books with him to read to her. Grandma Russell had sent Nico a little comic book called Moo Bird that Nico wanted to read to GG. He also brought over another of his comic books called Stinky. 

As always it was really great to see her and catch up. We'll have to find a different time to come see her once 1st grade starts in the Fall! Mornings won't work anymore. 

Tuesday we also went to the library and Nico picked out some comic books from the "Hazardous Tales" series, which are stories from America's history. One of the books is called "Donner Dinner Party". I wasn't exactly clear on why this creeped me out because I couldn't remember the story exactly, but I read the book (comic books that tell true stories have been super interesting to me lately), and now I know. While we were in the car on the way home, Nico says "This would be too scary for you. But I'm not scared of anything." Very interesting picks! I chose some "We Both Read" books where the parents read one side of the page and the child reads the other. I'm really digging those!

Tuesday afternoon/evening Nico and I went for a hike. Guy was working late and it was nice and cool out, so we went and started hiking up Table Rock, stopping just short of the most arduous climb and turning around. Nico was gung-ho climbing the trail, but as soon as we turned around, I mean like the second we turned around to come back, I hear a long whine and "is there a shoooooorter way home?" He really struggled with the return trip. 

Tuesday night after Guy arrived home and all the kids were in bed, we had a game night with Jeff & Allicia. Allicia said I could pick the game because it was my birthday and I chose Ticket to Ride. Mostly because Nico and I have been playing it and the rules are fresh in my mind, so it meant I wouldn't have to spend brain power to learn a new game! Guy won the whole world that time, and lapped almost everyone in points. He said that he should just never play Ticket to Ride again because there's no way he would ever beat that score.

Today (Thursday) was "Surprise Day". I surprised Nico with a trip to Pojo's. We rode the bumper cars and Nico got 177 tickets from the games. The next surprise was a trip to the toy store in the mall, where we got him a Dominoes Rally game. We came home and played that right away, setting up dominoes and watching them fall.

Nico inspecting his henna tattoo

 Posing for a selfie to send to Grandma and Grammy and my Aunt Mary in Lewiston

Sitting outside reading "Stinky" out loud

It has been a great week, more fun ahead!