Reunion and Birthday

We had a week full of fun and exciting things! Grandpa and Grandma Russell drove down from Washington to be here for the Russell Family Reunion and for Nico's birthday.

The reunion was on Saturday in Nampa. We congregated under a large maple tree; sitting in the shade was perfect. Lots of family and good food and conversation.

After a while the kids went off to the swimming pool. Guy accompanied Nico, and Grandma Russell soon followed. They had a blast. I stayed back and got to have a nice chat with G.G.

We came home that afternoon and Guy went to bed to try to sleep and I made muffins for dinner. We also ate them for breakfast the next morning.

Sunday we went to church and then Gpa, Gma, and G.G. came over for lunch. The birthday presents trickled in and we had a very good time "watching the baby". Gma Russell brought with her some preschool bins that she had acquired. About Me, Transportation, and Tools. Though these weren't birthday presents, they were new and exciting things for Nico to play with!

Monday was party prep day. I made 2 batches of chocolate cupcakes and used my old cake-decorating frosting recipe to make the frosting. I used shortening made from non-hydrogenated palm and coconut oil. Gma helped me frost the cupcakes and we added sprinkles (made from dehydrated strawberries that had been put through the food processor).

 I love this series of pictures of Gma Russell and Nico trying on their SKY shirts

Then Nico's party was on Tuesday. We gathered at 9 AM at Old Park where we set up the Elefun game and the rocket shooter. 

Nico catching butterflies in his party hat

Nico, Lexie, and Evie

I love this one of excited Nico catching butterflies

A smattering of pictures from the party

Sarah and Gma Salisbury

Gma Salisbury and Me

Cupcakes

 Present time!

Though we met early, it still got hot quickly. We wrapped up around 10:30 and headed back home. We left before a few of my cousins were able to be there, so I told them to meet us at our house. We ate lunch, took pictures, and hung out.

Out of about 50 pictures taken of all of us sitting on the couch, I think I chose the best one! Not everyone is looking at the camera, but we're all smiling and Nico isn't hunched over trying to get off the couch. I thought it was pretty successful. 

Tuesday afternoon we said goodbye to Gma and Gpa Russell until next time. Their visit seemed to fly by much more quickly than other visits. I may have been preoccupied with Nico's Bday arrangements! We hope to see them again soon. We will be seeing G.G. again later in August!

After having a quiet and lazy Wednesday, Nico and I drove up to the cabin this morning (Thursday) to visit Gma and Papa. We made lots of food to freeze for our upcoming move. Some Pierogi Pies and a big pot of chili. Then we ate Harvest Vegetable Soup for lunch, trying out a new recipe. Yum, and fun!

There is a video this week that sums up all of July in one neat little package. 1st of August tomorrow! And in less than a month Nico will start school again. Summer is flying by!

Apples and Fried Green Tomatoes

Nico had Friday off from school so we took a trip to the Aquarium. We got there a little early and so we sat in the car eating our snack, and we were pleasantly surprised when a train decided to pass by. Nico was excited about that. At the Aquarium we saw a turtle eating sand. That evening around the dinner table, Guy asked Nico what he saw at the Aquarium and he told him turtle. eat. Then he signed sand. Sure do love it when Nico tells us about the things he sees. He is repeating so many more words and phrases. It is a marvel to be able to communicate with him on this level!

Saturday we went to the Market. We walked to one of the fountains downtown, and then ventured into a game store to look around. It's never too early to get Christmas ideas! :)

On Monday my cousin Sarah came over for a visit. Nico, Sarah, and I spent some time coloring on Nico's collection of fuzzy posters. It was so great to see her and to catch up!

On Wednesday I went to Nico's school to volunteer for the first time. This week is apple week so I cut out a lot of apples! I didn't get to see Nico in his classroom, but it was fun thinking that he was in very close proximity to me. In another two weeks I'll be volunteering again.

For apple week, Nico and his classmates are learning about the life cycle of apple trees. Today they got to taste three different kinds of apples and choose their favorite one. Then they made apple pies. Homework was coloring three different apple trees: one for Spring, Winter, and Fall.

This week we also picked the rest of the tomatoes in our garden and tried out a few green tomato recipes. Nico LOVES picking tomatoes.

You can also see the small leaves of a chard plant sitting on top of the bowl. None of our beans or greens grew very big this year. I'll do some troubleshooting and try again next spring. I think the bulk of our crop next year will be beans. Probably 1 tomato plant, and maybe a lettuce or two. 

So the first recipe I tried was fried green tomatoes. I didn't add enough seasoning and Guy said they tasted much like breaded broccoli stems. ha ha! So I spiced 'em up the second time around and Guy loved them! Adding sugar to the mix seemed to make a difference.

With the rest of the tomatoes I made a salsa. Just green tomatoes, 1 jalapeño, 1 red onion, 1 clove garlic, some olive oil, and that's that! I pureed it all in our food processor and Guy ate it with chips. Yum. Garden success!

On to next week!

Ten-tee

Nico said a sentencey phrase on Monday! I went to the dentist and when I came home, Nico said "Mommy. Ten-tee. Car. Daddy." Interpretation: Mommy went to the dentist in the car, and Daddy stayed home with me! I told the speech therapist about this on Tuesday and she was excited. Also, Nico was really cooperative on Tuesday and Marcia was able to move on to more advanced techniques, like trying to say a word with a consonant on the end, like BED. He's not able to copy the sounds just yet on those. She also worked on repeating sounds a certain number of times, or alternating sounds. Like "buh buh buh" or "buh ba buh ba". Nico caught on to the repetition, but not the alternating. On Thursday (Marcia came over twice this week!) Nico initiated his own ABC app on his iPad and took Marcia through it, repeating everything in it, just like she would have asked him to do. He seems more eager these days to repeat words.

Nico has also been doing a lot of two syllable words all on his own. He said "meatball" by saying "Ha (the Hhh sound that an H makes) bah". The "Ha" means that it was hot. So, he said hot ball! He strung two words together to describe something else! This is definitely a milestone for him. Also, cocoon, and various other random ones.

On Sunday we went to the cabin to hang with family. Nico got to see his cousin Alexis, they have a lot of fun together!

We also saw Sarah, and Allicia and Evie this week. The speech therapist also was here twice, trying to get more appointments in before Nico turns 3 in a few weeks.

Nico got a black eye this week from falling into his bed after trying to swing his leg over the last step without holding onto anything. Ouch!

Now for some pictures..

Playing with the sandbox.

 Helping me sort foam shapes for an activity we are doing at his birthday party. He was getting really fast at this near the end. He would hold two different colors, one in each hand, then scope out where they went, and then ... paused... and said GO! And then would put each color away at the same time.

 Our broccoli is almost ready to harvest!

An interesting seed pod on our walk tonight.

And one last note - on a walk earlier this week, Nico spotted a MINI on the street, and pointed to it and said "MINI!" So impressed with his car recognition!

Xylophone

This morning we hung out with Sarah. She brought Nico a birthday present from her and her mom, my Aunt Ellen. A xylophone! Nico loved it.

Sarah, Park, Strider

This morning we met Sarah at the park again. I brought along Nico's strider bike in case he wanted to play with it. He played on the park for a while and then wanted to get on his Strider.

Tonight I wrapped all of Nico's birthday presents. His birthday celebrations will be spread over a few weeks, it should be pretty fun!

Sarah

We hung out with Sarah today! Nico wasn't in the mood for pictures, but he was having a blast with Sarah there.

Slides

A picture of Nico and me on the slides at "Old Park". My cousin Sarah came with us and she is the one who took this picture.

Cabin

We went up to the cabin this afternoon. We got to see Sarah and Aunt Ellen as well as the Grandparents Salisbury. Nico ate so much at dinner! He had such fun time eating all sorts of things. There is always lots to eat at the cabin.

Sarah was nice enough to take some pictures of us. Here is one of them!