Crock Pot Meals, Rubik's Cube, and Horseback Riding!

Last Friday was the 2nd Grandma Camp day - the day the kids learned how to use a crock pot! I dropped Nico off at 8AM and he came home at 5:30 PM with a crock pot full of pot roast, potatoes and carrots. It was magnificent! And Nico made it. Nico was also required to clean the crock pot afterward, which he did diligently.

We had to rate it on a scale from 1-5. Nico gave it a 4. I would give it a 4.5. It was really good.

Saturday morning, after making pancakes, I packed up the car and drove to the downtown market to do some henna for the morning. Around 1 PM Guy and Nico hopped on their bikes and took the greenbelt all the way downtown to come see me right as I was closing up around 1:30. I gave Nico a henna tattoo and then we packed up my stuff and they helped me get it up the escalator before they headed home. 

Saturday night it was my turn to choose the movie while we ate pizza, we rented How to Train Your Dragon 3 from Red Box. Good movie!

Sunday was Father's Day. We celebrated by taking naps in the afternoon :) Sunday evening Nico became very interested in figuring out how to solve his Rubik's cube, so he got out a pad of paper and watched a YouTube video on how to do it. He took notes.

On Monday we were taking care of Avery and Ivy while Allicia and Evelyn were out of town. We took them to their VBS that morning and then Nico and I ran over to Urban Air (trampoline park) to use up one of his free passes. Nico solved the Rubik's cube while in the car that morning! 

We picked up the kids from VBS and came home for lunch. Allicia and Evelyn arrived home soon after.

Avery and Nico sat on our couch and talked about Pokemon for a while. 

Tuesday was another Grandma Camp, for this one they got to ride horses! They went to a farm where they showed all the kids how to approach a horse and pet a horse and ride a horse. Each one had their own handler, so while they sat on the horse, the handler held the reigns and they went for a trail ride.

Tuesday has typically been mine and Guy's date day. While Nico was in school, we would meet for an hour in the afternoon at a coffee shop. So this Tuesday we were able to resume that, and we decided to hit up a new restaurant (to us) in downtown Boise called Lemon Tree. They are a specialty sandwich shop, an they offer gluten free bread.

Guy got the Massaman Curry Bohn Mi, I got the Turkey Boursin. We both got a side of tomato soup. The tomato soup was perfect and the sandwich was even better. I have a new favorite local place to get gluten free lunch! We decided we should take Nico there sometime. They had outdoor seating and upstairs seating, we chose a spot inside on the main floor near the front window.

After lunch we walked around downtown. Guy got a coffee from a local shop we'd never been in before. He said the latte was really good.

And for a treat for me we went to The Chocolat Bar and got a truffle. We also went into a specialty gift store. From the outside we saw that they had a Tardis inside (from the show Dr Who), so we decided to venture inside.

They had photo ops for other shows too, including Star Trek. We also saw Archie McPhee's rubber chickens for sale! On the upstairs level I found a fun painting of the movie The Princess Bride. That movie was the movie Guy and I watched RIGHT before he asked me to be his girlfriend. So I bought it with some birthday money. 

It was the best afternoon ever.

After horseback riding, Nico and the crew went to the mall and ate lunch with my Aunt Liz, who is in town this week.

In the afternoon they once again went to the Pokemon League at the library, bringing Evelyn with them, and then they hit Pizza Pie Cafe for dinner.

Nico is graduating from Level 3 swimming lessons. After his last week of Level 3 next week, we are going to skip the rest of the summer and start up with swimming lessons Level 4 after he goes back to school. We plan to get a pass to the pool this summer and since he knows how to mostly swim now he is wanting to swim all the time.

Grandma Camp today was another crock pot meal!! Nico brought home a steaming hot crock pot full of chicken stew. Nico rated it a 5, Guy rated it a 2 (Chicken soup is not his thing, but he said it was a good chicken soup on the chicken soup scale), I would rate it a 4! 

After dinner we all headed to the church for band practice. I am playing piano this Sunday in the band so I was there to practice with them. It went late and we got home with enough time for Nico to clean his crock pot before he fell into bed. Zzzzz. He fell asleep fast. 

See you next week!

Grandpa Russell, Library, Water Park

On Friday we welcomed Grandpa Russell into town! He came over in the afternoon and we all went over to Red Robin for dinner. Nico asked the server for soda water with coconut after Daddy asked for soda water with lime.

Then it was home to play The Game of Life. Nico is really into this game right now, we play it every day. Grandpa won!

On Saturday morning Grandpa brought Nico some coconut soda. I went to my post at the Saturday market to do some henna, and the boys had a fun morning hanging out and going places. They went to the Dollar Store so Nico could buy his marbles, and they also came downtown to go to the market and to see me. They also took a trip to the library before they dropped Grandpa off at the airport. It was a fun visit. We are all really looking forward to seeing the Grandparents Russell NEXT WEEK when we fly in to Seattle and stay with them for a few days! Next Thursday's update will happen from Arlington!

On Sunday Nico and I went over to the Grandparents Salisbury's house, Nico played Minecraft with Papa and I hung out with Grandma and my Aunt Ellen. 

On Saturday, a big moving truck went down the alley and severed our cable internet line. We were without internet until Monday night. So on Monday I loaded up my computer and we went to the library so I could get a bit of work done. We discovered his school friend Linus hanging out there with his sister, and they were on iPads playing Minecraft, and it turns out the library lends out iPads while you're there so you can play on them. We got one for Nico and he sat right next to Linus and all 3 of them played Minecraft. I sat next to Nico and got some work done. It was so cool we decided to come back on Wednesday. We were hoping to run into Linus again but they didn't make it to the library that day. But, his step-mom and I exchanged numbers and Linus and his sister will be going to Nico's birthday party! Mark your calendars! July 29th, Saturday, 1PM at Pojo's.

Playing Minecraft

On Tuesday we got to see GG in Nampa! Nico wanted to bring Life over to play with her, so we did that. GG won!! :)

This morning we went to the Roaring Springs water park and met some church friends there. Nico's friend Leona took him around to the smaller slides and rides and he had so much fun, and lasted about an hour. He was shivering so much. It started out around 70 degrees and windy, so I can understand that! I was cold at a few points and I didn't get in the water! He curled up under his blanket in the sun and warmed up, then we headed home. He took a shower, we ate lunch, then we went downtown to get a smoothie from Jamba Juice.

A few random pictures from this week

When was the last time Nico fell asleep in the car??

Park play date with Allicia and crew

 Silly picture time

Whiffle Ball, Day of Learning, Zoo

On Saturday we went to a garage sale down the street from us. Nico found a whiffle bat and ball for 50 cents that he bought. Then we went to both of the Saturday markets in downtown Boise to scope out spots for me to do henna. Oh, and to enjoy ourselves. Nico got a balloon animal and we watched a magician do magic tricks. Guy bought coffee from a local roaster and Nico got a free bunch of radishes just for being a kid. We came home and ate radishes.

Then I dropped the boys off at Memorial Park with the whiffle bat and I ran to the Co-op, then came and picked them up.  

Then we visited Brianna for the last time. While we were there, Nico asked her if she wanted to join us for pizza and she said no she had a lot of packing and dishes to do. So Nico said: "How about Daddy and I can help pack and you and Mommy can wash dishes?" And that's what we did! She still wasn't able to join us for pizza because her parents came into town that night.

We said goodbye to Brianna, then went to the Library. After that we came home and ate lunch. We had pizza that night and I then I left the boys at home to go see Allicia at her roller derby game. My voice was hoarse afterward from all the cheering. She is really good.

On Tuesday Nico brought his Day of Learning project to school. He carried it in front of him, the trifold Open so that everyone who walked by would see it. And it worked. Someone said as she was passing, "Cool project!"

That night there was an open house at the school so everyone could view the projects. There was only one other 1st grader that had participated, but lots from other grades. Guy and Nico went.

When Nico started out to work on his project, this is how it went down:

"I'm not going to fill up all the space"

As he's writing info about the Purple Martin in his lab notebook: "I think I'm just going to do 5 birds."

As he's writing info about the Purple Martin on the project board: "Actually, I think I'm just going to do one bird."

I was very proud of him! He got to present his project to his class, too.

Today was the Father's Day zoo trip. Guy met Nico's class at the zoo.

 Kookaburras! How did we miss these last time? Guy told me that Nico sat and stared at them for 5 minutes.

Nico has been coming home with all sorts of things from school, folders, notebooks, books that his teacher was giving away, summer reading packets... it's getting to be about that time. One more week and it's done!

Birthday Boy!!

Nico woke up Friday morning with all his presents on the table. He opened them right away. We didn't have his party until Saturday, but we did still have cake on Friday (and his favorite meal - rice & ground beef). The Grandparents Russell and GG came over that day and Nico opened more presents. Everyone hung out and we just relaxed, played games, Grandma Russell and I went out shopping for a bit.

Playing on GG's phone

Writing in his new Where's Waldo Game Book

Figuring out how one of his new toys works

Grandpa can help

Butter on the nose!! This is a birthday tradition in Canada. The Grandparents Russell had taken Nico to the library and they picked out a book about birthday traditions around the world. Two other ones we did: Pull on their ear 6 times (for 6 years old. Brazil) and clap 6 times (Australia).

GG's gift was a big hit

Piggie and Gerald!!

Dinner and cake

Grandpa reading to Nico

Playing Diggin' Doggies

Saturday was Nico's party but it wasn't until 1 PM, so that morning Guy and I and Nico went to the Farmers Market. We don't usually get to do stuff on Saturday mornings together because of my henna booths, so this was a treat. We let Nico pick out a hand-made lip balm. The Sprouts Club gave him 2 tokens to spend and he bought a cucumber with it.

We took Camden and Evelyn with us to the party. Some of Nico's friends weren't able to make it, but I don't even think Nico noticed! There were legos to be played with and mini-figurines to build. They hooked up a zipline for the lego figurines to go across.

Zipline

Then we sang Happy Birthday and ate dessert. Grandma Russell got a good shot of him looking so super happy while we were singing. This is one of my favorite pictures!

Guy showed Grandma Salisbury and Grandma Russell how to play Pokémon Go!

The Grandparents Russell came over after the party and we ordered Chipotle for dinner. Oh so good! We hung out some more, Grandpa Russell downloaded all his party pictures onto my computer (yay!) and then we said goodbye right before Nico's bedtime.

Loved having them here, can't wait to see them again in December!

A few more pictures...

We gave Grandpa Russell his early birthday present - a ceramic strawberry that Nico painted (Guy & I helped:))

And here is Grandma Russell's henna stain, still going strong

Nico is now at Grandma Camp: Board Games! He brought Forbidden Island with him. This is the last installment of Grandma Camp for the summer! Nico has been enjoying them so much! I will have pictures from that next week :)