Halloween Party and Climbing Trees

Guy has been on days for a few weeks now, he is having trouble sleeping at night but for the most part things are good. He is able to hang out with us more, though some of our normal activities have gotten lost in the shuffle. Nico, for example, used to wake up at the crack of dawn to run downstairs and play games with Guy on his computer. But that hasn't happened since the switch. In fact, Nico is now sleeping in most mornings. This morning he got out of bed at 5 AM and passed our bed and headed for the door, but then turned and came back, crawled over me and planted himself between me and Guy and fell asleep for another hour and a half. Nico sleeps much better when Guy is there. But Guy sleeps terribly when Nico is there. Nico goes through fits and starts in the middle of the night during certain times. You can hear his teeth grinding together and he is kicking and bouncing his head around knocking into me and Guy. Nico always starts off in his own bed, but transfers to our bed at some point during the night, nestling in between us. We know he's there when he starts kicking us in his sleep.

The other previously normal activity that hasn't occurred since the day switch is me and Guy watching Netflix together.

Sunday was fun again to have Guy at church.

On Monday I went up to the cabin by myself to help my mom with computer stuff. Of course we took advantage of it and went for a hike and ate a wonderful lunch that day too. When I told Nico that he got to hang out with Daddy that day he said "Awwww I LOVE staying at home with Daddy!" He was very excited about it, even though he knew I was going to the C-A-B-I-N.

The view was beautiful up there, I don't ever remember it being that beautiful. Thanks for the wonderful day, Mom!

On Tuesday was Nico's Halloween Party at school! I brought some Nico safe treats with me in case they handed out candy. Gluten free peanut butter cups to the rescue! He decorated a cupcake but didn't eat it, and ate his peanut butter cup instead. Guy and I were BOTH able to go! The kids played musical chairs (Nico was the first one out and he started to whimper and cry when he had to sit by himself. Pretty soon everyone but 1 person was sitting with him, though, so he got over it fast). Then they played Bingo (everyone won something!).

Today was a fun day. Guy has had to go into work late (11 AM) so that he could stay late (8 PM) so he can train someone. This morning was our parent teacher conference and Guy was able to come!! Nico is a smarty pants, as we all know, and Ms. Lung is finding that she has to challenge him in Math. He is exceeding expectations there. He struggles a bit with social stuff but we are working on that. 

Two things the teacher gave us, is Nico's Blood Ghost, who apparently ate too much red blood, and then an About Me page where he was supposed to sound out the words he wanted to write and fill in the blanks. In Kindergarten they're not concerned with spelling, and as you can see Nico's favorite food is aplpi - a perfect phonetic reproduction of his beloved Apple Pie (which he's never actually eaten before).

After the parent teacher conference we came home and put on spooky scary nail wraps on Evelyn and Nico. I bought some MONSTER nail wraps and so for Halloween Evelyn and Nico are wearing them.

Here they are showing off their Zombie/Vampire/Mummy/Monster/Spider Web fingernails. 

This afternoon we went to Quarry View. Nico asked me if there was going to be friends there. He didn't mean friends that he knew, but kids in general. When he is on the playground with a group of kids he always says "Look at all my friends!!"

Evelyn showed up to the playground with her cousin and Aunt, and Nico joined in as they played soccer and climbed trees. Evelyn wore her dinosaur costume all day today. And Nico called out to her from the playground when he saw her: "Evelyn! Do you want to play with me with all my friends?" There was a large group of children on the playground and I was thankful for that. Nico has so much more fun when there are other kids around. He has no trouble asking other kids to play and always asks them what their names are. 

And then a random picture of Nico ironing. It was his idea and I had him use a cold iron.

Did you know Nico can read a bit? I'll have to video it. Ms. Lung sends home homework and it includes sentences. The first time I asked him to read a sentence I didn't expect much. But, yep, looks like he can read. And he has got his Ls down. He says "like" just fine! I am proud of him.

What a life! I am loving it!

Lumberjacks and Boo Bash

On Friday we went to Pojo's in the morning just to have some fun with Guy around. Guy even got some tokens for himself! Nico really enjoyed playing air hockey and we played it about 4 times.

On Saturday we ALL drove up to the cabin at 11 AM for the lumberjack party! It was so cool to have Guy with us. Grandma Salisbury served a huge microgreen salad, chili, and all the fixins! It was fabulous. We got to see family and old friends and new friends. After lunch the men went off to split some logs for the neighbor. (Guy had to work half the night on Friday night so he stayed back). The girls had a fun time while the boys were away and Guy was our commentary and made us laugh. There were guessing games (how much does the pumpkin weigh? How many M&Ms are in the jar) and Nico won a picture colored by Lexie and Rory.

Then the fun with Guy continued on Sunday when he was able to come to church with us for the first time in one year! This was the second time he has been to our church's Sunday service, and the first time he has heard the pastor preach! Then Bible Study Sunday night.

Monday & Tuesday were fun with Guy home, he went with me to pick up Nico from school on both days. Guy carried Nico home on his shoulders.

Then tonight was the Boo Bash at his school. Sooo much fun! I never remember winning cake walks when I was little, but the FIRST round-about Nico did at the cake walk, he won! There was an allergy free table so he picked out a little gluten free chocolate cake. We got a polaroid taken of all of us and visited all the rooms and got prizes. We even played with electricity in the Micron room. In the hallway near the library were boxes and boxes of books that the library was getting rid of. We were limited to picking out 3 for free so Guy picked out 3 while Nico and I went to a few of the game rooms.

You probably noticed that Nico is wearing his Fire Chief costume instead of his Ninja Turtle.. well... the ninja turtle needs a little bit of fixing with safety pins, which we had, but Nico didn't want to deal with it and just wanted his fire man costume. It's a good thing we had it on hand!

When we came home, though it was 7 PM, we let him have a small piece of his chocolate cake. He is a bit bouncy now... hehe. Guy is snuggling with him in his bed but it is not going as calmly as usual. There is lots of talking and excitement and jumping around going on in there. 

Nico and Evelyn searching for rocks at the park. SO many to choose from! Evelyn is wearing her dinosaur costume.

Nico told me to pick him up a comic book at the library on Tuesday. I picked up Little Nemo: Return to Slumberland

He was actually pretty excited about it, and it has chapters. Guy has read it to him the last 2 nights, one chapter each night, and Nico is thrilled! Glad to see it when he'e excited about reading.

Birthday and the Transition to Days

On Saturday I had a henna booth so I dropped Nico off with Papa for the day. They had a lot of fun up at the cabin playing. I appreciated that so much! Thank you Papa!

Then started Guy's birthday week and the planning and implementation of "Columbo's Day". We have been talking about doing this for years, and this is the first year we implemented it. Guy had come up with the idea of watching episodes of Columbo on Columbus Day and calling it Columbo's Day. We did that this year. I made some snickerdoodles and then we settled in to watch our first episode. Nico watched it with us and it had Dick Van Dyke in it as the murderer. The next one we watched had Johnny Cash in it.

Then, Guy's birthday was on Tuesday. I made meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and veggies for dinner, one of Guy's favorite meals that we could all eat, and then we just hung out.

The biggest news this week is that Guy is switching to days, and TODAY is the day he did it! He was able to go out with us to run errands this morning and it was awesome, Nico enjoyed hanging out with Daddy ALL day (besides the time he was at school). We picked up a coffee from Flying M on the way home, his second of 3 coffees that he has had today. He is super tired right now and will be heading to bed shortly.

Also this week we got a mystery package. I have been ordering my digestive enzymes from Awake Wellness online for the past 2 years. Every time they send me my order, it always has 2 lollipops in it, ones that Nico can eat because they don't have corn syrup. Nico is always so excited. I wrote to the company and told them how much we appreciated the two lollipops they send in every order, and that Nico now asks whenever we get a package, "Does it have lollipops in it?" I never heard back from them, but then on Tuesday we got a package. When I saw who it was from I had a sneaking suspicion what was inside, so I had Nico open it. Sure enough, he looked inside and said "It's a lot of lollipops!" They had sent us several handfuls of lollipops!!

Nico has been illustrating things that have been happening in day to day life. Him and Guy often sit down at the table and draw, and Nico always comes up with something interesting. Shortly after staying with Grandma Salisbury, he drew a picture of her and him at Fred Meyer, with Grandma pushing the cart. We gave that one to Grandma. Then he drew one of the cabin, be sure to note the moose in the lower right corner, and the steep driveway! There is also a difference between Papa's truck, and Grandma's car.

On Tuesday we had gone to see G.G. It was a fun visit as always, Nico played with a few of G.G.'s old cars, one that used to belong to Grandpa Russell, and one that used to belong to G.G.'s brother. Nico also played with a coke bottle truck. That night while I was at Tap class, Guy and Nico drew some more and Nico drew the bottle truck. You can see the bottles sticking up from the top, just like the toy!

We made a silly video tonight per Nico's request, "take a picture of me doing this!" He wanted video, so I took a video and we stuck all the different funny episodes together into a funny movie. It's him making funny noises and flopping around. hehe...  Here you go!

Exam, Movie, and some Good News!

We have some great news to share this week! Guy was offered the engineering position!! We finally heard back from them last week and he accepted the offer shortly after. He will soon be moving to the day shift but "soon" is a relative word ;) They're talking some time in November the switch will take place. Guy has been on nights for 5 years, I can't believe the switch is finally going to happen! I am more than ready.

On Saturday I had some henna to do, so a friend from church watched Nico. She took Nico and her 3 kids to the Sensory Friendly Movie, they were playing Shaun the Sheep!! Nico had a lot of fun.

On Monday I had my huge aromatherapy exam. It will be 6 weeks before I hear anything about it, but I'm pretty sure I passed! Nico got to spend the morning with Papa while I was at the exam. They did legos and then walked to the park for a bit. I finished the test sooner than I thought I would, so I was back shortly after they ate lunch. Thanks for watching Nico, Papa! :)

Nico officially asked to switch to creamy peanut butter. So Guy bought some creamy peanut butter for the first time since we were married. Guy is wondering if Nico will ever want to switch back to crunchy, like Guy did when he was younger. We will see! I offered to buy them each their own kind of peanut butter but Guy said he preferred not to. He will just endure! ;)

Guy putting creamy peanut butter on his pancake. 

Nico spinning on his bottom. (break dancing) "Take a picture! Cheeeeeeeese!"

Nico had a lockdown drill at school yesterday. He told me about it as soon as I picked him up. Mommy! he said. When a guy comes in, you turn off the lights and close the door and you get in a line and you are really quiet and then you go outside (they have a door to the outside from their room).

Last night while he was in bed not going to sleep, he said "Mommy I don't want to go to school!" I asked him how come and he said "I don't want a lock down!" it turns out he doesn't like the loud noise of a possible fire drill. He doesn't like those. He asked me over and over if there was going to be a loud noise at school and I kept telling him I didn't know, but that the loud noise was good because it tells you there's an emergency. The conversation was getting nowhere and around in circles we went, so I told him we'd talk about it in the morning.

On the way to school today he asked me if they were going to do a fire drill and I said I didn't know, and that was that.

Hearing about lock down drills reminds me to pray for his school and for his safety. What a good reminder! The principal also sent an email out that day to tell all the parents they did lock down drills.

I forgot to post some pictures from last week when we climbed the Camel's Back Hill! We did it on a whim and it was so much fun.

At the TOP

Looking down the way we came

VIDEO!

Another Birthday Party!

Saturday was Michael's birthday party. Michael is a boy that went to Nico's preschool and now they are in Kindergarten together! The party was at Quarry View, so Nico rode his bike. They had a bouncy house, and cake and snacks. And Michael's older sister was doing face painting! Nico asked her to do a lion! I got a rose on my hand.

Nico jumped so much on the bouncy house that he came out and said he had a tummy ache and wanted to go home. This was right at 3 PM when the party was over, good timing! We came home and turned the swamp cooler on and relaxed on the couch. He was soon feeling better. 

At the party I met the mother of another one of Nico's classmates, she helps out on Wednesdays in the classroom with the weekly art project they do. She invited to come help this past Wednesday because they were doing something that could use an extra hand. I agreed! Nico was very excited that I was coming to his class. He made sure I stood in line with him.

For the art project they had to wrap sticks in yarn and then we (the helpers) tied them to another stick to make mobiles. There was glue and yarn everywhere!!

Every month, Guy's cousin Missy (I call her my cousin too) puts together a girls night out for a small group of girls. I was able to go this time and it was a blast! We went out to eat. Nico got to stay home with Guy. Missy said she may try to stop by G.G.'s house the next time Nico and I go there. Looking forward to that!

Nico has Thursday and Friday off this week.. teacher inservice!

I have my Aromatherapy Registration Exam on Monday. I've been studying. Pray for me!

Still no word on Guy's job. I'm in charge of Guy's phone during the day in case they call, and I've been carrying it with me everywhere for 4 weeks now!

(Forgot to mention us climbing Camel's Back Hill! See next week's blog for pictures and video!)

New Bike!

Saturday was Bruce's birthday party! Nico and I went up to the cabin that afternoon and enjoyed seeing family and celebrating with Bruce. There was even gluten free Nico pizza!

We had to leave around 2:30 to be back in time to wake Guy up for work. After waking him up, I packed up my henna stuff and went over to the neighborhood's block party. I did free henna for a few hours that night for everyone who showed up. Jeff and Allicia handled Nico for me, they came to the block party and Nico got to jump on the bouncy house. He even came over to my henna booth and got a henna tattoo. He usually wants it wiped off as soon as I get it on, and this time was no exception. I got home after 8 PM that night and Nico was still up, so we snuggled a bit and he told me that he was never going to jump in a bouncy house again because he jumped so much that it made him sick.

On Tuesdays I have started doing something new in the evenings - Tap Dance! This past week was my second class. It is a lot of fun. Nico likes my tap shoes, but told me that he doesn't tap dance because he's a boy. So Guy took him to Youtube videos of Danny Kay, Fred Astere, and Nico watched them several times and danced along.

Still no word from Guy's job. Ho hum!

Today Nico and I ventured to a kids consignment shop to buy winter clothes. We got him some boots and a coat and some long pants and long shirts. We even bought him a Halloween costume - Raphael the teenage mutant ninja turtle.

He was pretty set that he wanted to be the Armor of God for Halloween but we couldn't find an armor suit there, so I let him look at the other costumes while I looked at clothes, and this is what he found! It's not in very good shape after taking it out of the bag, but, it'll do!

Then on the way out we saw a bike that he liked, and so I considered... his current bike has a flat tire and is so small. Instead of fixing the tire, why don't we just buy a new bike? :) And this bike was signed by Kristin Armstrong (the bike park that we go to sometimes was named after her). And this was also a Trek bike, brand new costing $299, and we bought it for $32. It does have a non-functioning right brake and the handle bars need to be tightened because they turn, but Jeff has offered to fix the bike for us! We took the bike out to the park tonight, Evie followed on a tricycle. Nico took the park loop a good many times and got used to riding it. Unfortunately he cannot get up on the bike without help. He tried several times but he can't touch the ground and sit on the seat at the same time so it will require some serious skills to be able to do it. He'll get it eventually. But this also means that landings are sometimes dangerous. I told him to kick his foot out and fall on his foot after he stops. This usually means that the bike also falls too. He had a few crashes, and thankfully I was there at the right moments to prevent the serious crashes from happening. God's angels were also at hand :) 

AND OH MY GOODNESS! I don't think I ever mentioned the hot air balloon chase we did a few weekends ago (September 5th). How could I forget! A hot air balloon landed nearby and so me and the kids raced there and got there just in time for Evelyn to get to go inside the balloon and see the fire. Nico wanted to stand back. There's a video below too. Two videos today! One of biking, one of hot air balloon.

Video!

G.G., Bible Study, and the ickies

Nico had a lot of fun with Grandma while I was gone! Thanks so much for watching him, Mom! 

I returned home Saturday night, and saw Nico the next morning. He woke up while I had gone to the bathroom and I came back into the clubhouse with an angry-voiced Nico saying "Mommy! Mommy!" because I wasn't there. Hehe.. he was grumpy but I made him smile and then we snuggled for a long while in the bed before getting up.

Sunday we had church and then that night was the first night of Bible Study this year. We dropped Nico off at the big kids group and Guy and I went to our group. It was great to see everyone again. We had to go around the room and introduce ourselves (even though we knew most of the people) and say something interesting about us that nobody would know. Mine was that Guy and I did a lot of puzzles together while we were dating and that a few years ago we did a 13,000 piece one. When it was Guy's turn, he told everyone that he likes to try to identify sandwiches from long distances. Hehe.

We haven't heard anything about Guy's job yet, but he did tell me that he got a "wink" from the hiring manager. Not sure if I already mentioned that. Now we're just waiting... and waiting... and waiting...

On Tuesday morning we went to see G.G. and Nico wanted to bring his checkers game to play with her. He brought it with us and G.G. taught him how to play. G.G. also let him feed Scamper two treats, and Scamper ate them right off his hand, to help him learn that Scamper wouldn't hurt him.

On Wednesday morning we went to the park with Allicia and crew. We usually do this Monday but on Monday we both desperately needed to go grocery shopping, so we postponed it until Wednesday. The plus to doing it on Wednesday was that there were no lawn mowers.

For the past few days Nico has been complaining of tummy aches before, during, after bed and before, during, after eating. Wednesday morning he only had a few bites of pancake and started whining. After lunch he told me he was sick and needed to stay home from school. Hmm.. I sent him anyway. He did fine at school but didn't eat anything when he came home, and right before bed he got sick once. He felt so much better afterward, and slept until morning, when he ate some food and then again for lunch. I kept him home from school. He skipped dinner again tonight and though he's telling me he doesn't have a tummy ache, he really has no appetite for food. He ate a few monster teeth before going to bed just now, but wasn't very interested. He had a temp of 99.3 earlier. Not that that's significant, but sometimes that can mean something.

I'm hoping he'll be okay tonight and wake up his chipper self tomorrow. He does seem to have a runny nose, so perhaps that's related.

That's it for this week... hopefully next week we'll have news from Guy's job!

Interview and Salt Lake City

Guy had his interview last Friday at 3 PM. He tells me it went well, but we are still waiting to hear the results of it! 

The rest of the week was really spent me getting ready for my trip to SLC, I had a lot of last minute stuff to do. So Nico came with me running errands, and he played a new game on his iPad. I download free apps, but only the ones that are only temporarily free and used to be $4+, because those are the good ones, the ones that don't have any ads or are silly. There are two Dr. Panda apps I've downloaded this way and they are awesome!! The latest one, Nico gets to drive around animals in cars and construction equipment to run errands around the town. He has enjoyed it.

I left to come to Salt Lake City yesterday after I dropped Nico off at school. My mom came in and picked him up from school at 3:15. I arrived last night here around 6 PM. I have had a good time so far and I've been really enjoying seeing the pictures Grandma has sent me. It looks like they are having a good time and that makes me happy! Nico gets to sleep upstairs in the suite with Grandma.

Here he is being silly in the morning. 

Waiting for their pizza at Chicago Connection. Looks like they're playing Tic Tac Toe!

Waiting for the bell to ring at school

And now I'm remembering, on Tuesday he didn't want to go to school and seemed very tired and I admit I was worried that he was sick or something. I could not get him to get into line after the bell rang and he kept whining and squirming around on the floor. I told him that he wouldn't get to play on his iPad after school if he didn't get into line and he said "Ok!" and happily got into line and was perfectly fine. Then he ran up to me and gave me his usual hug and kiss and got back into line. 

I love that he has randomly started doing that when he says goodbye at school. Hug and kiss. He asks for "rough hugs" which means I squeeze him really hard. He started saying this because I started asking for soft hugs or gentle hugs. He says "You like soft hugs and I like rough hugs!" Sometimes we forget to do the hug/kiss routine but I love it when he remembers. Kind of like how he came up with the idea to count to 3 before praying. He still does that every morning. We have to have our eyes open while he counts, and then we have to close them when he starts praying. If he sees that we have our eyes closed while he's counting, then he has to start over.

Ok off to bed for me!

Until next week!

Church Picnic and Holding Ivy

Forgot again! I finally added Thursday night blog updating to my calendar, so I will remember next week :)

Last Friday was the last Friday of my henna booth.  Nico got to spend the night at the cabin again! And I went to pick him up on Saturday. Lily was there along with Jeremy. We had good food and a good time, again!! Thanks Pa & Ma!

On Sunday was the church picnic! I told Nico about it just the morning of, and that there was going to be a Bounce House Water Slide! He said "Oh my goodness, I love one of those!" he was very excited (side note about water slides. On his first day of school, we were halfway out the door when he turned around and said "MOMMY! Don't forget my swimsuit, where's my swimsuit?" He thought that he got to go to the waterslide behind his school as a matter of course during the school day. Oh woe is Nico! I should have seen this coming, remember his Preschool graduation? "What is the thing you're most excited about school next year?" His answer was "The water slide behind my school!")

We brought potato salad. It was a very pleasant afternoon. Nico got soaked from head to toe in his clothes. Then we changed him into his swim trunks because they were the only dry thing we had. That was only after he was done on the water slide. They had free Ben and Jerries Ice Cream there, so I told Nico we could stop by the Co-op on the way home and get him some ice cream and some cones.

Check out video below of water slide plus "Big Bubble" fun!

Sunday night we watched Ivy for a few hours. Nico loves to do "This little piggy" on her, either her toes or her fingers. I didn't catch it quick enough to include in the video at the end.

On Tuesday we went to Big-O Tires to get our car checked out, looks like we needed new tires. So we got them. Also an oil change. I am going out of town next week to Salt Lake City for the doTERRA convention so we wanted to make sure the car was good. My mom will be staying in the suite upstairs to watch Nico while I am gone.

Thursday was picture day at school. Nico picked out his shirt, it was a new football shirt that he had picked out from Kohl's a few weeks ago. Thursday night was parents orientation. We got to hear the principal speak and then we all separated and went to our child's classrooms to hear their teachers speak. I love the principal and I am so happy that Nico is at Adam's!!! His teacher is great too! She told us what they do every day, what they work on through the school year, and she also told us her pet peeve - constantly changing how your child is picked up from school. That is, whether he'll be on the bus or picked up in person. Thankfully Nico will never take the bus so we don't have to worry about it :)

Read-a-thon is going on at Nico's school soon! It's a fundraiser. You can pledge an amount of money you'll donate per minute Nico reads a book (this would be me or Guy reading to him), up to a certain amount, or you can just do a lump sum donation. If you'd like to participate and pledge an amount per minute (the Read-a-thon lasts for 2 weeks so this will be the total minutes read over a two week period), then let me know and I'll write it on the form! Payments aren't collected until the end of September, after it's over and we know how many minutes he's read. His goal is 210 minutes which is 15 minutes per day.

Video time!

First day of school!

Last Friday was the Open House in the afternoon, which we went to. We dropped off our school supplies and ran into Nico's friend from preschool last year, Michael. Nico was excited to see him, and likewise! Here's his classroom. The teacher is in the white dress on the left. Ms. Lung.

His first day was on Monday, it was an early release day which meant his class started at 11:30 (instead of 12:30), and got out at 1:15 (instead of 3:15).

Nico wanted me to take a picture of him while he was pretending to fly his water airplane. So this is him in action:

We walked to school, and on the way we ran into another mom and son walking to kindergarten. Silas was the boy's name. Nico and Silas:

We are supposed to wait at the playground until the bell rings. Then they line up and on we go into the classroom. The parents were invited in for a story. All the kids sat down on the mat and Ms. Lung read them "The Kissing Hand". It is a story about a mommy and child raccoon. The child didn't want to go to school, so the mom had him open up his palm and she kissed his palm. Then he could grab onto the kiss and use it to kiss his own cheek whenever he missed his mom. Then, as the child raccoon is saying goodbye to his mom at school, he comes up to her and has her open her palm and kisses her palm, so that whenever she misses him she can open her palm and use his kiss to kiss her own cheeks.

After the story was over Ms. Lung had all the children go find their parents and have the parents kiss the child's hand and the child kiss the parents' hands. Ms. Lung said if you don't have someone there then kiss your own hand. She also said that it could be your mom or your dad or your grandparents or whoever was there with them. Nico was sure to point out to her that his daddy and grandma and grandpa were not with him, just his mommy. So he came over and I kissed his palm and he right away pressed it to his cheeks. Then he kissed my palm.

In the previous picture, the teacher had just read that the child raccoon didn't want to go to school. She added that she knows some of the kindergarteners probably weren't excited about school but that's okay. Nico called out "I am excited for school!" heehee. Ms. Lung had to put her finger to her mouth to show that they had to be quiet, that's what she's doing in the picture. 

When she called roll and got to Michael, Nico called out "But Michael isn't here!" Ms. Lung pointed behind him and so Nico looked and there was Michael! Nico smiled and did a little wave to him.

Nico asks sometimes for me to pick him up in the car next time because he doesn't like walking. It's usually right in the middle of walking home in the hot sun that he says this. We continue walking to/from school, though. We wear hats to keep the sun from scorching us, and it's about a 7 minute walk.

On Thursday morning we took Evelyn up to the cabin for a quick morning visit. Grandma Salisbury fed us apples, asian pears, and cheese. Evelyn helped pluck the seed-hats off of the sunflower sprouts, and she also really loved eating them. They played really well together and Nico enjoyed showing her everything. We raced back before school and ate lunch and then off to school. Thanks for the fun visit, Grandma!

A few funny things Nico has said this week..

Snuggling before bed one night, Nico asks me what comes after Kindergarten. We go through all the grades and then I tell him about turning 18 and moving out and getting a job to make money and maybe going to college. He asks me why we need to make money and so I tell him we need to make money to buy food, shelter, clothes, cars, and then other things that you want.

Nico instantly started listing the things he was going to buy when he turned 18.
#1 Go to Fred Meyer and buy a Thomas the Train Engine toy
#2 Go to Fred Meyer and buy another Thomas the Train Engine toy
#3 Go to Pojo’s and play games
#4 Play another game at Pojo’s
#5 Come home

Then another time, Nico and I were talking on the couch and the topic of Jesus came up. Nico jumps off the couch and goes into storytelling mode, animated and acting everything out.

"Jesus was on a boat, and he was going and then a STORM CAME! The waves were really big. Then Jesus PUSHED JONAH OFF THE BOAT! He got swallowed by a big fish. He was in his stomach and he was really gooey and slimy. Jesus was talking to the captain and asked him "Where's Jonah?" and the captain said "Hmm.. THERE HE IS!" Then Jesus flew away off the boat and all the animals were safe."

heehee...

That's it for this week!

A-OK

Everything is fine, just forgot to update last night! Expect a new blog post this afternoon (Friday)

G.G., Pojo's, Paddle Boats!

On Friday Nico had another trip to the cabin and another sleepover! I went up on Saturday to pick him up. We had a great time as always! My brother Jeremy and my nephew Kai were up there helping Papa chop down a tree. They used a chainsaw and I was hoping to see the tree fall, but it is still standing! It is HUGE! The chainsaw started smoking so they figured they'd give it a rest. They had been at it quite a while.

Monday was dance class, and I took a video! Unfortunately Nico didn't want to dance that day, so the video just has Evelyn in it. Well it does have Nico in it for a short second, but he's not dancing. Still, I will post it at the end of this entry. You'll get to see the moves they were learning in class and the dance and the cheer that they learned. Nico was happy that it was over and kept saying instead that he wanted to learn Hip Hop dance, like the dancing found in the video of his favorite song, Ready Set Go by Royal Tailor (I've often caught him singing "Oh! You put my life in motion so Oh! Your Love makes me want to give my ah ah ah ah ah ah ah all, ready set go ready set go oh oh!"). Or one of the songs from VBS, like the marching song, or the power shuffle. I overheard him telling his dance teacher about the Ready Set Go song.

So anyway, interpretive dance, ballet, and cheer, are not forms of dance that Nico enjoys. At least now we know :) Next year we'll choose the Hip Hop class.

On Tuesday we went to see G.G. I got to see her new smart phone. I am so proud of her using that thing! I showed her how to do some things, she is learning fast! I even set up Scrabble on my own phone so that we could play scrabble back and forth with our phones. Speaking of which, let me check if it's my turn... nope not yet :) Playing Scrabble with G.G. has been the highlight of my days since Tuesday. She gave us some green beans, tomato, and cucumber from her garden, yum!! Looking forward to seeing her again next month.

Wednesday was a grocery shopping day. We were planning to go to the School PTO Social at Municipal Park in the evening, but Nico fell asleep in a snuggle a little after 5 PM and slept until 3 AM, when he changed his clothes into PJs and then went back to bed until 5:30. Wow! He must have needed that.

Today I took Nico and Evelyn for a fun adventure. First to the dollar store where they each picked out a toy. Including me. My toy was index cards and some labels. Then I took them to Pojo's where we played for about an hour. Then it was off to paddle boats. I was feeling pretty seasick by the time we returned the paddle boat. I'm sure it was because I was trying to take video while on the water.

Tomorrow is when we go meet his teacher in the afternoon, and bring his school supplies. Nico is excited that Michael and Acelyn from his preschool will both be in his class.

Forgot to add some pictures..

Drinking soda at Whole Foods. He spilled half the can on the floor.

 Dawson Taylor's on Sunday picking up some coffee.

Now to the videos...

Dance Class

Pojo's, Paddle Boats

Cabin, School Supplies

Today will likely be short and sweet. I am watching Ivy tonight in about 15 minutes so I need to be done with this entry by then. Can I do it?? Let's see!

Friday was another henna booth night, and Nico had a sleepover at the cabin! He got to pack his new suitcase and take it up there with him. Then on Saturday, the Grandparents Salisbury brought Nico and we all met at a restaurant called Locavore. It was my first time eating there and it was very good! Nico got a pb&j sandwich with potato crisps, I got a grilled chicken salad with an amazing sweet mustard vinaigrette. Then there was potato crisps for the table, and boy were those good.

This is the only picture I got this week, Nico is going through his bag of school supplies. He picks up each piece and stares at it for about 30 seconds, turning it around in his hands, then he puts it down and picks up the next one. He is excited for school to start!

This morning Nico and I took a trip up to the cabin! We ate lunch there and hung out until the afternoon. We had a great time! 

Guy is waiting to hear about a position that recently became available at Photronics, and engineering position. The hiring manager made sure that Guy applied for it. Many of the key people have been taking turns being out of town the past few weeks, so nothing new on this front.

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And, I didn't finish this entry in time! Now it is way past my bed time and I am going to hit the hay. Nothing else to report this week, unless I forgot something..... hummmm.... it's possible. If I remember then I will update with it next week! Until then!

Birthday Party, Grandparents, Fun!

Grandparents Russell came for a visit!! Pictures are lacking due to not remembering to take them! But I did get a few. Nico's birthday party was on Saturday and though it was HOT, we did have some misters to help keep us cool, and a pool for the kids with our new improved canopy over it. We ordered pizza from Chicago Connection, and then ate cake and opened presents.

Nico making soup. "There's a key ingredient missing... YOU!" Nico was quoting one of his new books. He had me say this line to him and then push his head toward the bowl when I'd say "YOU!"

On Friday Nico and Guy got to hang out with the Grandparents while I did my henna booth in the evening, Nico and Evelyn and Grandma Russell had a fun time in the pool that night!

On Sunday we all went to church together, Grandparents Russell, G.G., me and Nico. The rest of the days we spent just hanging out, one of my favorite things to do! We are going to start planning a trip to Arlington for next Spring Break. Yeah!!

This morning I took Nico and Evelyn to Settler's Park. They have a splash pad and a playground. They played on the splash pad, then we ate a snack, then they played on the playground. A full morning.

This update seems pretty short and sweet. This was definitely a good week!!
Until next time!