Nico tells a joke at school

Last weekend was the first weekend in a long time that I didn't have any henna to do! Pretty soon that will be the status quo. I've got 3 more big events in September, then I'm off for a few months.

On Sunday after church I took Nico over to Grandma and Papa's house for an overnight stay with some of the other cousins.

That night, Guy and I roasted a chicken (Nico can't have chicken, and I've been craving it, so we took advantage of the opportunity!) and we watched Dune. A while ago I had asked Guy what his favorite book was, and I endeavored to read it. It was Dune, so I read through it (took me a while) and on Sunday night we watched the movie. We were both very excited to see it. On Monday we went to the Greenbelt and I rollerbladed while Guy rode his bike. This was shortly before the valley was overcome by smoke. We've been in the Red "Unhealthy" range for a few days. It even dipped into the "Very Unhealthy" range a bit yesterday. We've tried not to use our swamp cooler much, so that the inside doesn't smell like smoke. Thankfully right near our house it doesn't smell much like smoke.

Yesterday Nico got a fun comic book in the mail from the Grandparents Russell. It's called "Laser Moose and Rabbit Boy". He laughed while he read the title, and reread the title about 4 times, laughing each time. It's been an entertaining read. Thanks Grampa and Gramma!

Last week Allicia went to the school to eat lunch with Evelyn, and they had an open mic outside during the recess afterward. Nico apparently got up and told a joke, and Allicia caught it on video!! Nico has been really interested in jokes lately and is starting to catch on a liiiiittle better on why jokes are funny. He's working on it :) His principal has a daily joke the kids can come ask him every day what the joke is when they see him. The night before Allicia took this video, Nico was lying in bed at night coming up with jokes. He told us several of his made up jokes that night, and in this video he tells his class one of the jokes he came up with.

SPOILERS...

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The punch line of the joke is "A warrior", not "A worrier". 

School, Legos, Minecraft,

School is in full swing, and not much else happened this past week! 

Nico has been putting together Legos and wanting to keep them set up, so we've cleared some space to put them. He has also adapted his outlook on Legos, so if he doesn't have a piece he needs according to the instructions, he is OK finding a similar piece. One of his favorite movies is The Lego Movie, which has "Master Builders" in it, the heroes, and they make Legos without instructions. Nico was missing a piece for a set once and all Guy had to say was "Oh, you can just be a Master Builder, and pick a different piece to go there." and Nico was all over that! This is a big deal, because Nico is typically a by-the-books kind of guy.

The other change, perhaps thanks to The Lego Movie, is that he's spending a lot of time playing with the Legos after they are built, instead of just building them and stopping after that.

Tonight was back to school night at the school, the parents met in the gym first to meet the new Principal and to hear from the PTO, then we went to the classrooms. I got to sit in Nico's desk, and his teacher told us all about what they do on a daily basis. His teacher is a recent empty-nester, so she said she really enjoys coming to school and being able to still kind of be a mother. They changed the way they grade - there are no more "E"s for "Exceeds Expectations".

I took a picture of this picture Nico drew of himself.

When I came home from the school, Nico was in bed and he had chosen to write in bed instead of read, and he was writing a story. When he was done, this is what he had:

Nico and Evelyn have started walking to school together by themselves! I'm so grateful he has a walking buddy!

For his birthday we got him a Minecraft account, so now him and Guy can play Minecraft in the same world at the same time. This has been super fun for Nico. Minecraft days are Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays, where they go downstairs and play together at Guy's desk. Nico uses the laptop that G.G. gave to him. When Nico has iPad time he usually spends it watching Minecraft videos of people doing cool stuff in Minecraft, and then he tries out these cool things when he plays himself. 

Yesterday Nico had a dentist appointment to fill a cavity. It was set to be at 3:30 but Nico was complaining that his tooth was hurting yesterday morning, so I called and had it moved to 11:30. He did such a great job! I think I was more nervous than him. hehe.. They gave him a card to redeem at Bricks and MiniFigs nextdoor for a free Lego MiniFig. He begged to stay home from school for the rest of the day with his numb cheek, and I said yes, so he got some extra time to play Minecraft yesterday afternoon. Last night he asked me, "You said I didn't have to go to school tomorrow, right?" hehe. He sometimes complains that school takes too long. 

After the first few days of school Nico told me to put more stuff in his lunch. He asked specifically for "chips, fruit punch, and red pepper" in addition to his sandwich. So, that's what I've been sending. Last year he very specifically just wanted a sandwich (but I always put some red pepper or other vegetable in his lunch anyway.)

That's all the tidbits I can think of right now! 

Until next week!

Late post

Back to school night tonight, blog update will come tomorrow (Friday) morning!

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!

Sleepovers, Birds of Prey, Whiffle Ball!

Last Friday Nico went over to the Grandparents Salisbury's house for a sleepover because of my Rock the Village event and Guy working late. Nico met a friend at the park nearby and they planned to meet back there the following Tuesday at the same time, when Nico was going to be there again for the last Grandma Camp of the summer. (His friend never showed up on Tuesday though! 😞)

Saturday, Jeff and Allicia and the kids were out of town so we ate our pizza downstairs and watched Chicken Little.

On Monday Nico decided to spend some of his money to rent Boss Baby on Netflix, which we watched 2 1/2 times that day.

Tuesday morning, Nico was off again to the Grandparents Salisbury's house! I stayed for lunch before heading home. Nico was the only grandkid able to attend this last Grandma Camp! He stayed Tuesday night and Wednesday night. Here's some fun things they did...

Grandma took him to the Birds of Prey.

Nico asked the presenter a few questions, including "How do you catch the Condors?" So I asked Nico how they catch Condors and he told me they put out the Condor's favorite food and put a net next to it. When they eat the food, they catch the Condor with the net.

An American Kestrel

He got all of them right

Playing whiffle ball. After doing really well, he told them to call him "Mr. Batter". 

Grandma took him to his dentist appointment

Then out to Red Robin!

Thank you Grandma and Papa for the fun time!!

Video at the end of more Whiffle Ball!

After dinner tonight we went to the park to play ball, and Nico searched around for some kids and found some, so he asked them if they wanted to play ball with us, so they took turns hitting the ball, and even throwing it.

Making Nico's bed after washing his sheets is a dual effort. He stands on our bed as I throw each of his stuffed animals to him from his bed. I have to say the name of each as I throw them. Then I make the bed and he throws them back, naming each as he throws them. Today we were able to add a new one to the bunch - Red. He is a Red Tailed Hawk.

Here's the Whiffle Ball video!

Cousins, GG, Video

Nico and Guy went to see Captain Underpants movie on Saturday while I had a henna booth. They both really enjoyed it.  Nico was quoting from it for the next few days.

On Sunday after church we went over to the Grandparents Salisbury's house for a get together while my cousin Jessica was in town. They were leaving to head back to California the next day, so it was great to see them one more time before they left. Nico was so excited to get to see Oliver and Matthew again, he waited diligently for them after we arrived, asking every few minutes what time it was and when they would get there. When it was time to leave, he begged to stay for a little longer. Jessica and their family are considering moving up to Boise, so we are hoping we will get to see more of them! Oliver is 7 years old, just like Nico!

Monday was a full day. I've been taking Nico to the gym with me and he really enjoys being in the kids room. He gets to play video games and watch tv and play with the other kids. We went on Monday, then to a doctor's appointment, then to a birthday party at Chuckee Cheese for my little cousin Juvia who was turning 4 years old.

Today we visited GG in Nampa. Nico brought his comic-making supplies with him and was working on Volume 2 of "The Door and the Man". He even built a flip-o-rama. I will be sure to share it once he's done. The next time we see GG, Nico will have started school!!

Here's Nico's questionnaire for being 7 years old. We did one last year when he turned 6, and hopefully we'll continue to remember to do them through the years!

Waiting in the Chuckee Cheese parking lot, wearing one of his new shirts from Grandma Russell.

A snippets video!! Haven't done one of these in a while! This includes his birthday videos from my phone and Grandma Russell's phone, though hers are at the very end of the video and out of order of the rest. I didn't plan that very well. There's also 2 minutes of Grabber Booth action which I forgot to edit down. You can scroll through it at your leisure ;) Enjoy!

Grandparents Russell Visit, Birthday, Grandma Camp, Zoo

The Grandparents Russell arrived just in time on Friday for Grandma to come with me to pick Nico up from his Birds, Bugs & Botany camp. He was excited to see her!

I had a henna booth that night, but Guy was home from work early and made the crew a batch of Pad Thai for dinner.

Saturday morning was pancakes, of course! Nico also opened his presents from Mommy and Daddy. Rock Tumbler!

Then we hung out until it was time for Nico's birthday party. The Grandparents Russell drove to Nampa to pick up GG, and me and the boys went to pick up Nico's birthday cakes. We ordered a gluten free one, and a gluten one, so we went to both places (WinCo, and Amaru).

The party at Pojo's was epic! Nico had two friends from school who were there, Linus and Olivia. Nico really likes Olivia *wink wink*. We had also invited Linus' sister, so she was there too. Then we had all the grandparents, GG, most of the cousins, plus some of my own cousins who adore Nico, and my Aunt Ellen, in addition to Jeff & Allicia and kids. The kiddos played games, ate cake, Nico opened presents, we had a huge birthday picture taken, and Nico had some time in the Grabber booth, where he had two minutes to grab as many pieces of paper as he could. The pieces of paper symbolized a certain number of tickets. Nico ended up with 450+ tickets from the grabber booth. Then we hung out while we used up the rest of our tokens, and we weren't out of there until after 4pm, still leaving behind some cousins and my Aunt.

Ok so now let's catch up with the pictures!

They couldn't quite fit us all into the picture!

Nico said he wanted Red Robin for his birthday dinner, so we met there that night with both sets of grandparents plus GG.

Sunday we headed for church and then the boys spent the afternoon hanging out while Grandma Russell and I went shopping. We made pizza that night and rented the Lego Movie to watch. It is a good movie, with a good message!

A few more pictures from the visit...

Putting his Technic Lego together Sunday morning.

Since the Grandparents were staying up in the suite, Nico was able to take baths. He doesn't get to do this very often, so he took a bath every night that they were here!

Reading Dogman before bed.

I have a few videos I will put together of this trip, but they aren't ready for tonight's update, so hopefully they will be on next week's!

We said goodbye to them Monday morning, and will see them again at Christmas!

Nico spent the next few days at the Grandparents Salisbury's house with some of his cousins. Grandma took all of the kids school supply shopping. School starts in 3 short weeks!  Nico brought Ticket to Ride to play.

Then today we were able to meet up with one of my cousins that is visiting from California. She has two young sons that I have never met before, one is Nico's age and the other is a few years younger. We met her (Jessica) and her husband (Monty), and their two kids (Oliver and Matthew) at the Zoo this morning!

Nico brought $20 of his birthday money with him so that after the zoo we could go to the bookstore and buy Dogman #3 comic but he instead decided to buy something from the Zoo gift shop. He chose a turquoise penguin which he named Bluey, and later changed his name to Flappy.

Nico brought Lion Cub with him to the Zoo. Lion Cub participated in everything with Nico that morning. He went down the giraffe slide (by himself), looked at most of the animals, and enjoyed a few rides in my purse, too.

I did get a video uploaded of Nico swimming while at the hotel pool up in Moscow when they took that trip a few weeks ago. Nico says of this swimming experience: "I thought I was dead!" 

See you guys next time!