Pinewood Derby

On Saturday mornings we have been getting together with Jeff and Allicia and playing games while the kiddos play. In the past we've done games in the evening after bedtime but we are always tired, so doing it on Saturday morning means we're awake and the kids get some play time too! We usually play cribbage. We introduced them to QWIXX as well.

Saturday afternoon was the pinewood derby race! We got to the church and his car weighed in .1 oz more than it should, so they shaved some weight off of it and then it was good to go.

Nico's car is the second from the left.

Nico and his church friend Liam.

Most of the participants were adults! When Nico saw all the cool cars he wanted to make his look cooler. We are new to the pinewood derby and didn't realize that making the car look awesome was part of the fun. I'm not saying that his car didn't look awesome, I mean, it does have a spare tire on it!

He won just a few races. See the video at the end for a taste of the excitement!

I now make the communion bread for the church, since it needs to be gluten free and I am the girl for that! The first communion I provided bread for was fine, but then the leftovers were frozen and thawed for the next communion the following month. Something in that process really changed the flavor. I was almost embarrassed when I chewed my communion bread during the service and realized everyone was also tasting the same thing. It tasted like it was spiced. Someone asked me if I had added cumin to it. Ick! I love cumin, but not in communion bread! I told them to toss the rest and I would experiment and make a fresh batch for next time.

On communion Sundays, the kiddos stay in the main service during worship and communion, then they head back to the kids room. Nico usually chooses to draw while waiting for the service to start.

He's been coming home from school with random drawings he's done in his backpack. Like this one.

Reading Donald Duck comics at night

Tonight Evelyn came over for dinner again, they were wrestling and rough housing right after dinner and Evelyn kisses Nico's head a few times. Nico says "EVELYN KISSED ME!" I said "I kiss you all the time!" And then he asked Evelyn, "Do you love me? Like, do you love me and want to marry me?" and Evelyn said "No!" and then it was back to rough housing.

They spent a few minutes playing a balloon game on the iPad.

Now on to the videos! The first one is a video of Nico getting his trophy from his last Tournament. I forgot to include it in last week's blog!

And then the Pinewood Derby one!

Preparing for the Pinewood Derby, plus friends and Legos

Last Friday I started feeling like I was coming down with a cold, so Saturday was pretty laid back for us. In the evening Nico had another chess tournament. He said he played 4 games and won 3 of them, and also 3 games of "pawn wars" and won all of those. He got a 3rd place trophy. And is indeed excited for next time!

Guy met up with his friend Moreno at Red Robin on Saturday night, and I stayed home and watched a movie! Not a typical Saturday in that we all did something different, but all of us thoroughly enjoyed the things we were doing, so it was still an A+ night.

Sunday after church we stayed after a bit so that Nico's Pinewood Derby car could be cut to his specs. The Pinewood Derby race is this coming Saturday at the church. He drew an outline of how he wanted it cut, and so it was! He wanted it to look like a convertible. Then last night Guy took Nico to the church where they were doing a test run for the cars. He got to paint it, attach the wheels, and add some lead to the bottom to weight it to the max weight allowed.

Tonight we had not just Evelyn over for dinner, but Ivy as well! I made a huge batch of rice and ground beef and a ton of broccoli (Evelyn loves it!) Then I cut up a whole tub of strawberries and they downed all of them.

NOTICE that Guy got NEW glasses!

Then they all played in the clubhouse. 

Then a few other tidbits from our week: Nico drawing. He turned around and said "NNoooooo!!" because he didn't want his picture taken.

We had some snow last week and over the weekend. And yes we still have Christmas lights up! :)

Nico and Evelyn playing Minecraft in the main house.

Nico finally spent his Christmas money and picked a lego out online. He chose a Lego Architecture set, of Berlin. He sorted out each type of piece before he put it together.

The finished product!

I am REALLY enjoying putting together the teeny tiny legos in the Pokemon set we got him for Christmas. He told me they were too hard to put together and didn't mind me doing it. There are 12 pokemon and I've gone through 2 of them so far. 

Nico has been enjoying reading Stick Dog. He finished the 1st book and checked the 2nd book out from the library today. He is reading it in bed right now.

That's all for this week!

Haircuts, Cousins, Jimmy John's, and good news at the dentist!

On Saturday Guy and Nico both had haircuts. Here are their "new" styles.

Saturday we had the pita pizzas again. We are going to transition to doing these pizzas for a while, even after our toaster oven is fixed. Everyone seems to like them! We watched a collection of Disney shorts on Netflix while we ate pizza. It was very good, several of them tear-jerkers.

On Sunday after church and lunch I took Nico over to the Grandparents Sailsbury's house for a sleepover with cousins. This is what Nico needed for 1 overnight stay. 4 stuffed animals take up most of that backpack space. :)

When we got there, Grandma had an activity set up where the kiddos were teamed up and had to plan and execute a plan for the boxes. Bruce and Nico built a toxic waste city. The girls built an animal hospital.

Grandma also got Nico to eat and enjoy Kipper Snacks. I had tried to get him interested in the past, with no luck. Leave it to cousin pressure to convince him he had to try them! He came home with his own can of kipper snacks. 

On Monday Guy and I met at their house for dinner with Jonny and Alanna and the kiddos. Grandma made a yummy salmon loaf with dill sauce that was incredible. With mashed potatoes and salad and rice and all the fixins. Everyone loved it. Nico ate all of the food on his plate. 😳😳😳  The Schwann man delivered some ice cream bars and push pops right after dinner. Perfect timing. All the kids ran out there like he was the ice cream truck! Then Nico had his very first push pop! After that they were sent into the living room to read books for 20 minutes while the grownups talked at the table. When it was time to go home, he begged to stay.

Thanks for the fun time Papa and Grandma!

Wednesday was grocery shopping day, and I forgot to buy a very important ingredient for dinner that night and so when Nico asked what we were having for dinner I said "I don't know... nothing?" Then he asked about Jimmy John's, and I thought to myself, "Hey, today is budget day! Let me just adjust the budget a bit.. and... voila!" And so Guy picked up Jimmy John's on the way home from work. 

Today Nico had a dentist appointment. I picked him up from school for it. One of the sealants on his molars had fallen off so they redid it. The hygienist said sometimes food can dislodge a sealant, which prompted me to ask about chewing ice and she said "YES! That will do it". She told us that Nico's teeth looked surprisingly clean for his age. The only trouble spot was along the gum-line in the bottom front. She said "Nico you're doing a great job!" When she gave him his mouth back he said "Thank you."

He got to pick out 2 prizes because he had to have the sealant put back on, he chose gum for both of his prizes.

Afterwards we walked over to Bricks & Minifigs to pick out a Minifig.

This is the one he made!

On our way back to his school, he ate his lunch. While I was walking him into his school he said "This was my favorite day of school EVER!"

Haha

Nico doing his chess homework.

Guy and I playing QWIXX

See you all next week!

IEP Meeting, GG

Last Friday was Nico's annual review for his IEP (Individualized Education Program). Every 3 years he goes through testing again to see if he still needs the speech services, that is happening next year in 2019.

His SLP (Speech & Language Pathologist) says that Nico is improving and has come a long way in some areas. He has stopped puffing his cheeks out when he says "S" or "SH" sounds. At home we are just supposed to have him try again if he says a word wrong, she also gave us exercises we can do with him if we are ever inspired. We were able to meet the new principle, Jason Adams, and he was very nice. The principle sits in on the meetings and takes notes. The notes then have to be read through and signed by all of us at the end of the meeting. Ms Lung, his teacher, says that it is getting harder for her to understand Nico even since the beginning of the year. We think this is because he has started talking faster.

Guy and I walked home from the meeting and then Guy actually got to work from home that day. Every month his boss lets him take an at-home work day, because he can super-focus and get a lot more stuff done.

Saturday was the laziest day ever. We did force Nico to go for a walk with us. He always tries to get out of it by saying that Jeff or Allicia could watch him while Guy and I go for a walk. But we always need the exercise on a lazy Saturday!

We also restarted our weekly Family Meetings. I'm hoping we remember to continue doing these. This is where Nico gets his allowance, we also exchange compliments and appreciations for each other, and we go over any new family business. I added one chore to Nico's daily routine, and during the family meeting we practiced it. When he gets home from school he now has to unload his backpack and lunch bag before he can have his snack. Also at the family meeting we go through the next week's calendar, and then we play a game. We couldn't agree on one until I found the dice game we had bought Nico for Christmas and hadn't yet played. It's called QWIXX and it is VERY fun. It's a quick game requiring a bit of strategy and I really love it.

Then because our toaster oven is broken, we made pita pizzas in our smaller borrowed toaster oven. I forgot to take a picture. We are having them again this Saturday so I will try to remember! They were tasty. We watched Lego Ninjago while eating pizza.

On Monday we all had eye appointments. Guy and I had ours right before lunch. So afterward, we went to lunch! We went to Boise Fry Company. I had purple potato fries. Nico had his eye appointment after school so I went back there with him. His eyes are fine! We will recheck them every year.

On Tuesday I went over to Pa & Ma's house for lunch then after Nico got out of school we went to see G.G. and Aunt Pat.

I told Nico that the next time we come visit them we'll get Jimmy John's afterward. He asked me to print out a tiny calendar that he could take to school to X out the days as they go by, until we reach March 20th. He told me to circle the 20th and write "JJ" (Jimmy Johns) and "GG" on the day.

On Wednesday Ma and I went out shopping and had lunch together. It was a wonderful day!! We went to Thai Basil for lunch.

Sorry I didn't get more than one of this shot, and caught Ma with her eyes closed. Doh!

Thanks Mom!!

Today Evelyn had dinner with us again!

Nico was mentioned in the student-led video announcements at the school. For being an All-Star! 

And.. hmm.. I think that's it. Here's a video of Nico and Evelyn playing in the clubhouse tonight!

Papa's Birthday!

We celebrated Papa's birthday on Sunday at Smoky Mountain Pizza! We reserved a room and it was perfect! We ate pizza and then ate cake. Papa's favorite dessert is cherry pie, so I made some cherry pie filling to put inside and on top of his cake. Then he opened presents. It was great to see most of the family (Jeremy and Bambi weren't able to make it) and fun to celebrate Papa!! Happy Birthday Pa!

Now unfortunately I forgot to take pictures the rest of the week, doh! Except one tonight when I remembered that I was updating the blog. On Thursdays we are watching Evelyn after school and she eats dinner with us. After dinner I let them play in the clubhouse until shower time. They played with cars and micromachines tonight.

Other things we did this past week, we rented Wall-E on Amazon for Saturday pizza night. Our toaster oven broke and we have ordered the part for it, it will take a few weeks for the part to arrive so we have borrowed a toaster oven from Allicia. In the meantime I purchased gluten free pita pizza crusts from Trader Joe's that will fit in this smaller toaster oven so we can continue to have Saturday night pizza while our oven is broken.

Guy checks out Donald Duck comics from the library and him and Nico enjoy reading them together  before bed. 

Last Friday I drove Evelyn and Nico to chess class before school. I drove because I had a doctor's appointment directly after. Instead of pulling into the school parking lot, I pulled over and parked on Warm Springs, then got out with them and waited as they crossed at the crosswalk light. While they were crossing the crosswalk they decided to start asking me questions about why I drove them to school. 

Nico: Why did you drive us?

Me: I have a doctor's appointment.

Evelyn: Why do you have a doctor's appointment? (I couldn't hear what she said, they were across the street from me)

Me: Huh?

Nico: *YELLING* WHY DO YOU HAVE  A DOCTOR'S APPOINTMENT?

Me: INSURANCE!

Evelyn: Is she getting a flu shot? (again I couldn't figure out what she said)

The crosswalk light turns green for the cars so the cars start zooming by.

Nico: ARE YOU GETTING A FLU SHOT???

Me: WHAT?

Evelyn: ARE YOU GETTING A FLU SHOT??

Me: NO!

Evelyn: WHAT??

ME: NO!

They run off.

Heehee.

That's it for this week!

Chess Tournament and Sushi

On Friday our friend Brianna visited from Pullman, WA and we ate dinner with her. She brought Nico a book of birds in North America and he sat in bed and read it that night. He wants to try some of the experiments in there, like making a bird feeder out of a 2 liter bottle (looks very hack-ish, right up his alley).

Nico had a chess tournament on Saturday at Smoky Mountain Pizza. He LOVES these chess tournaments. Before we left this one he asked, "When is the next one??" He won 4 out of 7 games, he is improving! His last tournament he won 1 out of 4 games. Everyone received a trophy, and his was 2nd place again. He seemed discouraged over this and said he wants to practice more so that he's better next time.

Instead of making pizza at home while Nico was at his tournament, we ordered it! We tried a new pizza place, Extreme pizza, with unique signature pizzas. Guy chose 2 of them and had a half-n-half pizza. He said it was good! We watched Burn Notice while eating dinner. Then I picked the buddy up. 

Sunday the kiddos put on a "show" for us in the backyard that included remote controlled cars and fireworks (smoke bombs and sparklers). 

Ivy sitting on my lap during the show.

Doing his chess homework. He answers the questions on the paper then sets the board up to mimic the problem.

At Evelyn's birthday party in December Nico ate sushi. He now says it's his favorite food, so I thought I'd try to make it. I have done it in the past but haven't for a while. We got a sushi kit to help us do it, but the cutting guide really made a mess of the first roll I tried to cut.

So I abandoned the cutting guide and the rest of the rolls turned out looking fine. These rolls just had cucumber, avocado, and carrot in them. No fish. Nico says, "These don't taste like the ones at Evelyn's party" Hehe... I will keep trying. There are a few ingredient upgrades I will do that may help.

For the next month, Avery has parkour classes in the afternoon on Thursdays. Evelyn stays back at the house with us while Allicia takes Avery and Ivy with her. Evelyn and Nico played Minecraft for a while and then Evelyn sat at the table with us and we all ate dinner together. Oh Nico was so excited to have a friend for dinner! Then afterward they had a chance to play in the clubhouse (rare opportunity!) They chose to play cars. In this picture Nico is pretending to be a cow while eating his sprouts.

Nico checked out Big Nate from the library at school today and is reading it in bed right now. It's not quite a graphic novel but it's somewhere between that and a chapter book. He says he doesn't like it because there is some text that doesn't have a picture :)

That's it for this week!