Table Rock, Cupcakes

Last weekend I got to spend Saturday with Nico! It was nice to spend a Saturday with him after all the henna I've been doing on weekends. Guy had the day off to go look for interesting things at garage sales and thrift stores that he can "flip". He found a Game Cube and games and controllers for a good price which he will try to sell on eBay. Until then.. we have been enjoying playing Mario Kart! Instead of the boys playing Minecraft they now spend their game time playing Mario Kart. Evelyn usually joins them.

Nico is still super excited about chess and checked out another chess book at the library at school today, so now he has two checked out. At night he's been reading them, and setting up our chess board with certain setups, and showing us how to capture the king in only a few steps.

Anyway, I got distracted, back to last Saturday! After chores in the morning, Nico and I went through a large portion of his toys. Not all, but some, and ended up with a laundry basket full of things to donate. So then we went out. At Whole Foods we picked up a Stevia soda "Zevia", which Nico really liked, he chose ginger root beer. It actually tasted like root beer! He wanted me to take a picture of it and send the picture to Daddy.

Then we went to Costco, where Nico spent his own money to buy the next book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. In the afternoon we decided to go for a hike, and we successfully made it up to the top of Table Rock. 

We took several breaks along the way.

We saw a guy controlling a drone while we were on top. Nico stopped for a while to watch the drone flying around.

When we got home we noticed the squirrel had been in the bird feeder again.

Then Guy arrived home and we started pizza. Guy started cleaning the Game Cube he bought, taking pictures of the games and getting everything ready to sell. He also picked up a free CRT tv, which makes it a little easier to play some of the games we have. As luck would have it, Jeff and Allicia's TV broke and so we put the CRT downstairs and everyone has been playing games on it. The games had to be tested to make sure they worked, you know, and so did the Game Cube.

Guy cleaning the games.

Nico's drawing of a monster with eyes like Laser Moose

A sweet story... I went to pick Nico up at school for a doctor's appointment and I went into his class to get him, and as he was leaving everyone said "Goodbye Nico!" and his friend Grace said "By Nico, I'll miss you for the rest of the day!"

They celebrate birthdays at school, and Ms Lung brings in 2 gluten free cupcakes every time, so that Nico and another boy, Eli, can share in the fun. The first time this happened, Nico came home and cried to me, saying that Ms Lung made him a special cupcake and that he couldn't eat it because it had sugar in it and he was allergic to sugar, and that everyone else got to eat a cupcake. I wrote Ms Lung and told her that Nico misunderstood why we weren't giving him sugar, that he wasn't allergic, and that the next time that happens he can have the cupcake. So the next day, she brought in that same cupcake that he didn't eat the first time, and he carried it home gently, beaming, and then ate it all up. He was so happy.

Card tower, Chess, Read-a-thon

I had a big festival last weekend that I did henna at, so Guy and Nico got to spend Saturday together. On Friday night Nico spent the night at the Grandparents' Salisbury house. He really likes the banana pancakes and waffles that Grandma makes. For the waffles, she dips a piece of banana bread in egg and then puts it on the waffle iron. Genius!!!

Guy and Nico spent some time on Saturday building card towers. There's a video at the end!!

Playing Creationary

I know they must have played Minecraft, too!

Evelyn has joined the chess program at their school so on Friday mornings her and Nico walk to school early together.

Read-a-thon is going on, so Nico is collecting reading minutes. He checked out the kid version of "Left Behind" at school, and today he came home with a book about chess. Him and I played chess tonight before bed. I lost my queen on my second turn because I made a weird move. Nico and I decided to call it a "weird" move instead of "stupid" move because it sounded better.

Here's a pic from a few weeks ago. Guy and Nico went to Dawson Taylor to play chess.

Nico's tumbling tower

GG, Guy's business trip, a pair of parakeets

Last Friday we visited GG and Aunt Pat in Nampa, they had brought out the keyboard for Nico to play on and he enjoyed that! We also talked cake decorating and watched a bit of cartoons. Next time we visit we are taking them out to lunch!

On Sunday we dropped Guy off at the airport after church, he left for a business trip to Monterey, CA, and is coming home tonight! He sent us lots of pictures from his trip. He went to the Aquarium today and sent us tons of bird pictures!

Inside the aquarium

Semi palmated plover

Bird rescue area

A treat for Nico

I watched these kiddos today for a few hours, we had a snack "In the Clubhouse" which is like, unheard of! They were both so excited!

We had some special guests overnight, two parakeets! Nico didn't know what kind of birds these were, I guess we haven't studied the domesticated ones very much! The people we were watching them for actually offered to let us keep them. If we had a little more space then that would have bene a YES! Perhaps some day!

Nico helping me put labels on my henna kits. While Guy was out of town I was super busy pretty much non stop preparing for my 3-day henna booth this weekend. Hyde Park Street Fair. Hope to sell a lot of henna kits!

Nico has been using Guy's pillow.

Oh! We Facetimed with Guy last night. He was eating some yummy restaurant food and left the table for a minute to Facetime with us and the restaurant was right next to the water and he showed us the water and a seagull.

He comes in late tonight and a coworker is going to drive him home!

See ya'll next week!

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...

....

...

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!