Blueberries and Paddle Boats

Lots of fun this past week, scratched some things off our summer to-do list!

Saturday was the market. We stopped by the fountain briefly, but it was a bit too chilly to get wet. Nico got a balloon animal. He asked for a yellow dinosaur.

We also went into the game store on 8th St. briefly and saw some things that we might come back and get later. Marbles, and a train game. I am dubbing summertime: Nico's birthday summer. Instead of getting him one big gift, we are having fun doing and seeing things this summer, and little prizes like marbles and trains along the way are also factored into his birthday. We are planning a ROCKET birthday party for him on his birthday. We are going to set off rockets at Quarry View Park (Old Park). We already reserved the picnic area.

Also on Saturday we went to the park to fly Nico's KITE for the first time. We got it up in the air about 3 times and Nico had a blast. It was windy and cold so I let him wear my jacket. 

There was once where the kite blew upward so hard that it yanked the string from Nico's hand. We had to chase it, and scream at the same time, and eventually we caught it. That was probably the best part of the kite flying experience.

Sunday after church, the Grandparents Salisbury took us to Smoky Mountain Pizza where Nico and I shared a gluten free pizza. WOW was it good! We had a great time with them and with Lexie, who also joined us. We took one home for Guy, too. For Father's Day Nico and I made Guy a treasure map and buried a treasure for Guy in the backyard. That was fun. Later that afternoon, Grandma and Lexie stopped by for a bit and Nico and Lexie climbed up into Nico's bed to watch Curious George.

Wednesday we went blueberry picking. We wanted to go strawberry picking, but the place we were going was all out of strawberries. It rained the whole time we were there picking, but it was still fun. Nico was worried about the rain but I told him it was okay to be out in the rain. "Remember Piggie and Gerald?" He kept asking for an umbrella but I told him that we don't always need an umbrella. He repeated what I said, as he does quite often now "don't always need an umbrella." Then there was a pause, he was looking out the car window and he said "Need an umbrella!!" The whole blueberry crop was under netting, but there were a few rogue birds in there anyway. We met a group of people there, including Allicia & Evie. Nico climbed into a blueberry bush after Evie; thankfully blueberries don't have thorns! We picked about 3 1/2 pounds. Nico preferred dumping my berries into the box instead of picking them himself. It was actually helpful to have him do that. I wanted to bring my camera, but not in the rain!

Today was a fun day, we had a long list of things to do. I told Nico we had 7 things to do and listed them for him while we were in the car. Number 7 was "home". Nico memorized the list and then would recite it, but when he'd get to 7 he'd say: "Seven… uh.. uh… library! Eight…. bookstore and find a train. Nine… Evies house! Ten… home!" It was so silly, he kept adding things to the list. The list mostly consisted of grocery stores. WinCo, Whole Foods, Trader Joes, the Co-op. Nico was a trooper. We got us both a treat at Whole Foods which held us over until lunch. After our 6 things, we dropped off the groceries at home (#7) and went right back out to do the PADDLE BOATS! 

Nico saying "FIVE BOATS!" He had counted four and wanted to see another one.

There were a lot of ducks, geese, and baby ducks. The ducks sometimes would start going under us so we'd have to stop and back up so they wouldn't get caught in the paddles. Nico had a lot of fun. He couldn't reach the paddles unless he stretched himself and barely sat on the seat. He helped steer for a little bit, and asked me several times to sing "Row row your boat" while I paddled. I decided to do the paddle boats early in the summer because they don't open until 11 AM and in July or August it would be too hot for us even at 11 AM. But today it was perfect.

Nico is mimicking us more and more. I found out that I always say "Oh my goodness, what happened?" whenever Nico has a potty accident because he has started saying that in a surprised voice whenever he has an accident: "Oh muh gaw, wha happen?" And as I'm telling him things he repeats after me voluntarily. I have intended to start doing the vocabulary games the school sent home with him, but I have not remembered. I will! 

Nico found our leftover seeds from last year's garden in our fridge and wanted to plant them. We weren't intending to plant a garden this year, but I figured, why not? So we went outside.

We had to yank some pretty big weeds from the garden bed first, but then we planted the seeds. ALL of them. There was a lot. But we had fun sprinkling the seeds onto the dirt, mixing them in haphazardly with the shovel and then watering with the watering can. We'll see what pops up!

A few more random fun things we did:

Climbing with Evie at the park

We used up all our water balloons in 3 days!

Strider Park

I had a lot of fun using my new camera. It takes really good pictures! And I'm trying to learn all about it. It turns out perfectly to have blog day once a week. I can take pictures all week, use up the battery, and then on Thursday unload all the pictures, change the battery out, and I'm good for the next week. 

Painting a bird house

 He went outside with chalk and drew a hopscotch ALL BY HIMSELF. He even wrote the numbers into the squares. He said "Mommy, a hopscotch!" and then he hopped through it for me. I'm thinking Curious George was his teacher on this one.

He was a good camera subject.

Nico fell asleep tonight at 5 PM, in bed, while he was in time out. I went in there and he had pulled the cover over himself and had zonked out. I'm forecasting a wake-up in a few hours. We will then eat some strawberries, watch some Curious George, and then he'll fall asleep in my bed.

I don't think I'm forgetting anything on this busy week. At this rate, I don't ever want summer to end!