Aadam and Sammy, Bird Matching, Trains

Not much to report this week! Nico has been hanging out with Sammy and Aadam at their house.

Tiffanie says they get along really well when they play with building-type toys. But they tend to bicker a lot more when they play cars or Grosseries. 

Every day we play the bird matching game at least once, usually more than once. He notices birds and pictures of birds now. He noticed how many cardinals GG had in her house last week, on her rug, some of her figurines were cardinals, and some in her kitchen. If he sees birds he asks what kind of bird it is. He then says whether it's in the bird matching game or not.  When we play the game, when we're down to the last match, we have to guess what the match is before flipping it over. Sometimes we know right off the bat, but other times we lay out all the cards that each of us has and then we go through the little pamphlet that came with the game and turn over each bird as Nico calls it. When he gets to the bird that neither of us has, we have found the last match! There was once we separated all the females from the males on either side of the table, that was fun.

On Saturday Guy took Nico to the library and they had trains there!

Nico has been reading Bird and Squirrel comics. Guy has been reading him an interesting and gross book about mummies. He has been watching the movie Coraline on the iPad, that and the new Garfield cartoon and Pokemon. Guy and Nico have been playing video games downstairs, he played Super Mario Kart for the first time. Guy later told me that he thinks we started Nico playing video games too LATE! hah. Nico gets frustrated and walks away when he can't play well, Guy's reasoning is that if he was younger he would just push buttons and not care :)

On Wednesday I did a chalk mural on the wall at Awakenings Coffee House. They have an artist wall and local artists can do murals and they keep them up on the wall for a month. It took me four hours but it was super fun. They gave me free tea! And a free latte for Guy as I was leaving.

GG, Stuck in the snow, Laughfest, and Lexie!

I wrote this on Thursday and thought it posted but whoops it didn't! So here it is!

Saturday we visited GG! We had a good chat and we had quite the adventure trying to get out of her driveway. As I was backing out, I started turning the wheel of the car too soon, and ended up backing into and over the berm, high-centering the car. Whoooooops.

I couldn't move the car in either direction so I decided to try to pop the trunk, maybe get the chains out, but the trunk was frozen shut. I figured chains wouldn't work anyway, the tires weren't even spinning, I couldn't even get them to move. So we went back inside and I called roadside assistance for a tow truck. GG cut us up an apple as we waited for notice of when the tow truck was going to be there. When I got the text it said the tow truck was 3 hours out. Woah! I decided to try the trunk again, but this time armed with a teapot full of hot water (thanks GG!) I headed back outside and saw cars slowing down to pass my car, since it was jutting out into the street. To give you an idea of how high the back-end was off the ground, as I was trying to open the trunk I didn't have to bend down at all, the trunk was right near my face. I saw someone stop to take pictures with their phone.

After pouring hot water around the trunk several times, it finally popped up. I returned the teapot inside and headed back out, and saw another car stopping to take picture with their phone. They stopped right behind my car, so I had to wait until they were done before I could get access to my trunk. They were there for at least a full minute while I stood there waiting. While I was waiting for them to leave, another car pulls up behind them and stops, because they're blocking the road. The guy who just pulled up rolls down his window and says he wishes he could help me in some way, and then has the idea that perhaps he can push me out with his SUV. Still, we have to wait for the other guy to be done taking pictures. The other guy puts his car in reverse and backs up to get a better shot. This time the shot has me in it. In fact, the camera is pointed straight at me, though I'm sure the shot also has the car in it too. (Search the internet, you may find me.. hehe) He takes pictures with his phone for about 30 seconds before he finishes. The guy who had rolled his window down to talk to me asks if the guy taking pictures is a friend of mine and I said "Nope, don't know who he is."

Finally after the guy leaves, we can try out our plan. He turns his SUV around and tries to push me out of the enbankment but I'm so high off the ground that his nose goes under me. So, he turns his car around and backs into me, and I put on the gas and scraaaaaaaaape... I'm free!

I was so happy I almost cried. I thanked him profusely, he happened to be one of GG's neighbors two doors down.

I went back inside and told them the news. Nico and I packed up into the car and we backed STRAIGHT out of the driveway this time, and made it safely to the road. And we got an extra hour with GG!

It was a pretty hilarious event, and I enjoyed telling Guy all about it later that night when we went on a DATE! Our anniversary was Friday, 11 years! We bought tickets to the Laughfest comedy show at the Egyptian Theater downtown, and went to that on Saturday night. We laughed a bunch and it was very fun!

Nico had a fun evening, and got to read books to Evelyn and Avery before bed.

I made Guy pumpkin pie for our anniversary, and Nico and I picked up some whipped cream from the market on the way home from school on Friday, also picking up some special soda. 

Nico helped Guy dispense his whipped cream from the can onto his pieces. 

On Tuesday night I got to see Grandma and Papa's NEW house! They just bought a house in town, and will be moving there in the next few months after it closes. I asked Nico if he was excited about their new house and he said "Yeah! I'm happy they won't be killed by bears in the summer!" Hehe!! 

School was cancelled again today because of the ice and slushy snow, so Nico got to spend the day with Lexie and Grandma Salisbury! He had so much fun he didn't want to leave. Thanks for the fun time Grandma and Lexie!!

Pokemon trainers

Playing karaoke. Nico didn't want to sing, just play the guitar!

More Snow Days!

On Saturday we spent the morning purging some stuff to donate to the Youth Ranch, clothing mostly. We made pizza that evening, I have been trying to figure out a good recipe to use for Nico's pizza, but I haven't hit on one yet that is very appetizing for him after needing to pull out the previous crust we were using, and not being able to do tomatoes. But, I've got a good recipe I'm going to try this next Saturday for both the crust and the sauce, so hopefully we can get back on track.

We've had to become creative in how to spend our days because we ended up having 5 snow days in a row. He went back to school yesterday (Wednesday) but then had another snow day today. Jeff and Allicia have a kiln, so the kids painted some pottery one evening that was fired overnight, the next day.

 Waiting for the paints to be ready in the garage. Watching Swedish Chef videos on YouTube.

On the windowsill in the kitchen

On Tuesday Lexie came over to spend a few hours with us! Nico was so excited. They played games and ate lunch and watched a movie. I also gave them some henna. When Uncle Jonny came to pick Lexie up, he stayed for one game of Bird Memory.

On Wednesday night Brianna came over for dinner. She came early enough that her and I and Nico were able to play some games before dinner. Mostly the bird memory game, but also Spot It. We played the memory game after dinner as well with Guy.

Nico telling us how to put on and take off a backpack.

Birthday Party, Cabin, SNOW!

Saturday was Evelyn's birthday party! Allicia had asked me if I would be interested in doing face painting for the kids at the party, she had a face painting kit I could use. It sounded like fun so I said yes! I had a lot of fun painting faces. Here's a few.

Nico wanted to be spider man.

Aadam and Sammy

We also did fireworks like usual for her birthday, it was a very fun party.

On Sunday The Grandparents Salisbury and Lexie picked up Nico and they all went up to the cabin! Before he would go he had to be reassured that all the bears are sleeping during the winter. They had a sleepover, and I went to pick Nico up on Monday afternoon. They all had a great time together, sledding down the driveway, watching Old Yeller at night and popping popcorn. Apparently neither Lexie or Nico are heavy enough to make the sled go down the driveway by itself, even if they both sit on it together, so Papa went with them! They told the story of Papa and Lexie going down the hill and Papa reaching over and grabbing Nico as they passed. And the story of Papa and Nico going down the hill and Lexie jumping onto the sled as they passed. 

Popping popcorn

Spiralizing cucumbers

Thank you for the fun time! Nico asked if next time he was going to get to stay 3 nights like in Grandma Camp.

On Tuesday Guy took our car to Dowdy's Automotive and we had it fixed up! That was the next step in our plan and now we are saving up for a 2nd car. Getting there bit by bit! After we have a 2nd car we will save up to move.

Wednesday was supposed to be the first day back to school but it was a SNOW DAY! We have had so much snow this week! School was also cancelled today and is cancelled tomorrow as well.

Yesterday afternoon Allicia and I and the kids ventured outside to try to do some snow shoveling. One of our neighbors joined us and we made a nice dent in the snow. As we were finishing up, Guy came home and got stuck trying to pull the car up to the sidewalk, and then Jeff got stuck trying to make it into the driveway. It was slick! Several neighbors helped them both dig their cars out. Guy and Jeff both worked from home today.

This afternoon, Jeff and Allicia let Nico put some of their children-sized skis on, and he was skiing down a small hill in the front yard made from all the shoveled snow.

Allicia helping Nico down the slope.

He eventually got good enough to go down the slope without falling. Guy came outside and helped build up the slope.

Trying to slide down on a plastic bag. Didn't work!

I think that's it. Hopefully I'm not forgetting something! It was a fun week. Perhaps school will start on Monday! ;)