Last Friday Nico got a haircut! Here is the before picture.
And the after picture.
Nico's cabbage
We went for a walk Friday to return a bird book to a local book box. The one on our street wasn't there anymore, but I had spotted one on Bacon St, so we went for a walk. We passed by one of Nico's classmate's houses, Grace. Grace and Nico have both been in speech for a few years together. They are often in speech together. Nico says he loves her. He has been wanting to invite her to his birthday party, and when we passed by, her little brother opened the front door and yelled, "NICO!" so we chatted with him and Grace and their mom for a bit. We were able to invite them to his birthday party, so it worked out really well! We saw Grace's cabbage growing in their front yard, it looked very similar to Nico's
Saturday morning we went to the Kid's Jam at our church. Breakfast, games, and animals!
Human version of Hungry Hungry Hippo
Blurry Dance-a-thon picture (video at end of blog!)
Corbin Maxey with his reptiles
Nico and the snake named Nico.
It was Nico's turn to choose the movie that night and he chose the Pokemon movie, the very first one. We were able to watch it downstairs since Jeff and Allicia and the family were out of town last weekend.
Sunday morning we found a package out front for Nico from Grandma Russell - an activity book about Geology, which he started into right away. He is learning about geology and rock in Cub Scouts this summer, so it's perfect! Thank you Grandma!
That afternoon we rode our bikes to the library.
They have their summer book program going on at the moment, and Nico was able to do a scavenger hunt there and get a coupon for a free cookie.
Monday Nico and I went to the Discovery Center.
Tuesday was a Grandma Camp day - they had a picnic in the park and did some painting!
Wednesday night, Guy and I attended a seminar in Caldwell, and Nico stayed the night at Papa and Grandma's house. Grandma took him to his swimming lessons, and he "graduated" from his Level 3 program and got all the checkmarks! To celebrate, Grandma took him to the mall for some dinner, and some See's Candy. He played Sequence with Papa that night and then slept on the AIR MATTRESS! He has been wanting to do that his whole life - sleep on their air mattress at their house.
Thank you Ma and Pa for watching the buddy for us!
Thursday was another Grandma Camp day and it was Crock Pot time again! Nico brought home these amazing crock pot chicken thighs that he had made. I forgot to take a picture of all of them in the crock pot, these are just the leftovers :)
I rate them a 5! So does Nico. Guy rates them a 4.
Last Friday was the 2nd Grandma Camp day - the day the kids learned how to use a crock pot! I dropped Nico off at 8AM and he came home at 5:30 PM with a crock pot full of pot roast, potatoes and carrots. It was magnificent! And Nico made it. Nico was also required to clean the crock pot afterward, which he did diligently.
We had to rate it on a scale from 1-5. Nico gave it a 4. I would give it a 4.5. It was really good.
Saturday morning, after making pancakes, I packed up the car and drove to the downtown market to do some henna for the morning. Around 1 PM Guy and Nico hopped on their bikes and took the greenbelt all the way downtown to come see me right as I was closing up around 1:30. I gave Nico a henna tattoo and then we packed up my stuff and they helped me get it up the escalator before they headed home.
Saturday night it was my turn to choose the movie while we ate pizza, we rented How to Train Your Dragon 3 from Red Box. Good movie!
Sunday was Father's Day. We celebrated by taking naps in the afternoon :) Sunday evening Nico became very interested in figuring out how to solve his Rubik's cube, so he got out a pad of paper and watched a YouTube video on how to do it. He took notes.
On Monday we were taking care of Avery and Ivy while Allicia and Evelyn were out of town. We took them to their VBS that morning and then Nico and I ran over to Urban Air (trampoline park) to use up one of his free passes. Nico solved the Rubik's cube while in the car that morning!
We picked up the kids from VBS and came home for lunch. Allicia and Evelyn arrived home soon after.
Avery and Nico sat on our couch and talked about Pokemon for a while.
Tuesday was another Grandma Camp, for this one they got to ride horses! They went to a farm where they showed all the kids how to approach a horse and pet a horse and ride a horse. Each one had their own handler, so while they sat on the horse, the handler held the reigns and they went for a trail ride.
Tuesday has typically been mine and Guy's date day. While Nico was in school, we would meet for an hour in the afternoon at a coffee shop. So this Tuesday we were able to resume that, and we decided to hit up a new restaurant (to us) in downtown Boise called Lemon Tree. They are a specialty sandwich shop, an they offer gluten free bread.
Guy got the Massaman Curry Bohn Mi, I got the Turkey Boursin. We both got a side of tomato soup. The tomato soup was perfect and the sandwich was even better. I have a new favorite local place to get gluten free lunch! We decided we should take Nico there sometime. They had outdoor seating and upstairs seating, we chose a spot inside on the main floor near the front window.
After lunch we walked around downtown. Guy got a coffee from a local shop we'd never been in before. He said the latte was really good.
And for a treat for me we went to The Chocolat Bar and got a truffle. We also went into a specialty gift store. From the outside we saw that they had a Tardis inside (from the show Dr Who), so we decided to venture inside.
They had photo ops for other shows too, including Star Trek. We also saw Archie McPhee's rubber chickens for sale! On the upstairs level I found a fun painting of the movie The Princess Bride. That movie was the movie Guy and I watched RIGHT before he asked me to be his girlfriend. So I bought it with some birthday money.
It was the best afternoon ever.
After horseback riding, Nico and the crew went to the mall and ate lunch with my Aunt Liz, who is in town this week.
In the afternoon they once again went to the Pokemon League at the library, bringing Evelyn with them, and then they hit Pizza Pie Cafe for dinner.
Nico is graduating from Level 3 swimming lessons. After his last week of Level 3 next week, we are going to skip the rest of the summer and start up with swimming lessons Level 4 after he goes back to school. We plan to get a pass to the pool this summer and since he knows how to mostly swim now he is wanting to swim all the time.
Grandma Camp today was another crock pot meal!! Nico brought home a steaming hot crock pot full of chicken stew. Nico rated it a 5, Guy rated it a 2 (Chicken soup is not his thing, but he said it was a good chicken soup on the chicken soup scale), I would rate it a 4!
After dinner we all headed to the church for band practice. I am playing piano this Sunday in the band so I was there to practice with them. It went late and we got home with enough time for Nico to clean his crock pot before he fell into bed. Zzzzz. He fell asleep fast.
Last Friday we awoke bright and early as the kids started to wake up - Nico and then Avery, Ivy, and Evelyn. Jeff and Allicia left at 5AM that morning to catch their plane to Missouri, and we watched the kids for the weekend. Looking back, the weekend feels almost like a blur. Friday we played video games downstairs, and then after lunch we went to the park with our bikes, so we could ride around on the dirt loop. I told them to see how many times they could lap me while I was walking.
Saturday morning, Guy took Nico and Ivy to Free Fishing Day at the church. They met there at 7:30 and from there they drove to Arrowrock Reservoir. They didn't catch any fish but they had a fun time!
Evelyn, Avery, and I stayed home. Evelyn made chocolate chip pancakes, then we played some more video games and after lunch I even convinced Avery to take a nap!
Hanging out downstairs after his nap.
Sunday morning we attempted to ride our bikes to church. I thought it was going to work well, but there were a few hiccups in my grand plan.
1 - I didn't notice which shoes Ivy had chosen. Slip on shoes. She rides a Strider bike (a bike that has no pedals, you push with your feet), and she sweetly lost her left shoe every 15 seconds. I was riding behind her and would scoop it up and drop it right in front of her foot so she could put it back on easily, but it did cost us a bit of time.
2 - On the way to the greenbelt I told everyone to stay in a line, which no one liked, so when we reached the greenbelt I told the bigger kids that they could ride ahead, but since I was the only one who knew the way I asked them to stop every time there was a choice between which way to go. So Nico, Evelyn, and Avery rode on ahead. Ivy and I plodded on behind dropping and scooping shoes. The big kids stopped at the first road split, way to go! I told them to turn right, so off they went. And went. And went. They missed the next split, and the next, and we missed our turn. Since they had ridden on ahead, there was no way to tell them to stop. They stopped a ways ahead, and once we caught up with them it was too late to turn around and make it to church on time, so instead we headed home with the intent of driving to church late. We had inadvertently made a huge loop so it was easier to head home than to turn around.
We arrived home at 10:30, the time that church starts. I contemplated skipping church but then I was overcome by resolve to not miss this important opportunity to have a bit of time to myself in the church sanctuary during the service. We hopped in the car. It was the closest I got to raising my voice during the weekend. Imagine a car full of bickering children that would not stop hitting each other and refused to buckle their seatbelts. After my stern command, Avery looked at me and said quietly "Ok, ok, I'll sit down." Zoom!
We arrived late. No surprise there. We got into the children's room, which was dark and loud because they had a music video playing on the screen and all the kids were singing and dancing along. Avery looks at me and says, "I don't want to go in there, I don't like dancing!" I told him it would be ok and that he didn't have to dance. Evelyn grabbed his hand and stayed with him which I was grateful for. As we were getting their name tags printed out, Avery again looks up at me and quietly asks, "Are you sure this is a church?" 😂😂
Ivy was young enough to be in the little kids room so I dropped her off there, she went right over to the other kids and started playing.
The church service was... amazing. I'm so glad I didn't skip it. We had a guest speaker and it was one of the best services we've had.
Sunday afternoon was Rory's birthday party. I left the other kids at home with Guy while Nico and I went to the party. Guy and the kiddos finished watching some shows and then played video games while we were gone.
Rory's birthday party was at a painting place, the theme was flamingoes, and all the kids got to paint! It was super cool.
After they finished painting the background, the kids took a break to eat cake and ice cream so the background could dry completely before painting the flamingoes over it.
It was super fun. Happy Birthday Rory!
Monday morning I created chore lists for all the kids. Their parents were returning that afternoon, and I wanted the house to be as clean or cleaner than it was when they left. Each kid had 3 chores. Despite the complaining, they all got through the chores, and were rewarded with some video games.
Right before they came home, Ivy and I were sitting on the couch, and she looks over at me and sweetly says, "You're not the boss of me. My parents are." It wasn't a malicious statement, but a matter of fact. I looked at her and said, "You are totally right. But while they were gone I was taking care of you huh?" and she said "Yep". Their parents arrived home around 3PM and Nico and I retreated to the Clubhouse, leaving them to decompress. Allicia and I caught up that night when we took a walk around the neighborhood to exchange weekend stories.
Tuesday was my birthday, I received so many text messages and/or calls, it was very sweet. Nico was the first to say Happy Birthday that morning! I drove him over to my parents' house in the morning for the very first Grandma Camp of the summer! This summer there will be Grandma day camps, Tuesdays and Thursdays most weeks.
I had told Grandma about the Pokemon League at the library every Tuesday, so she tried out bringing all the kids to the library for it, and they loved it! She was even able to pick up Evelyn to bring her along too. Afterward they went to Pizza Pie Cafe.
Wednesday Allicia took Nico again to the summer dollar movie with the kids. Despicable Me 2. In the afternoon we put together a puzzle. I'm sure we did other things too but if I don't have pictures of them then they didn't happen!
This afternoon we visited GG. We brought our new Travel Scrabble game with us and we played it. Nico won by a lot! It was fun. GG gave us one of her Scrabble dictionaries. Yay! Nico really likes to plan his words well and get the best ones possible.
There are 2 videos below, one of just the time with Jeff & Allicia's kiddos (a separate one so I can share with Jeff & Allicia), and one that has a few snippets of just Nico at Rory's birthday party.
