Crock Pot Meals, Rubik's Cube, and Horseback Riding!

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. 

See you next week!

Sleepover, Date Night, Magic Treehouse, GG

Last Friday morning I dropped Nico off at the Grandparents Salisbury's house, him and some of the other cousins were there for another sleepover during Spring Break!

Guy and I spent the afternoon at a coffee shop and then went for a walk in downtown Boise, before picking up some Chipotle and coming home to watch a movie. We chose Around the World in 80 Days.

Then on Saturday morning Guy went with me to hang some of my henna designs up at Awakenings Coffee House.

Guy and Nico went to Lexie's birthday party that afternoon, I stayed home to get some work done and then we had pizza that night!

Nico lined his stuffed animals up on the floor in the kitchen this morning so I could feed them all breakfast. Apparently they don't like oatmeal.

Nico was very proud of himself tonight for eating everything on his plate. It's true it's easier when it's turkey burger night! Here he is eating a tater tot that has been dipped in his strawberry milkshake, Guy showed him how to do that.

He has been reading the Magic Treehouse books in order, I think there are 55 total. At first he was picking them randomly from the library but the week before Spring Break he decided to read them in order. On Sunday (I think?) Guy took Nico out to 2 different library branches to get #3 and #4. We are on Thursday right now and he has finished up to #6. We don't have any more to read but will probably pick up more on Saturday.

We are rescheduling our trip to Arlington to happen at the end of June, and we are flying! It will be a fun trip and I am looking forward to it. Nico will get to fly for the first time and I am very excited for that.

We were scheduling our garage sale for this Saturday but the weather looks pretty bad, 50 degrees and raining with thunder, so we decided to move it to the next weekend, the 15th. We were going to visit GG that day so instead, I went to see her today while Nico was in school. It was great to see where she is living now (with her sister Pat), with her room all set up and her comfy chair and couch in the living room. I was able to meet Pat for the first time, too!

That's it for this week!

Cabin and Doctor

On Saturday we had the sensory friendly movie, they played Kung Fu Panda 3. It was a good movie with a good message. I loved it! We met some friends from the church there.

Saturday afternoon, Papa picked Nico up, they met up with Lexie and Grandma Salisbury and all drove up to the cabin for an overnight visit! When we were at the cabin on Easter, Jonny and Alanna had brought a game called PieFace:

Nico kept asking to play it and we kept saying "later, after the egg hunt..." But when the egg hunt was over, it was time to head home! So this sealed the deal for him coming over on Saturday, because the game would be there. And here he is on Saturday...

Papa and Grandma also took Nico and Lexie to Elk Pond where Grandma had heard a bunch of frogs croaking earlier. The frogs were still in full force when they arrived (see video below for the volume of frog sounds they heard!), and they even found some pollywogs to bring home. The pollywogs were in the egg sack and are still currently there, growing tails, in a jar on our windowsill. 

Here they are today. When Nico brought them home, they were just dots. Now they have some tails growing.

Apparently Grandma returned to the pond yesterday and there was no sign of any frogs or pollywogs! Did a raccoon get them??

Nico also got to eat coconut milk ice cream, and chocolate chips! He returned to us Sunday morning right before church. Thank you so much Papa and Grandma for the fun time Nico had!!!

While Nico was gone on Saturday, Guy and I attempted a hike. But, it was 2 in the afternoon in full sun and we wilted very quickly. Hehe. We need to build up some endurance! We then decided to go see Star Wars: The Force Awakens! We have been wanting to see this movie for a very long time, and we wanted to see it together. And, we finally did! We used some movie tickets that Allicia had given to us a few months ago.

And did you know... that this movie is the very first movie Guy and I have seen together by ourselves in a theater? There was one time where we went to a movie with a group of people. But this was the first time we have been by ourselves. Pretty exciting! So we had to take a picture, though there is no indication that this is a movie theater we are standing in front of. We couldn't fit everything into the picture :)

On Tuesday Nico had a nutritionist appointment, to help us figure out what Nico could eat based on his allergy testing. She said we should take him off dairy completely for 6 months, though an occasional cheese is ok. So, no cream cheese or sour cream. She gave me ideas for how to replace those, and I diligently went and bought some cashew cheese to spread on his sandwiches, and then dutifully attempted to make vegan mayonnaise. The cashew cheese made Nico feel really sick, so that's a no go. He went to school on Wednesday with a tummy ache. And the mayonnaise didn't emulsify so it's just a cup of liquid. But, we're learning :)

A few more random pictures...

That's it! Enjoy the sound of frogs in the video! :)