Cub Scouts Crossover Ceremony, Field Day, and Baby Chicks!

We got a new game - Apples to Apples Jr. We invited Evelyn over to play it last Friday. 

It's a 4+ player game, but we play with 3 people since sometimes that's all we have! It's a fun game.

Parry Gripp is creating a video for his new song: Star Cat. He asked for kids to illustrate the song and then he puts all the illustrations into a video on YouTube. This was Nico's submission.

Tuesday morning Allicia and I made ocarinas out of clay. The kiddos love to watch me play the video game Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Usually every Friday morning, Avery and Ivy and I are playing Zelda downstairs right after the big kids go to school. Ocarinas are like flutes. It took me a few tries to actually form it well enough for it to make a tone. I had to move the mouthpiece once. It finally worked! Testing our ocarinas out while the clay was still wet gave us white lips!

The placement and size of the holes was somewhat random, so the sounds it makes aren't scale-worthy, but it DOES make sound! 

Tuesday evening was Nico's Cub Scouts crossover ceremony at Kathryn Albertson Park. It was the last time he'll wear his blue shirt and scarf, so I took a picture.

After arriving, the scouts gathered on the lawn for a few announcements.

The Bear Den giving their monthly report of what they did.

We walked along the path to different stations. At each station, an older scout or two would do a reading. I wasn't able to hear what they were saying, but I think it was regarding the character of scouts (honesty, loyalty, etc). At each station they got another colored ribbon to make a tassel for the bookmark they received earlier.

Along the path we eventually came to a bridge. All the parents crossed first, and then each den "crossed over" and graduated to the next rank. Nico moved up from Bear to Webelos (We'll be loyal Scouts). They ceremoniously removed his blue kerchief and replaced it with the Webelos plaid kerchief.

Nico received all the rest of his badges.

He received another "Baloo the Builder" badge accidentally, so he has two now.

His next uniform will be a tan shirt, green pants and a different kerchief clasp. We'll pick those up from the Scout shop in a few weeks.

Wednesday night my cousin Jamie graduated from High School. She was valedictorian and gave the speech. We were all very proud of her! She did a great job. Nico and Guy came straight from swimming lessons, so Nico didn't have his glasses, and he had to wear his water shoes. Oops! Should have thought ahead.

We sat next to my parents and my Aunt Ellen, and Jamie's family. There were a lot of people there!

Today was Field Day. Nico asked Guy if he would volunteer today and Guy was able to! I emailed his teacher to let her know and she wrote back and said "Yay! Thank him for me, please!" He was at the parachute station. Here's a few pictures he took of Nico being pulled under the parachute by some "sharks".

Merek was in his Field Day group (Group A) and so Nico and him were able to do all the different stations together, even though Merek is a grade ahead of him. Guy allowed them to both be "sharks" at the same time under the parachute.

Guy told me he ran into the librarian. She recognized him from when he read to Nico's class, she said "I don't know your name, but I know you're Nico's dad! You can come back any time to read to the kids, you were the best!" Guy says next year he'd like to volunteer more at the school.

This afternoon Allicia and I went to Boise Fry Company for our birthdays. Her birthday is today, and mine is coming in a few weeks, so we traded and bought each other lunch! After lunch I took Avery with me to give Allicia the afternoon off. We ran to Whole Foods and then to the library for a little before we went to pick up Ivy from preschool on her last day.

After school, Guy and Nico came home together, then we gathered in the main house to hold baby chicks. 2 days old, just arrived yesterday from a farm in Caldwell. The more you hold them, the less they are afraid of people. They gave their older chickens away before receiving these chicks. They have 10 of them though they ordered 6. If any of them end up being roosters they will have to get rid of them. Cock-a-doodle-doo!

This is Sapphire.

Guy holding 4 at once.

You guys, we leave for Arlington in 2 DAYS!!! Nico's last day of school is tomorrow, then we are OFF TO WASHINGTON! Stay tuned for a mega fun update next week!

Here's a video to end this week, snippets from our various adventures!

Fidget Spinner, Church Picnic, Turn up the Beet

Saturday was a full day for all of us, I had a henna booth at a festival and Nico and Guy helped with sound at a wedding for a couple in our church. In the morning they went downtown to the market and over to a bookstore that sells fidget spinners. Fidget Spinners are the new thing, apparently! He came home from school one day talking about them and asking for one. He saved up a few dollars and they went and bought one at the bookstore. Blue.

At the festival, Grandma Salisbury was at the booth with me being my helper. Thank you Mom! We had a fun day, it was the perfect temperature to be outside.

After the festival was over, the Grandparents Salisbury helped me pack up and load up and unload at home. Thank you!! Then I headed over to the wedding to pick Nico up. It was past 8 already and he was tired. He had made some friends at the park there that were selling slime. The whole ride home he talked about what he was going to sell at the park next Saturday. "Maybe cars?"

Sunday was the church picnic at Municipal Park.

They had games for the kids, and the area was all in the shade. Yay! It was fun. Then Nico and I went over to pick up the milk and eggs from the Grandparents Salisbury's house. Nico played Minecraft with Papa on the iPad. While we were pulling away from the house Nico called out of the open window, "Bye! I hope you have fun building your house in Minecraft!" 

Monday was a holiday that Guy had off. Nico and I had doctors appointments in the morning, then we stopped by Boise Juice Co. to get us each our favorite juice, "Turn up the Beet". We took note of the ingredients and decided we would try to make it at home. 1 apple, 2 carrots, 1/2 a beet, 1/2 a lemon, and 3 slices of ginger, that's what we're going to try. I got all the ingredients on Thursday and we will try this next week.

We had pizza Monday night since the weekend was too full for us to enjoy it then. 

Nico has had a full week of fun and party things at school. Wednesday was science day at Municipal Park. Thursday was Field Day, and Friday he has a half day. He came home with all of his school stuff yesterday (Thursday) including his journal! Here is a sneak peak. 

This was early in the year. They didn't put dates on anything, but it was in the first few pages.

That's about it for this week. Summer is starting!! I wonder what next week will hold!

Graduation, Field Day, Last Day, Oh my!

Last Friday was Nico's graduation. They sang songs and received certificates and talked into a microphone about what they learned in Kindergarten. I don't even remember what Nico said, though I have it on video. I will post a video next week since I didn't have time this week! What I do remember is that he said something that I didn't understand. I'll have to watch it again to see if I can discern it.

Nico and his teacher Miss Lung

I brought a little potted flower for Nico to give to Miss Lung. And then for HIM I brought a bag of his favorite mint chocolates from Trader Joe's

Brodie, Nico, Olivia

On Sunday we went to church and after church there was a potluck with a water slide. We brought tuna pasta salad. Guy tried out the blow-darts and then told me I should try it out, so I did. It takes a LOT of lung power to propel those things! I couldn't even get my dart to the first target. Guy got his to the furthest target, I was impressed!

Our neighbors, Tiffanie, Sam and Adam

Tiffanie and Sam

Adam

Sunday afternoon was fun. Nico and I got some snuggle time in while Guy took a nap and then Guy mowed Jonny & Alanna's lawn. 

Here's a good shot of the cul-de-sac across the street from Jonny & Alanna's house. On Monday Nico was able to introduce himself to the kids and play with them for a few hours until lunch time. They even let him ride on some of their fun  toys. Here is Nico riding on Lexie's EzyRoller while Guy mowed the front lawn.

Playing with the Panorama option on my phone. This is the view from their backyard!

Dot-to-dots on the couch

 Being silly eating "hockey pucks"

No school on Monday, and Tuesday was Olympic Field Day. Guy was able to take that morning off to take Nico!! He took lots of pictures.

Tuesday was also our last day at Jonny & Alanna's house! It was such a fun experience being there. I will miss their dishwasher!! 

Tuesday night Nico came in from playing with his friends with a 102.2 fever and a really bad headache. We thought it might have ben heat exhaustion, but weren't sure. It went up to 103.2 in the night, and the next day it was hovering around 101 all day, going to bed with it right at 100, and then this morning he was all better. With the fever, at least. He woke up this morning whining that his stomach hurt :( He got sick once so we couch-bound him and them had him take a nap, he woke up feeling fine and so off to school he went for his LAST DAY!!!! I'm so glad he was able to make it to his last day. 

He did make an observation this morning after he got sick. He was pretty matter of fact. "I had throw up in my tummy, and then it just came up. That's what was wrong, it came up, like this *re-enactment* and then I was fine!" I thought it was great, it seems like he doesn't have any fear of it. His tummy ache reappeared shortly and he asked me "Mommy, why didn't my tummy ache go away?" I told him that last time (a few weeks ago, remember that?) he felt better after sleeping, so that's where the nap came in. 

This is all stuff I'm writing down to tell to his doctor next Tuesday when we have a follow up appointment. This doesn't bode well for our gut-healing attempts, but I'm confident we'll get to the bottom of it.

That's it for this week! Expect a video next time :)