Swimming, and Fireworks!

Short and sweet update today! Forgot to take many pictures, which means I may have forgotten some of the stuff we did :)

Last Friday was our first trip to the Natatorium this year. It was an overcast day in the 70s, but Nico didn't get too cold. We purchased a summer pass for both myself and Nico. We took Evelyn with us. This was my view. I could get used to this.

On Saturday, Jeff and Allicia and the kids left for a trip, they will come back this following weekend. That night we watched Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse while we ate pizza downstairs, Guy's choice. It is an animated film that won an Oscar for best animated film. It was very good. I say that about all the movies, eh?

Tuesday was a Grandma Camp. Tuesday night Nico had a Cub Scouts meeting, talking more about rocks. On Wednesday I took Nico to Roaring Springs, which is a water park with lots of slides and pools. He had received a free ticket to Roaring Springs from school for reading, and it expired the 4th. Instead of going on July 4th, though, we opted for July 3rd. A lot of other people had the same idea. There were many there that were using up their free pass from school reading that expired on the 4th. I just bought a "Spectator" pass, and I sat and read a book while Nico ran around having fun. He said he wanted to stay there all day, but after getting wet and experiencing the wind, he froze up after about an hour and asked to go home. He was very sad that it wasn't as fun as he was expecting. We bought some Dippin' Dots ice cream on the way out. That made it worth it!

We "flipped the suite" this week. Since Jeff & Allicia are out of town and they had a guest arriving today, they paid us to clean the suite for the guests. We all worked together over several days to get it done. It's quite a task!

This morning we all slept in! It was great. We finished up cleaning the suite and spent a lazy morning around the house. Nico has started playing Zelda and it's been fun to watch him downstairs. This afternoon Guy and Nico went to Grandma and Papa's house for a July 4th BBQ. I have been sick this week with a cold and was not feeling well enough to go, but they had FUN! Uncle David was there also with Rory and Bruce. Nico has a swimsuit that he keeps at their house, so he's aways prepared for water fights.

This evening we did fireworks! Guy picked some up on his way home from work yesterday. We are very close to the border of "no fireworks allowed" since we are so close to the foothills, but we are still allowed to do it! One street over and we wouldn't be able to.

That's it for this week!

Birthday Parties, and Grandma Camp!

Last Friday was a busy day for us. Nico's friend from church, Reese, had a birthday party at Circustrix in Nampa. Lots of trampolines and foam pits to play in. Check out the video for a slow-motion jump! Nico did lots of flips.

After Circustrix we went to Reese's house for cake and presents. Reese's mom had made a gluten free pie for Nico's sake! She let us bring the rest of it home so Guy could have some too.

Friday evening was my brother Jonny's birthday party. His wife Alanna put it on and she did a wonderful job. It was Star Wars themed and I got a kick out of all the Star Wars names for the food, like "7 Leia Dip". Hah! They also had Star Wars episodes 4, 5, and 6 playing in various places around the house.

There were friends there that I hadn't seen in a while, and it was great catching up. Nico played with the kids that were there, including Lexie. He had a good time too and I barely saw him. The kids spent some time in the garage fighting with light sabers made from huge floppy foam cylinders, kind of like pool noodles but much thicker.

Saturday we had another birthday, Evelyn's! She had her party at her Aunt Julie's house. They live about a 2 minute drive from our house, in the same East End neighborhood. And they have a geothermal pool in their backyard! Check out the steam on the pool!

Whenever anyone would leave the pool and come back inside, you could see the steam rolling off of their skin.

After pool time was over, all the kiddos gathered inside and made their way to the huge windows in the living room that look into the back yard. Every year, as you might remember, we do fireworks on Evelyn's birthday. This year was no exception.

Then we had pizza, and opened presents and ate cake.

On Sunday, we made pizza! It was my turn to choose the movie, and I picked Big Hero 6. It was well-liked by all of us.

Monday we made sure to match our shirts. We wore the shirts that Grandma and Papa got us for Christmas. Nico and I headed over to my parents' house and Guy joined us later that evening for dinner. We ate good food and answered questions around the table. Nico was asked: "If you could choose any pet to get tomorrow, what would you get and what would you name it?" He said he would get a cat and name if Fluff McGuff. We also had interesting conversations about ants and tornadoes.

Tuesday, I left the boys at home and had a shopping day with my Mom at the mall. Yay! I got a text from Guy while we were there, telling me that Nico was very sad that Grandma Camp would be starting tomorrow instead of that day, and Nico wanted to know if he could stay over at Grandma's house a night early. Grandma said YES, so after we were done at the mall, Grandma Salisbury came and picked Nico up from our house and took him back with her.

Grandma Camp officially started the next day, Wednesday, when all the other kids arrived. And he's been having fun from what I hear! They went roller skating again, and though he didn't seem to like it last time they went, Lexie spent some time helping him skate and he has started to enjoy it. I also know they went to a new jump place called Altitude.

Various Grandma Camp pictures:

Now you can check out the video! Mostly from Circustrix, but also a shot of him skating.

Wedding, Fireworks, Magic

Friday morning I headed to Pullman with my dad, he picked me up and we arrived around 3pm. It was my cousin Dan's wedding. Pictures from my weekend:

I got to sit next to my Aunt Mary Anne during the wedding

And my mom

 My dad and my brother. David was a groomsman in the wedding.

My cousin Molly and one of her daughters, River.

I have no picture evidence of Guy and Nico's weekend but Nico had his last swim lesson on Friday. They went to the Market on Saturday and dropped off their reading book bingo card at Rediscovered Books. He had enough to be entered into a drawing, which he WON, a gift card! Not sure for how much, we just need to go pick it up!

I arrived home on Monday afternoon. We just hung around the house the next few days, Guy had the day off, and we started uncluttering some stuff in the Clubhouse and down by Guy's desk. We've been watching Mr Bean (the cartoon version) for entertainment at night. 

Yesterday Guy picked us up some fireworks. We didn't get many. Sparklers, pop-its, some snapping ones, and some snakes.

Nico lit a lot of them! Here he is lighting some snakes. They're the hardest to light.

He would pick up the leftover ash and rub them between his hands.

Nico has been caring for a few things around the house while Jeff and Allicia are gone. They have a lizard named Sweetness that they caught, so Nico went every day to one of the neighbor's yards to find box elder beetles, Sweetness eats 3-5 of them every day. The neighbor's yard is all rocks. I went with him to help a few times. He also had to get the eggs from the chickens and bring the mail inside. They paid him for all this.

So, the blog is late being posted! A lot happened Thursday! 

Nico woke up with a tummy ache. We were planning a trip to the Toy shop to get a magic tricks kit but we decided to postpone it. But then he started feeling way better, so we went to get the kit. On Saturday while Guy and him were at the market, they saw a magician. Nico was chosen to come up and help him with a trick. When the magician did his trick and fooled Nico and the crowd, Nico said "but I don't know how to do magic yet" almost tearfully, like if he had known how to do magic he could have not been tricked? Afterward, the magician told Guy and Nico they could get magic kits from Toy Town. So they went there and found one they wanted. Thursday Nico and I went back to get it. On the way there Nico said when he grows up he wants to be a magician and an ornithologist. Like perhaps doing magic tricks with birds.

It wasn't until later I realized that he didn't yet know that magic wasn't magic and that it's actually just illusion and tricks. He was expecting to actually be able to make things levitate. I think he's warmed up to the idea of illusion, though, and Guy helped him with the kit, he was getting frustrated not understanding what the directions were telling him to do. 

Thursday afternoon Allicia returned with the kids. Jeff returned late last night from a Katmandu work trip, and they are packing up the car and are leaving today (Friday) for Seattle! While home yesterday, Avery was taking a bath/shower and did a cannonball into the tub and smacked his face, biting through his lip. Allicia took him to Urgent Care along with Evelyn, who had a bug bite on her leg that was infected. I stayed home with Ivy, we played Zelda and watched Moana, while Guy put Nico to bed. I had most of the blog update already written but forgot to finish it off last night before bed! Evelyn stayed over for dinner last night. Nico was so excited to see her after her being gone so long. He quizzed her on the states and how to spell them and other facts. Evelyn was very receptive to all of it and, and even shared an interesting fact to Nico about wolves, saying that since Nico is sharing info with her, she is going to share some info with him. So we learned that wolves are scavengers.

Here's Evelyn holding her water cup behind her. If she spells "Washington" right she gets to dump water on Nico's head.

Allicia asked Nico if he'd like to be hired again to do chores while they're gone, and he said no. hehe. I'll be doing them. Instead of finding elder bugs we are going to get a bucket of crickets from Zamzows to feed Sweetness while they're gone.

Ok that's it! Until next time!

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! ;)

Pool time!

Last day of Nico's Literacy Program was last Friday. Nico was excited for his last day. I don't think he enjoyed the program as much as he enjoyed any of his preschools. After we left, we went straight to Pojo's! We met one of his friends Lazarus there.

Then the 4th of July! We chose sparklers and Pop-its. Nico thought it was "puppets", so when we got home he kept saying that soon he was going to open up the puppets, but I had no idea he was saying it wrong until he said to me "I wonder what animal is in there? A little puppet." He bent his index finger up and down like there was a puppet on it. So then I explained it to him.

Guy ducking while Nico throws Pop-its

We did a "random act of kindness" on Monday. While Jeff and Allicia were out of town, we cleaned some of their house. Nico helped me pick up stuff off the floor and helped me with the vacuum cleaner. Also on Monday we set up the swimming pool. Slathered sun screen on (forgot his nose, whoops! It's scabbed over now), and jumped in! I even went in with Nico. I retreated after a while underneath the canopy. It was very pleasant, having a place to sit in the shade and study while Nico jumped around in the pool. We played in the pool twice that day.

From this picture you can also see our cantaloupe plant growing on the left in a pot. 

Tuesday we went to see G.G.! It was great to catch up. The next time we see her will be for Nico's birthday party on August 1st! I need to sit down and plan it. Nico has ideas all the time for what he wants at his birthday party. I can't remember them all.

After we left G.G.'s house, we went to a doctor's appointment for Nico. We are on the road to figuring out what is going on with his tummy. They took some blood to get the normal bloodwork, plus a panel of 22 foods to see if he is allergic to any of them. The doc said that this test, if done on young children, has a tendency to have some false negatives, because sometimes a child's body isn't producing the antibodies to the food (yet?) So, the test won't be complete, BUT, if anything shows up positive then hey, it was worth it. We'll also do an abdominal ultrasound to check for anything abnormal. We're covering our bases. The doc said that getting these tests done helps to give us confidence when we tell Nico "It's going to be okay" whenever he has a tummy ache. I liked that way of looking at it. Rule out all the bad stuff, so we can know better what we're dealing with. The doc said we may want to go see an allergist eventually too.

Nico was brave getting his blood drawn. Earlier that day Nico had asked me to clarify how mosquitoes suck blood from our body (he is very knowledgeable about insects after his literacy program, that was the theme!) So I told him what I knew. I told him a blood draw would be similar, except it would hurt for a little bit but then it would be over. And he'd get to watch the blood come out of his body. The nurse had to poke two arms (Nico insisted she do his right arm, so she tried that one first even though she wanted to do the left one. The right one didn't work, left a bruise, so she moved to the left one) Nico's face wrinkled up when she poked him, but otherwise he was so brave! Unlike Mommy, who had to drop down to the floor to keep from fainting. The nurse asked "Does Mommy need a glass of water?" Hehe...

After we left, I told him that he was SO BRAVE! And Nico said "I was not brave, I was MAD!" hahaha!!! I asked him to expound on his feelings and he said he was mad because the nurse poked him with a needle. :) We went straight to Freddies afterward to buy him a toy :) (not just because he was mad, but because we had planned to get him a new toy after the blood draw)

Wednesday, what a day! Nico and I sat down to do some legos after Guy had gone to work and after the dishes were done. But then I remembered! Nico doesn't have a tooth brush! So I said "Come on! Let's go to the Market to get you a tooth brush!" Nico was all for it, so we got our shoes on and walked over to M & W Market. As we were walking there the wind started, slowly. After we bought his toothbrush and left, it was a whirlwind outside. There was so much sand and dust blowing everywhere that I could barely see through my squinting, so we went back in to the M & W to wait it out a bit. After sitting for a few minutes Nico said: "I like wind! Let's go!" so we left. And thank goodness we did! It started raining on the way home and a few minutes after making it through our door, the torrents started. SO MUCH RAIN! Nico insisted that we finish putting the lego together with the lights off, and just the desk lamp on. So we did. Every time we heard the thunder, we jumped and yelled from surprise.

I looked outside and saw that the pool was being blown away, so I ran outside, flipped it over the right way and put a heavy pot inside it. When I got back inside I was very soaked. The canopy had waterfalls coming off it which I had to walk through.

Then we went outside in the front to play in the rain with Evelyn. They played in the water in the street, I have fond memories of doing this when I was younger too, when our street would flood. It wasn't very deep for them, and Nico didn't really get IN the water, but he played around it while Evelyn was in it.

They were playing very nicely, and I was chatting with Jeff on the porch, when we heard a CRUNCH, CLANG! coming from the side of the house near the clubhouse. I thought Avery may have hurt himself but I looked around and saw him just fine. We peeked around the corner and there in front of the clubhouse was our canopy, collapsed in on itself. The water must have pooled on top until it couldn't hold anymore. It was a mess! This picture is after I took off the canopy material.



Papa mentioned that there might be replacement parts that we could buy. And indeed there are! Nico and I took some of the canopy apart today and will work on getting the rest taken apart soon, so we can find out which parts are salvageable.

Nico has been making forts and for two nights he has slept in them. Such fun.

Nothing else to report at this time. Until next week!

Fireworks, Puzzle, and Splash Pad

Friday was the 4th of July! We went to the zoo. We got to the park a little early so we wandered a bit and went over to the huge Abraham Lincoln statue. There was an American flag sitting on the bench next to him, so we used it as a prop. 

Then to the zoo. I brought some of Nico's summer birthday money with us and he chose to rent a jeep cart and then buy a truck at the gift shop on the way out. He let me push him in the cart for a while but he mostly preferred to push it himself. He still is very wary about going to any part of the zoo, though we did find out that the whole left side of the zoo is devoid of dinosaurs. I'm sure they found that there were a lot of kids afraid of them, so they opened up half the zoo as dinosaur-free. You can still see the spots where they used to be, and Nico remembers from last year where they all were. It has taken a while to warm him up to going even to those parts that don't have dinosaurs anymore. 

 I wanted to take a picture of him with the truck he got at the zoo, and he told me to take a picture of him while he was posing like this. heehee.

Guy was able to go to work a few hours later that night so we could set off fireworks. We just bought sparklers, snakes, pop-its, and ground flowers. Nico had a lot of fun until we did the ground flowers, then he asked us to not do anymore. Those are louder than he prefers. We did one more ground flower and then stopped.

Playing with pop-its.

Watching the snakes grow.

On Saturday we packed a lot into the morning. I had to go to the Saturday market, so we did. We couldn't find parking right away so we decided to go through the carwash that was right there. We had tried to do the carwash on July 4th, but it was closed. And this seemed like a good opportunity. We imitated Curious George going through a carwash as each of the things happened. Blub blub blub. Fwap fwap. Swish swish swish. It was loud so we plugged our ears some of the time.

After the carwash, we found parking and made it to the market. Unfortunately both vendors we went there for were not there. We left, and were headed to a sensory-friendly movie in the theater, but I noticed we had a few minutes, so we jetted into a parking garage and raced down to the OTHER Saturday market, and got a balloon in the shape of an elephant! We raced back to the car and headed to the movie. 

The movie that was playing was Rio 2. It is an animated movie about blue parrots. Nico was talking about "blue parrots" all morning, knowing that we were going to this movie. I thought he might be a bit more interested in this than the muppet one we saw last month, but he lost interest again after 30 minutes and asked to go home.

He won his monster truck by going #2 on the potty and filling out all the spots on his potty chart with stickers. The chart seems to have helped him remember how to go, and he hasn't had an accident in a while.

On Tuesday night we pulled out a puzzle and Guy and I worked on it for a few hours. The next morning, Nico found it and wanted to work on it a little bit, so we did. We moved it to a card table and it's now in our living room, almost put together. While we still had it on the kitchen table, we ate our meals on a blanket in the living room as a picnic. That was fun, but I soon realized how much I appreciate having a table.

Wednesday we went to a park that has a splash pad. After watching the water for a while, Nico started playing in it. The park has no shade, so it was perfect that there was cloud cover so the sun wasn't shining right on us. Otherwise I know I wouldn't have lasted more than 5 minutes! Nico got soaked. Then he played on the playground for a while, lots of different playground toys that he enjoyed.

We've been playing word bingo, which is one of the games Miss Susie sent home with him for the summer. Nico likes that. He also loves tracing the alphabet on papers his teacher sent home with him. He uses dry erase markers and the papers are in sheet protectors! I put all of his summer work in a binder that I pull out twice a week. I figured since he used to get speech therapy every Tuesday and Thursday, we could follow that same schedule during the summer. I sure thrive on schedule! I think Nico does too.

That's it for today.