Lumberjacks and Halloween

Saturday all of us drove up to the cabin for a Lumberjack Party! We were the first ones there and got to have Grandma and Papa all to ourselves for a few hours! It was perfect. My mom served chili and turkey meatballs and sides. Everyone was supposed to bring a dessert and on Friday Nico and I made Sunbutter Chocolate Pumpkin Cups to bring with us. They were tasty!

I put some Halloween Jamberry nails on Lexie, just like the ones I put on Nico.

They matched up their fingers with matching nails

Showing everyone their matching nails

Nico not smiling at the camera when I told him to smile. hehe

There was a contest to guess the weight of a HUGE pumpkin, and also games to guess how many candies were in a jar, and how many M&Ms were in a bottle. Nico asked if his two imaginary friends Bico and Dico could also place guesses, and Bico ended up winning the pumpkin! I forgot to take a picture of it but it's sitting right outside (68 pounds!) I think Allicia and I are going to try to cook it up and freeze it so we have pumpkin puree throughout the year! Then, Nico won the jar of candy. The jar is a beautiful clear glass pumpkin with candies in it and a removable lid. 

It was a fun and full day, we came home happy. Thanks so much for the yummy food and the fun time Papa and Grandma!

Monday was Halloween of course, and we met everyone at the Roosevelt Market and then walked home from there, trick-treating on the way. Just like last year! I left early so I could catch the Financial Peace University class that was all about real estate and mortgages. 

Guy told me that Nico was very focused on trick-or-treating, and he got a lot more candy than the others. He was really committed and ended up with 125 pieces. He has been sorting them, trucking them around on the Spring Fair trucks, counting them and recording how many of each type he has (in his new red notebook that Gma Russell sent his way). 

Check out the video of the Boo Bash and of Halloween at the end of the entry!

Nico had a doctor's appointment today and we will be starting a few new supplements. I am excited to see how they may help his sleep and stomach.

Today was our parent-teacher conference, and Nico is doing really well in school, has a lot of friends, and has very good handwriting. He is in the upper level reading group and the upper level math group. They said he's very humorous and they enjoy having him in the class (this was the teacher and the student teacher talking). When he stood up front during his Star Student week showing his friends his pictures, he showed everyone a picture of someone reading him a book (this would be GG or Grandma Russell) and asked everyone to make 3 guesses what the book was. No one could guess so he kept asking them to try again. No one could see the picture closely so the possibility of books was really endless. They say he's very precise, and is good at seeing patterns in math.

They showed us his journal, and I wish I could show you guys every page, but I only took a picture of one of them. He's been really into car symbols lately and so notice that on Grandma's truck he wrote "GMC" because that is what she owns. 

Nico was very curious about Horseflies so we looked them up in the book that GG gave Nico. We ended up looking up a lot more than just Horseflies, and we even got out the ruler so we could see in real life how big some of these bugs get. Horseflies are HUGE!

We heard yesterday that GG is in the hospital with congestive heart failure, looks like it can be managed with the right combo of meds and we are praying for health and recovery! Love you Grandma!!

Enjoy the two videos this week!

Halloween Party and Climbing Trees

Guy has been on days for a few weeks now, he is having trouble sleeping at night but for the most part things are good. He is able to hang out with us more, though some of our normal activities have gotten lost in the shuffle. Nico, for example, used to wake up at the crack of dawn to run downstairs and play games with Guy on his computer. But that hasn't happened since the switch. In fact, Nico is now sleeping in most mornings. This morning he got out of bed at 5 AM and passed our bed and headed for the door, but then turned and came back, crawled over me and planted himself between me and Guy and fell asleep for another hour and a half. Nico sleeps much better when Guy is there. But Guy sleeps terribly when Nico is there. Nico goes through fits and starts in the middle of the night during certain times. You can hear his teeth grinding together and he is kicking and bouncing his head around knocking into me and Guy. Nico always starts off in his own bed, but transfers to our bed at some point during the night, nestling in between us. We know he's there when he starts kicking us in his sleep.

The other previously normal activity that hasn't occurred since the day switch is me and Guy watching Netflix together.

Sunday was fun again to have Guy at church.

On Monday I went up to the cabin by myself to help my mom with computer stuff. Of course we took advantage of it and went for a hike and ate a wonderful lunch that day too. When I told Nico that he got to hang out with Daddy that day he said "Awwww I LOVE staying at home with Daddy!" He was very excited about it, even though he knew I was going to the C-A-B-I-N.

The view was beautiful up there, I don't ever remember it being that beautiful. Thanks for the wonderful day, Mom!

On Tuesday was Nico's Halloween Party at school! I brought some Nico safe treats with me in case they handed out candy. Gluten free peanut butter cups to the rescue! He decorated a cupcake but didn't eat it, and ate his peanut butter cup instead. Guy and I were BOTH able to go! The kids played musical chairs (Nico was the first one out and he started to whimper and cry when he had to sit by himself. Pretty soon everyone but 1 person was sitting with him, though, so he got over it fast). Then they played Bingo (everyone won something!).

Today was a fun day. Guy has had to go into work late (11 AM) so that he could stay late (8 PM) so he can train someone. This morning was our parent teacher conference and Guy was able to come!! Nico is a smarty pants, as we all know, and Ms. Lung is finding that she has to challenge him in Math. He is exceeding expectations there. He struggles a bit with social stuff but we are working on that. 

Two things the teacher gave us, is Nico's Blood Ghost, who apparently ate too much red blood, and then an About Me page where he was supposed to sound out the words he wanted to write and fill in the blanks. In Kindergarten they're not concerned with spelling, and as you can see Nico's favorite food is aplpi - a perfect phonetic reproduction of his beloved Apple Pie (which he's never actually eaten before).

After the parent teacher conference we came home and put on spooky scary nail wraps on Evelyn and Nico. I bought some MONSTER nail wraps and so for Halloween Evelyn and Nico are wearing them.

Here they are showing off their Zombie/Vampire/Mummy/Monster/Spider Web fingernails. 

This afternoon we went to Quarry View. Nico asked me if there was going to be friends there. He didn't mean friends that he knew, but kids in general. When he is on the playground with a group of kids he always says "Look at all my friends!!"

Evelyn showed up to the playground with her cousin and Aunt, and Nico joined in as they played soccer and climbed trees. Evelyn wore her dinosaur costume all day today. And Nico called out to her from the playground when he saw her: "Evelyn! Do you want to play with me with all my friends?" There was a large group of children on the playground and I was thankful for that. Nico has so much more fun when there are other kids around. He has no trouble asking other kids to play and always asks them what their names are. 

And then a random picture of Nico ironing. It was his idea and I had him use a cold iron.

Did you know Nico can read a bit? I'll have to video it. Ms. Lung sends home homework and it includes sentences. The first time I asked him to read a sentence I didn't expect much. But, yep, looks like he can read. And he has got his Ls down. He says "like" just fine! I am proud of him.

What a life! I am loving it!