Flying Kites, Friends, and a Video!

On Saturday morning I drove out to Nampa to an Art Jury for the Nampa Public Market. My henna tattoos were approved for a booth at the market for this summer! I plan to be there about 10 of the Saturdays this summer.

That evening we made pizza again and watched Three Stooges.

I'm having a difficult time remembering what else we did this week! We had some incredible wind on Monday. Allicia took all her kids PLUS Nico to the park to fly kites.

We went to the Discovery Center 

Bed of nails

On the way in to the Discovery Center, Allicia said "Ok everyone hold hands!" Nico and Evelyn held hands and then he kissed her hand.

We sat outside yesterday morning to count birds.

He's been playing almost nonstop with his friends outside. They ride scooters, bikes, or play in their front yard. We "lock" them in their front yard (they have a fence) so they can play freely. They play with cars and other things. One of the friends goes to his school, Aiden, in 2nd grade, and Nico likes to wait for him when I pick him up from school so we can all walk together. They walk next to each other in front of me and Nico asks "Would you like to play with me?" and then the next day Aiden will ask Nico "Do you want to play with me?" Nico comes home and eats a snack first and then rushes outside. Aiden brings out all his cool toys, cars or Star Wars action figures and they sit at the little kids table in their yard. Adam and Sam join them as well. I go out to check on them throughout the afternoon, and Nico typically comes inside when Guy comes home. Guy "picks him up" from over there and brings him inside. Sometimes I go over and talk with Adam and Sam's mom, Tiffanie, and we sit at the "grown up" outdoor table in their yard. Sometimes Adam and Sam come over here for a play date, and they play inside while I make dinner and then I walk them home when Guy gets home. We've done that twice. Sam laments that instead of coming over to our house he wants to go to Evelyn's house. Hehe. Sometimes Evelyn plays with them too.

Nico and Evelyn have been getting along really well lately. They also enjoy playing outside, in the backyard, and there are days where that is all that Nico prefers. I think it was Sunday they were playing really well together outside and Jeff had to pull Evelyn away because he was taking the kids on a hike, and Evelyn was inconsolable because she wanted to continue playing with Nico, so they invited Nico along on the hike.

I taught another henna class on Tuesday.

And I finally got the April Snippets video put together! Enjoy!

 

Kites and Trains

On Friday, after school was over but Nico was yet to come home, his teacher emailed us with pictures of what they did that day. Apparently there was SO MUCH WIND that they improvised and made kites out of plastic bags. It was fun to ask Nico about them after he got home and show him pictures of his day at school. Nico looked at the group picture and told me that his kite had gotten tangled with someone else's.

On Saturday we went to Jimmy John's because Nico insisted on spending some of his piggy bank money on a sandwich. Before we left, Allicia told me that downtown they had a miniature train exhibit and it happened to be right next door to Jimmy John's, so we went there first. Nico got to control one of the trains using a remote. He took his stool around with him and stopped every few feet to set it down and stand on it so he could see the trains. Not just the trains, though, but all the towns and villages and other things they had set up. There were miniature people doing things like having bonfires and hanging out on the streets. It was very intricate and well put together. Apparently this happens every Saturday from Thanksgiving 'til Christmas. And the rest of the year they do it every Tuesday night.

On Sunday after church, we got to see Papa and Alexis. Jeff had asked if Papa could sit down and talk with him a bit about contract work because Jeff and Allicia are thinking about going that route with Jeff's job. So while Papa talked to them, we got to hang out with Alexis and Evie in the Clubhouse. They watched Jake and the Neverland Pirates on the iPad and ate cheese. Lexie asked "Is this just one big room?" I told her yes, but that it was just temporary.

The rest of this week has just been playing and such, and preparing for Grandma and Grandpa Russell's visit on Saturday! We are excited! More to come next week on that…

When I asked Nico if he had fallen asleep on the bus today he said No, so I put him down early tonight. This is very unusual! He usually always falls asleep on the bus. But, early night is good. He didn't sleep well last night so I'm hoping he gets a good chunk tonight.

Garden, Fish Park, and the iBee

We tried several times this past week to fly a kite. The gusts of wind seemed wild enough to carry a kite but when we got to the park there was hardly anything! Oh well. We keep the kite in the back of the car in case we need to make an emergency kite flying stop.

On Sunday after church we went to Louie's for lunch with family. Then afterward, Nico drove to Nampa with Papa to pick up the eggs and milk from the farm. The Grandparents Salisbury gave us 2 dozen farm fresh eggs this week (thank you!!), the darkest orange yolks you ever did see! Papa also let us borrow his wheelbarrow and a big shovel (we already have a small Nico-sized one) so that we could move the dirt from our garden. On Tuesday we moved it to the area under our pine trees. We don't plan to take the dirt with us when we move, but will definitely be bringing our garden bed!

Nico happened to be wearing a nice shirt that morning and me a skirt. But it turns out all you need is good shoes and you can get the job done. We were done quickly.

Cold water, juice, cheese stick, and iPad to relax after digging dirt.

On Monday we went to see Allicia and crew in the morning and brought some bins with us to store in their cellar.

Tuesday, Fish Park!

His favorite part of the Fish Park is the stream-bed in the lobby and the big sturgeon fish that swim under the bridge. So we just did those two things.

We've been… eating cinnamon raisin bread, going for bike rides in the morning, sorting through closets, snuggling, reading, and playing iPad games and watching videos. He is really enjoying read-along books that come with a CD of the story. And of course truck/car books from the library.

Two more weeks until school starts! I am mentioning it to him every so often so he knows it's coming. I've also been trying and trying to remember to enforce him saying "iPad" instead of "iBee". It was one thing that his speech therapist wanted him to work on, but I am so used to him saying "iBee" that I haven't remembered to correct him! We practice saying "iPad" on purpose and he can do it just fine, but it's a habit to say iBee and it's a hard one to break.

Onward!

Blueberries and Paddle Boats

Lots of fun this past week, scratched some things off our summer to-do list!

Saturday was the market. We stopped by the fountain briefly, but it was a bit too chilly to get wet. Nico got a balloon animal. He asked for a yellow dinosaur.

We also went into the game store on 8th St. briefly and saw some things that we might come back and get later. Marbles, and a train game. I am dubbing summertime: Nico's birthday summer. Instead of getting him one big gift, we are having fun doing and seeing things this summer, and little prizes like marbles and trains along the way are also factored into his birthday. We are planning a ROCKET birthday party for him on his birthday. We are going to set off rockets at Quarry View Park (Old Park). We already reserved the picnic area.

Also on Saturday we went to the park to fly Nico's KITE for the first time. We got it up in the air about 3 times and Nico had a blast. It was windy and cold so I let him wear my jacket. 

There was once where the kite blew upward so hard that it yanked the string from Nico's hand. We had to chase it, and scream at the same time, and eventually we caught it. That was probably the best part of the kite flying experience.

Sunday after church, the Grandparents Salisbury took us to Smoky Mountain Pizza where Nico and I shared a gluten free pizza. WOW was it good! We had a great time with them and with Lexie, who also joined us. We took one home for Guy, too. For Father's Day Nico and I made Guy a treasure map and buried a treasure for Guy in the backyard. That was fun. Later that afternoon, Grandma and Lexie stopped by for a bit and Nico and Lexie climbed up into Nico's bed to watch Curious George.

Wednesday we went blueberry picking. We wanted to go strawberry picking, but the place we were going was all out of strawberries. It rained the whole time we were there picking, but it was still fun. Nico was worried about the rain but I told him it was okay to be out in the rain. "Remember Piggie and Gerald?" He kept asking for an umbrella but I told him that we don't always need an umbrella. He repeated what I said, as he does quite often now "don't always need an umbrella." Then there was a pause, he was looking out the car window and he said "Need an umbrella!!" The whole blueberry crop was under netting, but there were a few rogue birds in there anyway. We met a group of people there, including Allicia & Evie. Nico climbed into a blueberry bush after Evie; thankfully blueberries don't have thorns! We picked about 3 1/2 pounds. Nico preferred dumping my berries into the box instead of picking them himself. It was actually helpful to have him do that. I wanted to bring my camera, but not in the rain!

Today was a fun day, we had a long list of things to do. I told Nico we had 7 things to do and listed them for him while we were in the car. Number 7 was "home". Nico memorized the list and then would recite it, but when he'd get to 7 he'd say: "Seven… uh.. uh… library! Eight…. bookstore and find a train. Nine… Evies house! Ten… home!" It was so silly, he kept adding things to the list. The list mostly consisted of grocery stores. WinCo, Whole Foods, Trader Joes, the Co-op. Nico was a trooper. We got us both a treat at Whole Foods which held us over until lunch. After our 6 things, we dropped off the groceries at home (#7) and went right back out to do the PADDLE BOATS! 

Nico saying "FIVE BOATS!" He had counted four and wanted to see another one.

There were a lot of ducks, geese, and baby ducks. The ducks sometimes would start going under us so we'd have to stop and back up so they wouldn't get caught in the paddles. Nico had a lot of fun. He couldn't reach the paddles unless he stretched himself and barely sat on the seat. He helped steer for a little bit, and asked me several times to sing "Row row your boat" while I paddled. I decided to do the paddle boats early in the summer because they don't open until 11 AM and in July or August it would be too hot for us even at 11 AM. But today it was perfect.

Nico is mimicking us more and more. I found out that I always say "Oh my goodness, what happened?" whenever Nico has a potty accident because he has started saying that in a surprised voice whenever he has an accident: "Oh muh gaw, wha happen?" And as I'm telling him things he repeats after me voluntarily. I have intended to start doing the vocabulary games the school sent home with him, but I have not remembered. I will! 

Nico found our leftover seeds from last year's garden in our fridge and wanted to plant them. We weren't intending to plant a garden this year, but I figured, why not? So we went outside.

We had to yank some pretty big weeds from the garden bed first, but then we planted the seeds. ALL of them. There was a lot. But we had fun sprinkling the seeds onto the dirt, mixing them in haphazardly with the shovel and then watering with the watering can. We'll see what pops up!

A few more random fun things we did:

Climbing with Evie at the park

We used up all our water balloons in 3 days!

Strider Park

I had a lot of fun using my new camera. It takes really good pictures! And I'm trying to learn all about it. It turns out perfectly to have blog day once a week. I can take pictures all week, use up the battery, and then on Thursday unload all the pictures, change the battery out, and I'm good for the next week. 

Painting a bird house

 He went outside with chalk and drew a hopscotch ALL BY HIMSELF. He even wrote the numbers into the squares. He said "Mommy, a hopscotch!" and then he hopped through it for me. I'm thinking Curious George was his teacher on this one.

He was a good camera subject.

Nico fell asleep tonight at 5 PM, in bed, while he was in time out. I went in there and he had pulled the cover over himself and had zonked out. I'm forecasting a wake-up in a few hours. We will then eat some strawberries, watch some Curious George, and then he'll fall asleep in my bed.

I don't think I'm forgetting anything on this busy week. At this rate, I don't ever want summer to end!