Birds birds and more birds and some other animals

We spent all of Saturday morning working to rebuild our Eiffel Tower lego, and in the afternoon we went to an engagement party at the church. We were planning to leave Nico here for Jeff and Allicia to watch but the kiddos in the main house caught a stomach bug, so we took him with us, which turned out to be the BEST thing we could have done. It was a family-friendly event at the church, there were games for kids and he had several church friends there with him. It was announced that whoever found the most toy rings won a prize at the end, so Nico searched everywhere for rings throughout the whole event. There were games that Nico and I participated in too. Then a "jeopardy" type game with questions about the couple getting married. Whoever raised their hands first got to answer first, and Nico raised his hand almost every time. He answered enough questions right to win 2nd place and picked out a BIRD FEEDER for his prize!! When he brought it over to me I was so excited, it was beautifully hand crafted by the father of the bride. Everyone was cracking up that Nico was answering all the questions right. He stole the show.

Then the couple opened presents and Nico brought them all their gifts. He had so much fun.

Then everyone counted up how many rings they had found and Nico had 13, which means he tied for 1st place! He chose a Squirrel Feeder for his prize and with all that we came home with I am just exceedingly grateful. We are SET for watching birds and squirrels and we can't wait to hang them. We are going to let Tiffanie use our squirrel feeder until we move since she has 2 lively squirrels living in her tree and we all get a kick out of them. Check out these little stools for the squirrels to sit on!

I'm so glad that it worked out that Nico came with us!

He says he wants to study animals and birds when he grows up, and wants to be an ornithologist (we had to look up what a bird scientist was called. I didn't know. Guy probably did but he was at work). We spent a few minutes looking online for what it would take to be an ornithologist and he said he wanted to go to college in Seattle near Grandma and Grandpa Russell. We signed him up for a nature camp this summer that's just a week long over at the Botanical Garden, it's called Bugs, Birds, Bats, and Botany. The description reads: This week focuses on winged wonders and the plants they call food and home. Use nets to capture insects, hold a wild bird’s nest, and learn how living things fly."

He's been taking pictures of animals with our phones. Not just real animals but pictures of animals in comic books or wherever else he sees them. He also snaps pictures of birds with my phone on the way to school.

I understand there's room for him to change his mind about what he wants to do when he grows up, but it is awesome to see him so passionate about something and it makes me want to give him everything he wants that is bird related. 

Coloring some mandalas

Guy let me put henna on his foot, which we washed off right after.

Sorting lego bins.

He's been playing over at Aadam and Sammy's a lot after school.

He's been reading...

Heidi Hecklebeck books

Bird and Squirrel comics

Dogman

The Week of Celebration

Friday we invited Sammy and Aadam over to play inside the main house! Jeff and Allicia and crew were out of town so we used their living room for a play date. They colored and wrote books and had a grand time. It was nice to have the space available to invite them inside!

That afternoon they played out front on our table.

On Saturday morning we went to see GG. Guy was able to come with us because we did it on a Saturday, and it was great! As always really fun to see her and talk about what she's been up to and what she has planned in the coming weeks. Nico brought over his Grosseries to show GG. We may have left them there, in fact! I still need to call her and ask if we left them.

On Sunday Guy helped at the sound booth again at church. I think it will become a regular thing!

Monday was Columbus Day, which we affectionally renamed Columbo's Day, a day to watch an episode of Columbo. We picked one of our favorites. Guy and I watched while Nico was in school.



Monday started Guy's VACATION week! He took the whole week off from work. While he's been home, we have sorted through stuff, taken a load to the Youth Ranch to give away, watched lots of Netflix, bought lots of snacks, eaten lots of snacks, and on Wednesday night we even had a PARTY! We bought cupcakes to celebrate Guy's birthday and went to Trader Joe's and filled our carts with all those snacky items and dips that always look so good but you never buy because, well, they can get expensive! But really, Trader Joe's is cheap, although spending $120 on snack items was really a piece of cake for us. We are enjoying blowing all our money this paycheck.

The party on Wednesday was just under the covered porch and we had Jeff & Allicia, plus Tiffanie over. The guests that are staying in the suite above us, Vanessa and her 3 year old Ansel also came to the party, they've become good friends of the family. She bought us flowers. We ate all the snackie items from Trader Joe's, then cupcakes. Finger food heaven! Sammy is also gluten free, and Tiffanie told me that at the party he was like a child in Costco eating all the samples except this time he could actually eat them (because all our food was gluten free!) We sent them home with hummus and salami and veggies for Sammy's lunch. He is growing into quite the foodie and only 8 years old.

I captured only one picture. You can't see the rest of the people/kids that were at the tables, but you CAN see a small section of the dips and chips and crackers we got.

We purchased Nico his Star Wars Lego that he has wanted for a very long time. We ordered it last week and it was delivered on Monday. We opened it up and started putting it together straight away.

Before opening the box

Just starting out

Getting close to the halfway mark...

It is not together yet, but we are close.

Random pictures. Nico is tall enough to ride his blue bike now!

Picture by Nico

It is fun having Guy home. He takes Nico to school with me and picks him up with me. Guy even got to spend some time working on a project - building a card shuffler with legos, using a lego motor to power it. Want to see how it works?