Christmas Time!

Friday, Nico really wanted to decorate for Christmas but I wanted to wait until after his chores were done on Saturday so we could decorate on a clean slate. If he wanted to decorate on Friday he'd have to do his chores Friday. So, he did! After he finished, we opened up our Christmas box and unloaded everything except the tree ornaments, which we saved for Saturday when we got our tree.

Here's our tree advent calendar. Nico wanted to replace the batteries so that the lights would work. We didn't have replacements, so Nico and I walked over to M&W in the dark to buy some.

Then Saturday was Christmas Tree time! When we rearranged the Clubhouse a few months ago we inadvertently got rid of the spot where we usually put the Christmas tree. We thought for a while that we wouldn't be able to get one, but then we decided we could just not use the back door during this season, and we put the tree next to our bed near the back door.

We stopped by Flying M on the way home and got some coffee and an Italian Soda for Nico. He is going through all the flavors, and this time he chose English Toffee.

That night it was Guy's turn to choose the movie, and he chose to watch Labyrinth. Nico stayed enthralled for the whole movie, which he rarely does.

Sunday evening we went to the Botanical Garden's Winter Garden Aglow with Jeff and Allicia and kiddos.

Hot cocoa and hot fire

We visited Santa right off the bat. Nico brought his Christmas List with him. Watch the video at the end of the blog to see that. After he was done, Santa told him to hang the list up where Santa could find it and he asked Nico if it was ok with him if he visited on Christmas Eve to deliver presents. Nico whispered to me afterward, "Is Santa really going to come over Christmas Eve?"

Hollow log lit up with lights.

There was a new attraction there this year, a huge "Tree" of lights, like a teepee, that was controlled by a bunch of aparatuses (aparatii?) inside the teepee. You can catch a glimpse of it in the video below. At first we didn't think that all of the neat tools had any effect on the lights, but after playing with them for a while we were blown away with what each of them did. The rain stick, when used, made the lights on the teepee look like they were raining. The metal wheels you could turn made certain colors of lights go around the teepee, up or down the teepee, or get bigger. There was also a TNT pump and some gongs. It was pretty incredible. That was my favorite part of the night.

We came home frozen, and ate dinner. I heated up some coconut milk from a can (leftovers from a meal I made), and added some maple syrup and vanilla flavoring and put a little bit in a cup for Nico and I to drink. It tastes like hot ice cream. It has quickly become a favorite of ours. Better than hot cocoa I think.

On Monday after school, Nico and I walked our bikes to George's Cycles down on 3rd street. We walked them there because Nico had a flat. I had accidentally poked his tire the week before with a screwdriver while trying to push the intertube back into the metal frame. Oooooops. Nico was very agreeable to the endeavor, because he still needed a few hours of exercise to finish up his Exercise sheet. We made it there and back in about an hour and a half.

Tuesday was Guy's work Christmas Party. They held it at the Botanical Garden, so Guy and I got to go back! They had a tent setup with food being served. We ran into someone I knew from Toastmasters. Her husband works at Photronics, too! We sat across from each other and it was great to talk to them and get to know her better. We had fun. After the dinner, Guy and I walked through the garden, up to the top and then back down. It was a rainy night, so there was hardly anyone there!! It wasn't raining while we were walking, which was nice, and it just started to sprinkle as we were getting into our car.

Tonight, Nico was invited out to help them decorate their tree.

They gave us tea. And that ends the night, and the blog! Enjoy the video!

Sunny With a Chance of Leprechaun, Emojis, G.G., and Grandparents Russell arrive!

Last Friday Nico had a school program, Sunny With a Chance of Leprechaun. Both Evelyn and Nico were in the production. Guy and I and Allicia and the rest of the kiddos went to the 10:00 showing. See the video at the end for the highlights!

Nico has been pretending to be a chicken lately. In fact, when his baseball coach's wife introduced herself (did I mention this already last week?), Nico shook her hand and said "bock bock?" like a chicken. Guy and Nico play this game where Guy says a fact about chickens and Nico acts out the fact. "A chicken can lay up to 300 eggs per year" for example. When the acting out gets annoying, Guy "cuts off" his head and Nico crumples to the floor. Then Guy sews his neck back on and says another fact for Nico to act out. 

Anyway, I bring this up now because as soon as Nico got onto his riser for the performance, he started pretending to be a chicken. We noticed the girl next to him on his left (his crush from last year) telling him to stop doing it. Heehee. He stopped for a minute and then started up again.

Saturday was a full and fun day. When Nico and I were snuggling after the day was over, I asked him what his favorite thing was and he said "All of it!" 

Guy's work had a family day (Photronics Phun Day) that he took Nico to. I stayed home and precooked our pizza crusts for that night and did some chores around the house. At the Phun Day, they made slime, did a scavenger hunt, and ate hot dogs and hamburgers. 

Shortly after they got home, I took Nico to Lexie's birthday party. The theme was Emojis. It was a wonderful party!! So many fun things. They jumped on the trampoline at first, then they made tie dye shirts, played pin the poop emoji on the toilet, then did the Seran Wrap ball game.

 Nico and cousins Rory and Lexie, Grandma in the middle.

Two of his prizes

We came straight home afterward and had pizza! We've been taking turns choosing what to watch, since we've had a difficult time agreeing on anything. It was my turn to choose but gave my rights away to Nico. We watched Garfield. 

Sunday after church I took Nico to Dicks Sporting Goods to buy him some cleats, it was the last day our 20% off coupon was good. Since he was in a league, they gave him a free towel and a pair of sunglasses too.

Tuesday was our trip to Nampa to see G.G. and Aunt Pat. Aunt Pat was so sweet to let Nico play a game on her computer where he tries to get the grandma to the end safely. We learned that the field behind their house will soon be houses! We picked up Jimmy Johns on the way home, and since it was Tuesday we watched some TV while we ate, Nico chose Garfield again.

Wednesday evening was Ivy's birthday party! Allicia made an incredible spread of Chipotle copy-cat recipes so we could all have burritos or burrito bowls, it was really amazing. I don't have any pictures of this, but it was a fun time!

TODAY Grandma and Grandpa Russell arrived!

We have 4 more days with them, it should be a FUN weekend, I'll update about that next week! Tomorrow starts Nico's Spring Break!

Until then...

I thought I was recording Nico's entire pin-the-poop-emoji-on-the-toilet, but in fact I was NOT, and when I hit the "Stop" button I was actually hitting the "Record" button, so this is the very tail end of his experience with the game. Oh well!

Last trip to the cabin, Photronics

Last Friday was St. Patrick's Day. Allicia bought all the kids something green to wear to school. Nico forgot his green bowtie so I brought it to him as soon as I got home from dropping him off. He was very grateful. Here are all the kiddos after school while walking home.

On Saturday morning I went up to the cabin and Guy and Nico went to the Photronics Phun Day. There was a scavenger hunt, a tour, and he got to try on the bunny suits you have to wear into the Fab.

After they were done they met me up at the cabin because this was the last get together before the Grandparents Salisbury move to their new home. It was good to say goodbye to the place. They are officially moving tomorrow (Friday!). Here's to new adventures!

Sunday was church and Bible Study, and sitting between the two was a birthday party for Ivy, who turned 2 years old on the first day of Spring! It was a rainbow party. Yummy food, colorful streamers. They held it under the covered porch. We had to leave early to get to Bible study on time.

We are planning a garage sale to sell some things and save up for a car. We have a lot of stuff that needs to go. We plan to spend a lot of time during Spring Break decluttering. Just tonight we had delivered a wardrobe we purchased off craigslist. This will help with the clutter, it will replace our hanging closet, and it has doors to close so you don't have to see the stuff inside it. I am very pleased with it. One of the doors even has a mirror.

Picture of Nico at dinner tonight drinking his milk. Thursday is always turkey burger day! His favorite. He eats it one small teeny bite at a time so it lasts longer. He then tells Daddy - "Eat small bites so it lasts longer!"

He has been reading...

Captain Underpants
Magic Treehouse books

These are chapter books and he's been reading them outloud several times a day, he even takes them outside while he's playing and reads them to Sammy and Aadam. If he doesn't know a word he either guesses what it is and moves on, or he asks what it is. He sometimes comes into the bathroom while I'm taking a shower and sits on the toilet to read me a book.

There is a Dogman comic where the evil cat takes away all the books in the world and all the people get really dumb. Then when the books come back, they get smart again. So Nico says that he is getting smarter and smarter because he reads.