This past week we've spent a lot of time packing. We've made quite a pile of boxes in the garage. Once we pack a box, we take it to the garage. Keeping it in the Clubhouse would be difficult.
Step by step we've also been cleaning the place up so that cleaning will not be as huge a deal later. On Saturday Guy and I cleaned the screen in the kitchen, which had never been cleaned. If you remember how grimy it was before, then this picture will shock you:
It's like we have acquired another light in the kitchen. The sun streaming through is amazing. Guy says he doesn't know why we didn't do that before.
It has been fun to think about all the things we'll have control over after we move - even the things like yard work, Guy is very excited that we will have roses in the front yard and mentioned he'd like to check out a book from the library about roses.
We also packed a lot Saturday morning, starting with the books. We told Nico to not pack the books he wanted to read. He chose to keep out 2 Dog Man books.
Saturday night it was my turn to choose the movie again, and I chose Dumbo. It was an OK movie.
Sunday after church there was a picnic at the Grandparents' Salisbury house in honor of Labor Day. Most of Nico's cousins were there. Here they all are playing Happy Salmon. The adults played this game later, too. It's fun!
The adults also played the game Pit, to win prizes.
Grandma started them all on a treasure hunt and they ran around finding clues. Each of the adults held one of the clues. For one of the clues, Nico had to read a story to everyone.
Prizes! Each kid got to choose a small bag, and then a large bag for their family.
Nico played Switch with Kai for a while.
It was a perfect afternoon! Thank you to Ma and Pa for having us over and providing the yummy food. Alanna also brought a lemon cake that looked delicious! I gave Guy a huge piece with ice cream on top and he enjoyed it.
Tuesday Nico went downstairs to play video games with the crew after school. Avery taught him how to play Bomber Man.
School picture day was Wednesday. And... nachos for breakfast?
The constant state of the kitchen. Boxes!
I'm putting together a video of our moving, which I'll post next week. Plus video and pictures of our new house.
Last Friday after lunch, Nico and I went first to Barnes and Noble so he could buy the latest DogMan novel. It had just been released that Tuesday, so there was a big display case inside the store that had a bunch of copies.
Then we went to the mall to finish up his school shopping, and while we were standing in line at Kohl's, Guy texted me saying he was leaving work early. I called him and asked him if he wanted to meet us at the mall, and he said YES! So Nico and I waited for him arrive, then we all ventured to See's Candies first to get some treats, and then up to the food court to get lunch for Guy.
We also stopped by the game store and Nico found a used Switch game that he had been wanting, and so he bought it with his leftover birthday money.
When we got home I commissioned Nico to make a crock pot meal that he received all the ingredients for from a recent Grandma Camp. Seafood chowder! He happily dumped everything in there and turned it on. Dinner 3 hours later!
Saturday morning I did henna at the market. Allicia sent me this text while I was there. Avery needed some help with a toy and Nico was helping him.
Sunday was a fun day. Long morning at church and then I drove Nico straight to Big Al's where his cousins and Grandparents Salisbury were gathered to do some bowling. He came home that afternoon and went straight downstairs where there were kids waiting for him to play the Switch. Sunday, Jeff and Allicia had friends over for "Even Sunday", which is like "Odd Saturday" except they couldn't do it on Saturday and so they did it on Sunday. Guy ran a role-playing game for everyone. And Nico played the Switch until bedtime. This year we did not do a last-day-of-vacation treasure hunt like usual. Hmm.. oh well!
The first day of school arrived. 4th grade!
It was a half day, and after school he was invited downstairs to play some Switch, so he played until dinner time. We are still taking advantage of summer rules, not quite ready to crack down on video game playing. Nico and Allicia have been playing buddy-system on the Yoshi game, it was fun to watch them play together!
Nico has been playing Switch downstairs after school every day.
Nico's report after his first day of school was that he liked it and he liked his teacher. His teacher uses an app to communicate with parents, and she can also hand out points to students via the app and the parents can see which points she gave to their kids. Points for teamwork, participation, and good-job type stuff.
Tuesday night was the first Cub Scout Pack meeting of the season. It was a Pirate Party. Guy sent me these pictures telling me that they both got "Lucky Beard" as their pirate name.
Every morning before school Nico and I have been playing Monopoly. It's not the original version, I don't know what the version is called but instead of cash money it uses credit cards. The game goes a little faster that way. Usually we don't finish before school starts so we sometimes save the rest of the game for after school.
We have officially started looking for places to move. Today we went to see a house on Bacon street in this same neighborhood. We really liked it. We're trying to figure out if we can make it work, but we're hoping it's a GO for this one. But if not this one, we will keep on looking, it could be a while yet, it's really hard to say!
I came home from Spokane last Friday and picked up Nico from my parents' house, bringing home with us a crock pot full of sausage and sauerkraut that Nico had put together: dinner!
Grandma sent me these pictures from their day together on Friday. Apparently Nico REALLY won Monopoly!
Nico has ALL the money and properties!
Friday night it was a very simple decision to open up our lego from Grandpa Russell to start putting it together - we were finally all together in the same spot! Nico started in on it and got a lot done, we picked up the rest on Saturday and finished it on Sunday.
The lunar lander! Nico played with it for quite some time on Sunday night.
Saturday it was also imperative that in the afternoon we go to Fred Meyer to BUY Monopoly. Guy took him, and they didn't have the version he wanted, so he bought the regular version. Nico and I played it after they got home.
That night we watched Wonder Park (Guy's choice) downstairs (Jeff & Allicia and kids were away), and ate yummy pizza. We've had a long string of great movies, we haven't seen a bad one in a long time.
This week was the LAST week before school starts! And it's one of the only weeks this summer that Allicia and I were both home on a Monday, which is our day to hang out. So on Monday morning we sent the kids downstairs to play video games while we stayed upstairs to play board games. She taught me a new board game called Azul, and I taught her how to play Pokemon.
Tuesday, Grandma Camp started out at Bruce and Rory's apartment complex's pool. It's huge!
Guy and I had a date that afternoon for lunch. We went to Pho Le.
Afterward, we went to St. Vincent's next door and found an A&W mug we bought Nico, and a new shirt for Guy. Nico loves A&W root beer.
Wednesday was another video game day.
Today was the last Grandma Camp of the summer. To celebrate, there was a BBQ and Awards Ceremony. Check out the video at the end of the blog! Each grandkid was awarded a serious award and a silly award. It was a great way to end the summer and look back at the same time.
School starts next Monday. Nico received a post card from his speech therapist, Mrs. Williams.
What a great bunch of people he's got at his school.
The promised video is below. This has snippets dating back to June! Enjoy!
We got a new game - Apples to Apples Jr. We invited Evelyn over to play it last Friday.
It's a 4+ player game, but we play with 3 people since sometimes that's all we have! It's a fun game.
Parry Gripp is creating a video for his new song: Star Cat. He asked for kids to illustrate the song and then he puts all the illustrations into a video on YouTube. This was Nico's submission.
Tuesday morning Allicia and I made ocarinas out of clay. The kiddos love to watch me play the video game Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Usually every Friday morning, Avery and Ivy and I are playing Zelda downstairs right after the big kids go to school. Ocarinas are like flutes. It took me a few tries to actually form it well enough for it to make a tone. I had to move the mouthpiece once. It finally worked! Testing our ocarinas out while the clay was still wet gave us white lips!
The placement and size of the holes was somewhat random, so the sounds it makes aren't scale-worthy, but it DOES make sound!
Tuesday evening was Nico's Cub Scouts crossover ceremony at Kathryn Albertson Park. It was the last time he'll wear his blue shirt and scarf, so I took a picture.
After arriving, the scouts gathered on the lawn for a few announcements.
The Bear Den giving their monthly report of what they did.
We walked along the path to different stations. At each station, an older scout or two would do a reading. I wasn't able to hear what they were saying, but I think it was regarding the character of scouts (honesty, loyalty, etc). At each station they got another colored ribbon to make a tassel for the bookmark they received earlier.
Along the path we eventually came to a bridge. All the parents crossed first, and then each den "crossed over" and graduated to the next rank. Nico moved up from Bear to Webelos (We'll be loyal Scouts). They ceremoniously removed his blue kerchief and replaced it with the Webelos plaid kerchief.
Nico received all the rest of his badges.
He received another "Baloo the Builder" badge accidentally, so he has two now.
His next uniform will be a tan shirt, green pants and a different kerchief clasp. We'll pick those up from the Scout shop in a few weeks.
Wednesday night my cousin Jamie graduated from High School. She was valedictorian and gave the speech. We were all very proud of her! She did a great job. Nico and Guy came straight from swimming lessons, so Nico didn't have his glasses, and he had to wear his water shoes. Oops! Should have thought ahead.
We sat next to my parents and my Aunt Ellen, and Jamie's family. There were a lot of people there!
Today was Field Day. Nico asked Guy if he would volunteer today and Guy was able to! I emailed his teacher to let her know and she wrote back and said "Yay! Thank him for me, please!" He was at the parachute station. Here's a few pictures he took of Nico being pulled under the parachute by some "sharks".
Merek was in his Field Day group (Group A) and so Nico and him were able to do all the different stations together, even though Merek is a grade ahead of him. Guy allowed them to both be "sharks" at the same time under the parachute.
Guy told me he ran into the librarian. She recognized him from when he read to Nico's class, she said "I don't know your name, but I know you're Nico's dad! You can come back any time to read to the kids, you were the best!" Guy says next year he'd like to volunteer more at the school.
This afternoon Allicia and I went to Boise Fry Company for our birthdays. Her birthday is today, and mine is coming in a few weeks, so we traded and bought each other lunch! After lunch I took Avery with me to give Allicia the afternoon off. We ran to Whole Foods and then to the library for a little before we went to pick up Ivy from preschool on her last day.
After school, Guy and Nico came home together, then we gathered in the main house to hold baby chicks. 2 days old, just arrived yesterday from a farm in Caldwell. The more you hold them, the less they are afraid of people. They gave their older chickens away before receiving these chicks. They have 10 of them though they ordered 6. If any of them end up being roosters they will have to get rid of them. Cock-a-doodle-doo!
This is Sapphire.
Guy holding 4 at once.
You guys, we leave for Arlington in 2 DAYS!!! Nico's last day of school is tomorrow, then we are OFF TO WASHINGTON! Stay tuned for a mega fun update next week!
Here's a video to end this week, snippets from our various adventures!
