Table Rock, Last Baseball Game, and Grandma Camp!

On Friday Guy and I went to Boise Fry Company for dinner on a DATE! Jeff and Allicia watched Nico for us. I got some sweet potato fries and some deep fried brussells sprouts. Yummy! Afterward we went to Fred Meyer to get a present for Rory's birthday. We picked out a pretty dress and a unicorn hat. She loves unicorns!

On Saturday we actually skipped making pancakes, and in fact, Nico ate no breakfast at all before we hiked Table Rock with friends early that morning. He was not hungry! He ate some sausage and cereal when we got home, though.

When we got up to the top of Table Rock we climbed down to some caves on the opposite side, the path takes you around the base of the rock and you climb back up right in front of the cross. It was really cool, except for the smell and all of the graffiti.

Climbing Up

Climbing down to the caves

After we got home and Nico ate breakfast, we went straight to his baseball game, his very last game! Papa and Grandma Salisbury brought Lexie, Rory, and Bruce with them to watch the game as well.

Waiting for his turn to bat.

On team picture day, the coach on the left was sick, so he wasn't in the official picture. Here is the unofficial picture of Nico's team! :)

After his game, we went to Jimmy John's and then Pa and Grandma took him with them! He stayed with them until Monday, when I went to pick him up.

Apparently while over at their house, they went up to the attic, then up to the highest point inside the house, then into the crawl space. Hah. What fun?

Waiting their turn to go up into the attic.

 The highest point in the house.

The lowest point in the house.

The middlest point in the house.

Nico is the one who has the ball.

Lexie asked me to bring henna over on Monday when I came for pizza and Rory's party. I obliged! I hadn't done henna in almost 6 months!

Saturday night, Guy and I made pizza on our own and watched Mortal Kombat. On Monday we watched the movie Hackers together. Guy wasn't feeling well Monday evening so I went on my own over to Grandparents' house for Rory's party and to pick up Nico.

Nico's last day of school is tomorrow! Today was Field Day. Nico had asked me almost a month ago to volunteer on Field Day. He was insistent and told me to call up the gym teacher to let her know I wanted to volunteer. That's serious business! I just waited until they asked for volunteers and I added my name to the bunch. So I was there at his school this morning.

Next week I'll be updating from Arlington!! It might be a day late. We are excited for our trip, we leave next Tuesday!!

Bouncy Houses, Books, Scooter

Last Saturday was a full fun day for Nico. A baseball game started the day off and in the afternoon a 3 hour birthday party at the park. We dropped him off there at 3, picked him up at 6. They even had gluten free pizza and cupcakes!

There were two bouncy houses.

I stole a few pictures from the event page, several people uploaded their pictures to the site and I downloaded the ones with Nico in them.

Before Nico went to the party, Evelyn asked where he was going and he told her. Soon after, I got a text from Allicia saying that they were headed to the park and wanted to know if we'd like to come. I told her Nico was already there and she said "I wonder if that was why Evelyn was so insistent on going!" Heehee. When we came to pick Nico up, we saw Allicia and the kids there, and we all walked (ran) home together. It was a fun day.

Nico received a package from the Grandparents Russell this past week, with a few surprises in it! An activity book for our road trip (which he studiously started on already.. hehe), a nice zippered pouch for art supplies, and inside the pouch... a book! Captain Underpants!! I have not been up on the Captain Underpants books and didn't realize there were 12 of them!!! This was #9, as Nico told me. I had told Grandma Russell this was a good book to get Nico, thinking it was #4, hah! Well indeed it was a good choice, just not in the way I was expecting. heehee. And one thing about Nico - if he gets a new book as part of a series, he has to read or re-read all of the first books in order, before he reads the new one. He was luckily already in the middle of re-reading book #3 when this one arrived, so he finished that off and then we checked out #4 and #5 from the library for him to read.

Reading book#3 outside before bed.

We got Nico's baseball pictures back!

He is still loving baseball so much, his last game is this Saturday! He is already talking about next year. Nico's baseball practice was cancelled on Tuesday, so instead we went to the park so he could practice on his new scooter! 

We are going to pack this in our car and take it with us to Arlington when we visit in a few weeks (1 1/2 more weeks!!!) I should have taken a video of it, but to make it move forward you move your hips back and forth. Guy looked at him and said "we should give him a hula hoop!"

Jeff was out of town this week so we spent a lot of time with Allicia and the kiddos. Allicia's birthday was Wednesday, so we celebrated by making pizza and coconut milk ice cream in her new ice cream maker. We also spent a lot of time downstairs playing video games. It was a great week!

Eating ice cream

Here's a slo-mo video of Nico hitting!

Update comin' attcha tomorrow!

Baseball game and then stuff to do after getting home means that tomorrow (Friday) I will update the blog! Mid-morning! Stay tuned!

Baseball and Chess

Baseball and Chess, two of Nico's favorite things!

Saturday was a fun day! First, a baseball game. It was rainy and a bit chilly, so I ran to Fred Meyer to get Nico an undershirt and a jacket. I was back just as the game started but I did miss Nico's first hit. Grandma Salisbury is back from Moscow and was able to join us! Her and Pa pulled up next to us in their chairs. We had to bundle up to stay warm.

Nico is #9, all dressed up as the catcher for this particular inning.

Jimmy John's afterwards!! We talked about Three Stooges during lunch and Guy got everyone laughing (especially Papa!) over his explanation of a Three Stooges episode. We are going to go over to their house soon for dinner and Three Stooges!

On Saturday night Nico had a chess tournament! Half of the tournament is an "official" chess tournament, Nico doesn't participate in these, he does the just-for-fun half. The just-for-fun group was split into 2 divisions and he was the champion of his division and got a 1st place trophy. His first! He played 4 games and won 2.

Sunday was Mother's Day, Nico gave me something he made in school, and a card. It was sweet. 

On Tuesday we went to visit GG and Aunt Pat. It rained hard that day and I think that's why the interstate was so backed up, we were about 20 minutes late! Great to see them as always! GG asked Nico what kind of animal she could crochet for him and he picked out the pink elephant, she said next time she'd have it for him. I can't wait to see it!

Wednesday, Avery came with me grocery shopping.

Wednesday night was another baseball game. Papa and Grandma Salisbury were able to come again! It was a comfortable weather day, too! Our pastor and his wife came to the game as well, that was cool!

Today after school all of us went down to the basement and I played Zelda while everyone watched. Avery always asks me when I will play Zelda next, so we decided to do it today. I don't know why they love it so much! But it's fun for me too ;)

Then I made a yummy new dish, Taco Chicken Pasta, and Evelyn came over for dinner and we watched Three Stooges while eating. She loves Three Stooges and laughs so hard while watching it. She also told me 3 times how much she loved the food I made.

😳

So that was pretty cool.

Here's Ivy sometime this week reading Curious George on our couch.

I love all these kids!

See you next week!

Free Comic Books, and Tin TIn

Saturday was Free Comic Book Day, so we showed up at the library right when they opened. Last year we were a little too late and missed out! Nico's game on Saturday was a little later than usual, so we had some time after the library to go to some garage sales before his game.

It was a good game! Papa met us there. It was the perfect temperature and we found a nice spot in the shade.

It was Guy's turn to pick the movie for pizza that night, we watched Tin Tin! We all loved it. And we showed Nico a picture of him as a 2 year old dressed up as Tin Tin.

Watching Tin Tin while eating pizza

Our flowers hanging outside our door

Bubbles before bed

That's about it this week!

Evelyn at Baseball Game, and Doctor update

Nico had another game on Saturday. His team has been improving quite a bit, it was a fun game to watch! Nico did very well. After the game we went to Jimmy John's again with Papa!

Saturday Nico was supposed to have a chess tournament, but on Saturday morning I received an email from the chess coach telling everyone they had to cancel it because of a mix up about the reservation at Smoky Mountain Pizza. Nico was sad. But he was able to join us for pizza at home. Nico's turn to choose what to watch and he chose Three Stooges.

On Sunday I was back helping in Children's Church during the service, it's always fun to be there when they sing their songs. They watch a song video and dance along. Nico dances big. It's great.

On Tuesday we all went over to the Pastors' house for dinner for a new member meeting. Pastor Tim talked about what it means to be a member, and then we signed the papers. So, I guess it's official!

Wednesday was the busiest day we've had for a while. Well, I'VE had for a while! Doctor's appointment in the morning for Nico. Just a follow up visit, to give updates on his tummy aches and all that. We are trying to get to the bottom of Nico's increasing car sickness. It is to the point now that he feels sick just driving down Warm Springs from our house. We are trying a few new things and we hope it helps! (On a side note, his "liquified hematoma" has almost disappeared. Nico says he can still feel the lump but it is no longer visible and is causing no pain.) I dropped him off at school after that (10:15am) and then spent the rest of the day grocery shopping. Then I prepared food to take with us to the game (Guy was meeting us there, so I brought him a sandwich), collected snacks for the players (our week to bring treats), and loaded up Evelyn and Nico. Evelyn joined us at the game. She knew several of the kids on Nico's team because of school.

Evelyn reading a book before the game.

After the game. For the snack I brought some "Popcorners" which I found at Costco on sale. They were a hit with everyone. I brought a few extra bags too. I gave Evelyn one before the game and one after.

And some more random pictures... Here's Guy and some of the kiddos playing Minecraft. Guy has Avery on his lap.

Our pretty flowers framing the door.

That's it for this week!