Update coming soon...

We are in Arlington tonight, I will update the blog in the next few days! We are flying back to Boise tomorrow!

Grandpa Russell, Library, Water Park

On Friday we welcomed Grandpa Russell into town! He came over in the afternoon and we all went over to Red Robin for dinner. Nico asked the server for soda water with coconut after Daddy asked for soda water with lime.

Then it was home to play The Game of Life. Nico is really into this game right now, we play it every day. Grandpa won!

On Saturday morning Grandpa brought Nico some coconut soda. I went to my post at the Saturday market to do some henna, and the boys had a fun morning hanging out and going places. They went to the Dollar Store so Nico could buy his marbles, and they also came downtown to go to the market and to see me. They also took a trip to the library before they dropped Grandpa off at the airport. It was a fun visit. We are all really looking forward to seeing the Grandparents Russell NEXT WEEK when we fly in to Seattle and stay with them for a few days! Next Thursday's update will happen from Arlington!

On Sunday Nico and I went over to the Grandparents Salisbury's house, Nico played Minecraft with Papa and I hung out with Grandma and my Aunt Ellen. 

On Saturday, a big moving truck went down the alley and severed our cable internet line. We were without internet until Monday night. So on Monday I loaded up my computer and we went to the library so I could get a bit of work done. We discovered his school friend Linus hanging out there with his sister, and they were on iPads playing Minecraft, and it turns out the library lends out iPads while you're there so you can play on them. We got one for Nico and he sat right next to Linus and all 3 of them played Minecraft. I sat next to Nico and got some work done. It was so cool we decided to come back on Wednesday. We were hoping to run into Linus again but they didn't make it to the library that day. But, his step-mom and I exchanged numbers and Linus and his sister will be going to Nico's birthday party! Mark your calendars! July 29th, Saturday, 1PM at Pojo's.

Playing Minecraft

On Tuesday we got to see GG in Nampa! Nico wanted to bring Life over to play with her, so we did that. GG won!! :)

This morning we went to the Roaring Springs water park and met some church friends there. Nico's friend Leona took him around to the smaller slides and rides and he had so much fun, and lasted about an hour. He was shivering so much. It started out around 70 degrees and windy, so I can understand that! I was cold at a few points and I didn't get in the water! He curled up under his blanket in the sun and warmed up, then we headed home. He took a shower, we ate lunch, then we went downtown to get a smoothie from Jamba Juice.

A few random pictures from this week

When was the last time Nico fell asleep in the car??

Park play date with Allicia and crew

 Silly picture time

Birthday, Bike Rides, Pojos

On Sunday we went to Red Robin to celebrate my birthday, after church with the Grandparents Salisbury and my Aunt Ellen. I had a great birthday! Got some fun gifts and had a fun time with family. That evening Guy and I and Nico went to Whole Foods to get some treats and we sat in the car and drank Izze Pops, then came home and ate dinner and split a Hail Mary dark chocolate tart for dessert while watching a Tinkerbell movie. (my choice:))

Nico and I practiced our calligraphy, I used my brand new pens from the Grandparents Russell and Nico used the pens they got him for Christmas.

We've been going for bike rides, it's a fun way to pass the time. We made it over to where we used to live on Krall street the other day and saw a killdeer hanging out near a puddle on the street. We ended up at the Fort Boise Community Center so Nico could go to the bathroom, which is the furthest we have ridden!

Since the greenbelt is flooded, we are spending time biking the neighborhoods, which I suppose is a good thing because Nico is learning all about bike safety when riding on the street. We rode into the middle of the East End neighborhood and I told Nico to find our way home. He went for a while before recognizing a street and then he knew where we were.

We have rented a storage unit! We are inheriting a few furniture items from the cabin that we want to store until we move, and the moving men brought the stuff from the cabin on Monday. Grandma Salisbury came and picked us up and took us to our storage unit, which is just down Warm Springs about 1/2 a mile away, so the moving men could unload it.

Nico asked Grandma when they could hang out next, and Grandma invited him over to their house on Thursday (they were already planning on watching him on Thursday because of a doctors appointment I had), and Nico was very excited. Grandma told him to be there at 9 AM and so he was sure to remember. I took him over there today at 9 AM. He had a really fun day. He brought over the game of Life and they played it 3 times. They also went to Pojos! And when I came to pick him up, him and Papa were playing Minecraft on the iPad.

Nico is doing a Reading Bingo that he picked up from Rediscovered Books when him and Guy went there to buy a fidget spinner. If he gets a blackout then he gets to go to an after-closing party, so he is working on reading books to fill up the whole thing.

Right now he is reading El-Deafo, a really good graphic novel auto-biography of a girl who became deaf after a childhood illness. He is reading this one to be able to fill in the square that says "A book with a differently abled character".

I spent some of my birthday money on some patio furniture! Target was having a good sale.

"I want to go outside without shoes and take a picture too"

"Not tonight, you need to be in bed reading!"

Now we can sit outside and .. do stuff!

That's it for this week!

Summer Break, Children's Race, Cousins!

Friday was Nico's last day of school - we are officially on summer break over here!!

Saturday Nico participated in the St Al's Capitol Classic Children's Race.  For ages 6-12. I picked up the race packet on Thursday with all the instructions on where to drop him off and where to get him after the race was over. The race was from the Train Depot all the way down to the Capitol building.

It is 1.4 miles. 

Driving to the race dropoff

We had to drop him off between 9am and 9:15, but the car line was so long going up Capitol Blvd that it would have been about 9:30 before we got him there, so Nico and I got out of the car and we walked up the hill to the Train Depot. Guy picked me up and then we drove down to Capitol Park and found a place to park. We had some time to wander briefly around the downtown market before the race started at 10am. The girls ran first. Watching that big group of kids running down from the Train Depot on the hill was so cool, all their green shirts and all the clapping and yelling. Zoomed in you can't quite catch the detail but you can see the green mob.

The boys were released about 15 minutes later. I went out to cheer him on from the sidelines while Guy waited at the finish line for him. I saw him and clapped and yelled and only was able to snap a picture after he had already passed me. 

They had smoothies available for free for all the racers, (plus frozen yogurt and Blimpie sandwiches!) but the line for the smoothies was long and we had already before decided we would walk down to Jamba Juice to get him a smoothie, so that's what we did instead.

They gave every child a medal after they crossed the finish line.

Nico's time was 14:33

Nico didn't feel well the rest of the day, he seemed very subdued, even when we drove out to find a bike for him. We found a bike at the Boise Bicycle Project for $20 and they even adjusted the brakes on it for him to make it easier for him. They also gave him free bike LEDs. On the 1st Thursday (or 2nd?) of every month, kids can bring their bikes in if they are broken and they will teach the kids how to fix their own bikes for free.

Nico said he had a sore throat, so I gave him all the stuff to help him feel better. The next day he had a low grade fever but felt fine, saying his sore throat was gone. He had a bit of phlegm but it resolved quickly. Which is good, because he was invited over to the Grandparents Salisbury's house with cousins for a few nights of sleepover! Nico asked me the other day when we were going to have more kids because he wants someone to play with in the clubhouse. I'm so glad he has cousins that he gets to hang out with, and Evelyn who is right next door! I dropped him off on Monday after lunch, and Guy picked him up Wednesday after work.

Playing bird bingo with the cousins

Thank you Grandma and Papa!

The only cousins not there were Leah and Karli.

Wednesday night when he came home he asked: "When do I get to go back to Grandma and Papa's house?"

He'll be staying there a few more nights this summer.

On Monday night, Guy and I picked up Chipotle and an Izze Pop for dinner and watched Guardians of the Galaxy on Amazon, with the intention of going to see the 2nd in the series in the theaters on Tuesday night. But we didn't plan ahead, and Guardians of the Galaxy 2 was sold out on Tuesday! So we came home and watched shows at home. Jeff offered to let us use their new couch downstairs to watch shows on the big screen, so we did that. Super fun!! It was like having our own living room!

And then that's it! On to next week!

Fidget Spinner, Church Picnic, Turn up the Beet

Saturday was a full day for all of us, I had a henna booth at a festival and Nico and Guy helped with sound at a wedding for a couple in our church. In the morning they went downtown to the market and over to a bookstore that sells fidget spinners. Fidget Spinners are the new thing, apparently! He came home from school one day talking about them and asking for one. He saved up a few dollars and they went and bought one at the bookstore. Blue.

At the festival, Grandma Salisbury was at the booth with me being my helper. Thank you Mom! We had a fun day, it was the perfect temperature to be outside.

After the festival was over, the Grandparents Salisbury helped me pack up and load up and unload at home. Thank you!! Then I headed over to the wedding to pick Nico up. It was past 8 already and he was tired. He had made some friends at the park there that were selling slime. The whole ride home he talked about what he was going to sell at the park next Saturday. "Maybe cars?"

Sunday was the church picnic at Municipal Park.

They had games for the kids, and the area was all in the shade. Yay! It was fun. Then Nico and I went over to pick up the milk and eggs from the Grandparents Salisbury's house. Nico played Minecraft with Papa on the iPad. While we were pulling away from the house Nico called out of the open window, "Bye! I hope you have fun building your house in Minecraft!" 

Monday was a holiday that Guy had off. Nico and I had doctors appointments in the morning, then we stopped by Boise Juice Co. to get us each our favorite juice, "Turn up the Beet". We took note of the ingredients and decided we would try to make it at home. 1 apple, 2 carrots, 1/2 a beet, 1/2 a lemon, and 3 slices of ginger, that's what we're going to try. I got all the ingredients on Thursday and we will try this next week.

We had pizza Monday night since the weekend was too full for us to enjoy it then. 

Nico has had a full week of fun and party things at school. Wednesday was science day at Municipal Park. Thursday was Field Day, and Friday he has a half day. He came home with all of his school stuff yesterday (Thursday) including his journal! Here is a sneak peak. 

This was early in the year. They didn't put dates on anything, but it was in the first few pages.

That's about it for this week. Summer is starting!! I wonder what next week will hold!

Late henna night, blog coming to you Friday morning!

Whiffle Ball, Day of Learning, Zoo

On Saturday we went to a garage sale down the street from us. Nico found a whiffle bat and ball for 50 cents that he bought. Then we went to both of the Saturday markets in downtown Boise to scope out spots for me to do henna. Oh, and to enjoy ourselves. Nico got a balloon animal and we watched a magician do magic tricks. Guy bought coffee from a local roaster and Nico got a free bunch of radishes just for being a kid. We came home and ate radishes.

Then I dropped the boys off at Memorial Park with the whiffle bat and I ran to the Co-op, then came and picked them up.  

Then we visited Brianna for the last time. While we were there, Nico asked her if she wanted to join us for pizza and she said no she had a lot of packing and dishes to do. So Nico said: "How about Daddy and I can help pack and you and Mommy can wash dishes?" And that's what we did! She still wasn't able to join us for pizza because her parents came into town that night.

We said goodbye to Brianna, then went to the Library. After that we came home and ate lunch. We had pizza that night and I then I left the boys at home to go see Allicia at her roller derby game. My voice was hoarse afterward from all the cheering. She is really good.

On Tuesday Nico brought his Day of Learning project to school. He carried it in front of him, the trifold Open so that everyone who walked by would see it. And it worked. Someone said as she was passing, "Cool project!"

That night there was an open house at the school so everyone could view the projects. There was only one other 1st grader that had participated, but lots from other grades. Guy and Nico went.

When Nico started out to work on his project, this is how it went down:

"I'm not going to fill up all the space"

As he's writing info about the Purple Martin in his lab notebook: "I think I'm just going to do 5 birds."

As he's writing info about the Purple Martin on the project board: "Actually, I think I'm just going to do one bird."

I was very proud of him! He got to present his project to his class, too.

Today was the Father's Day zoo trip. Guy met Nico's class at the zoo.

 Kookaburras! How did we miss these last time? Guy told me that Nico sat and stared at them for 5 minutes.

Nico has been coming home with all sorts of things from school, folders, notebooks, books that his teacher was giving away, summer reading packets... it's getting to be about that time. One more week and it's done!

Grandparents Russell, Tea, Bird Bingo

On Friday Nico's class had a Mother's Day Tea that I attended. They had the classroom all set up and I sat across from Nico at his desk. He pulled out his journal and we read through the entire thing while we waited for the other mothers to arrive.  I can't wait to share some of his journal entries with you all when the journal comes home at the end of the year.

When everyone was there, Mrs. Smith went around the room and each child got to introduce their guest and tell the others why they're special. When it got to Nico, he said "My Mom is special because I love her so much!" And while he was saying "I love her so much" he pretended to faint and laid down on the floor.

After everyone went around, it was time to serve the food. Nico asked me what I wanted and then he went and told Mrs. Smith and she handed Nico my order. I ordered one fruit kabob. After all the moms got their orders, the kids got theirs. Nico ordered a fruit kabob as well and also went and got each of us a glass of apple juice.

After eating, we got to open our gifts. Nico made me a cut out of his hand with clay, signing "I love you" with a rose between his fingers.

It came in a sweet bag.

He said to me this week: "Mommy, when you die... and then when I die, and in heaven, I will come find you because I love you sooooo much!"

Later on Friday we got to see the Grandparents Russell because they came into town!! They came over and hung out until Nico's bedtime. It was so sweet to see Nico snuggling with them! They brought Nico a Bird Bingo game and we played it that night, too!

Saturday morning we drove over to GG's house to visit her. It was the first time Nico and Guy had seen her new place living with her sister Pat. They have a pasture that lines their backyard and they often see horses back there close to the fence. We didn't see any this time, I am sure we'll catch them on one of our visits. The Grandparents met us at GG's house and we played another round of Bird Bingo with everyone, then headed home for lunch. After lunch we headed off to the Aquarium! 

We spent about 45 minutes there and then drove over to where the Grandparents were staying so we could take a dip in their hotel pool. Here's Nico and his sweet new spiderman towel!

Then we ventured back home with everyone and made pizza for all of us. 

It was a VERY fun and full day and I'm so glad we were able to spend that time with them! We will see them again in June when we *FLY* out there!

On Sunday at church I applied henna to someone on stage during the sermon. The tattoo illustrates the sermon, which was about clothing yourself with inner beauty instead of with fancy clothes. 

After church we went over to the Grandparents Salisbury house armed with our Bird Bingo game, and played a blackout round with everyone. Uncle Jonny, Aunt Alanna, and Lexie were also there! Oh fun was had!

On Tuesday, Brianna came over for dinner for the last time before she moves away. She will be visiting every few months so we will get to see her, but not as often as we have been.

Nico worked on his "Day of Learning" project today. It's an optional research and presentation project that anyone at the school can participate in. Nico put together a tri-fold poster presentation about the Purple Martin (bird). He is proud of it, and will take it to school to set up next Tuesday. We are checking out a bird book from the library this Saturday that may inspire him to add more to his poster, but he says he's happy with it the way it is. Fine with me!

Ok that's it for this week! See you guys next time!

Zoo, Brianna, Chipotle, Evelyn

Friday morning was Nico's first chess meeting. He loved it and is excited to go back tomorrow morning.

On Saturday I had a birthday lunch with just the girls to celebrate Grandma Salisbury. We went to a local eatery called Locavore. They have very good food with gluten free options! Happy Birthday Mom!

Afterwards me and the boys went to the library to see if they had any more comics for Free Comic Book Day, but they were out. That's ok, because Nico picked up a few comics to check out as well as some chapter books. He has lost steam on the Treehouse books and has stalled on #14.

Sunday was a fun day. We went to the Zoo with Brianna, who is moving in a few weeks and had never been to the zoo. It was also the first time Nico has been to the zoo in a very long time and it was fun to watch him as he saw the animals. We saw everything, I think, and then drove over to Chipotle for dinner. It was a very good day.

Nico helping Evelyn fold socks.

Nico has been spending more time with Evelyn ever since Aadam and Sam moved away. They've easily gotten back into the rhythm of hanging out.

They randomly wore the same shirt today, not planned.

Picking up Evelyn from school on Tuesday, Nico walks right up to her and puts his arm around her.

Our Monday night date, playing the intense game of Agricola. It took an hour, or more.

We will be seeing the Grandparents Russell tomorrow and Saturday! They are going to be in town for a short visit. Can't wait to see them! Hoping for sun tomorrow so we can venture to the Nature Center after school.

See you all next week!