Happy Birthday Nick

Today is Nick's birthday! Nick is 12 years old!

Mommy, Daddy and McKenzie gave Nick cupcakes and presents on the porch. We tried to sing Happy Birthday to Nick, but he kept telling us to stop. He sang Happy Birthday to himself. But he did like the cupcake and presents!

Birthday Card from Mommy

Most of the time mommy and Nick make cards for other people, but this year for Nick's 12th birthday, mommy made a birthday card for Nick.

It had stickers and pictures of Nick as a little boy. Mommy wrote little poems to Nick next to the pictures.

Happy Birthday Nick

Love Mommy

Birthday Card from School

On Saturday, mommy went to the mailbox, and there was a letter addressed to Nick.

Nick opened the letter, and there was a card from his old classmates. They all signed their names on the inside.

Mommy said, "what a surprise, your teacher had the class make you a card before school was all done!"

String Beans

Every summer we plant flowers, but this year mommy said that we would plant some vegetables too. Mommy and Nick planted string beans in pots, and today was the day that we cut them off and cooked them for dinner.

Mommy gave Nick the clippers and showed Nick how to cut the beans off the plant.

Then Nick carried the beans in the house.

We washed them in a strainer, dried them with paper towel, and cut off the ends.

Then we put them in a steamer basket to cook.

When they were all done mommy put butter on top to make them taste yummy.

And then Nick ate the beans with his pizza dinner.

Sunday with Mommy

Today was Sunday. As Nick would say, "AHRC closed, no school today."

Mommy's friend Liza came to visit us in the morning when Nick was waking up. We had breakfast together at the big table.

In the afternoon, Nick was playing on his computer and mommy said, "Hey, let's play in the pool." We went swimming in the pool together and had a good time. Mommy came out of the pool and tried to take a picture of Nick, but Nick kept diving under the water. Every time mommy took Nick's picture there were only feet showing!

When we came out of the pool Nick was acting silly in front of the mirror.

Then we had dinner together on the front porch. Nick had pizza and he gobbled up all the slices so fast!

Then we went for a walk after dinner. Mommy wanted to go get ice cream but Nick did not want to walk that way. We walked up the block to the Lindell School by the bay. Nick likes this school building, he looks at it on the computer all the time. Nick was disappointed that the school us under construction so he could not see all the windows.

Finally we sat by the fence and looked at the sunset. Then we walked the streets until we got home.

When Nick brushed his teeth he said to mommy, "No school tomorrow, okay?" Mommy said, Yes, there is school tomorrow." Nick did not like mommy's words.

Custom Car

Anyone who comes to our house knows that Nick likes to play on the computer, and that Nick prints pictures from Google Maps and cuts them out and recreates the streets on our walls.

On Friday, mommy and daddy came home from work and McKenzie said, "Look, Nick printed a picture of this car and he cut it out and taped it to one of his toy cars!"


We all thought it was so funny! Nick did not like his toy police car, so he changed it to a red BMW!

Fireworks

On Friday, Long Beach had their summer fireworks on the boardwalk.

Mommy asked Nick if he wanted to go to get ice cream and then go to the boardwalk. Nick said, "NO!" lots of times. Nick wanted to play on his computer.

At 9:00 it was almost dark, and mommy told Nick to put on shoes. Mommy said, "we are very lucky to live in Long Beach. People come from far away to visit our town and to see the fireworks. We are going to see them too."

Nick put on shoes and we walked to the boardwalk. There were so many people there! They were sitting on benches, in chairs, on the floor and on the sandy beach. Mommy and Nick walked towards Riverside Blvd., then we sat on the floor with our feet hanging off the boardwalk.

The fireworks started and everyone was clapping hands and saying "yeah!"

Sometimes Nick watched the fireworks, and sometimes he was silly and loud and kicking his feet. Luckily everyone else was loud and happy too so they did not notice Nick making noise.

When the fireworks were done we walked home together. Mommy told Nick, "thank you for coming with me. You are a Long Beach boy, and I love to share these things with you."

Package from Grandma and Grandpa

In the mail today was a yellow envelope addressed to Nick. It was from grandma and grandpa. Mommy helped Nick use a scissor to cut the envelope open.

There was a card inside and a puzzle of New York City!

Nick looked at the picture on the box. It says 350 Pieces! Mommy said, "wow, that's a lot of pieces, I hope we can do this puzzle!"

Then we called grandma and grandpa on the phone. They were not home, but Nick said, "thank you for puzzle" on the answering machine.