Here we are turning over the calendar page from May to June,
but I belatedly have to report on grandson Nico’s adventures in April, which
included his second birthday, as well as Easter and several egg hunts.
His birthday was on Sunday, April 2 in Manhattan. The day before, Yiayia Joanie and Amalia made
the cake, because the theme of the party was bunnies. Amalia put on the letters and eggs and helped with the
shredded coconut dyed green.
And before the party both kids helped decorate the apartment,
included sticking gel Easter bunnies on the windows.
There was an egg hunt, egg decorating crafts, a photo
booth, bunny-shaped goodie bags and of
course Happy Birthday sung to Nico by everyone. Amalia helped blow out the candles.
Four days later, on April 6, in honor of Greek Independence
Day, Amalia recited a patriotic poem with her fellow Greek school classmates. Nico did his best to get up to the front of the stage to share the
spotlight, (but his Papi held him back.)
April 9 was Palm Sunday at Holy Trinity Cathedral in
Manhattan. Amalia put on an Easter bonnet and carried a palm during the service
The next weekend, after Nico’s family drove to Papou Nick and Yiayia Joanie’s
house for Easter, both Nico and Amalia came down with a 2-day flu bug and
started throwing up. They recuperated by watching their favorite movie “Moana” on
DVD about a million times. They both
know the words to all the songs and will perform them any time they can find an
audience. Nico and his cousin Stone like to watch TV while sitting together in
the Elmo chair.
By Saturday they all were well enough to attack the piñata
at a small family birthday party for Nico and to visit some cows at a nearby
farm. Nico also had a good time feeding
the fish in Yiayia’s fish pond as well as the Canadian geese, which he calls
“ducks” in the lake across the street.
April 16 was Easter for Greek Orthodox and all other
Christian faiths this year. Nico and
Amalia found that the Easter bunny had filled their baskets with goodies and
left dozens of eggs to hunt inside the house.
Amalia was the lucky one who found the golden egg.
All went to St. Spyridon Cathedral in Worcester in the morning for the Agape service and
then there was another egg hunt outside the church with hundreds of eggs. Back home, Nico made a puzzle while the
lamb finished cooking. The table was set with red eggs for the
egg-cracking war that starts the Easter meal.
Place cards were Easter cookies from Yummy Mummy Bakery with each person’s name
on them.
Then it was back to New York and playing in Central Park
where Nico’s favorite activity is chasing squirrels. Once a week he goes there for the Brooklyn Forest
School’s Manhattan group, where he makes mud soup, sings, goes on nature walks
and eats homemade bread with butter (after washing his hands, of course.). He usually comes back in line for more bread
until it’s all gone.
Recently, on the way to the Forest School, Nico got to meet
two horses. They were introduced by
their riders—two police ladies with guns. Nico even got to touch them.
On a weekend, Nico’s mommy took both kids to the New York
Children’s Museum, where they got to sit on a camel and also to pretend that
they were the President in the Oval Office.
Amalia’s thinking she might run for president some day, if she doesn’t
become a surgeon or an artist.
One day when Amalia was out of school, they went on a bear
hunt. Amalia wore her helmet for safety (and brought along her skates.) They
found three bears next to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and climbed on.
All in all, Nico thinks that the month of April was awesome
because it included his birthday and Easter, but he can’t wait to find out what adventures await him in June.
