April Is the Coolest Month—for Nico

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.