4th Clubhouse Anniversary, and a RAISE!!

Last Friday Nico was able to take his microscope to school with him, the teacher said it would be ok for him to do that. He's been bringing it with him every day since, and whenever the class has time, they open it up.

After Guy got home from work on Friday they went for a walk and picked up some water to put on slides for the microscope. They collected some water on the side of the road, and sure enough it had swimming things in it.  They tested the canal water next and it was clean (I still wouldn't drink it - he he).

On Saturday we celebrated 4 years in the Clubhouse by having a pancake breakfast with Jeff & Allicia and the kiddos. After breakfast, the kiddos played together while the four grown-ups played a new board game. It was a fun way to celebrate 4 years. All of us agreed that among all the people we know, we have the best housemates. It just seems to work so well around here.

Nico had baseball games Monday and Tuesday evenings. Monday when we got home from the game, I had set up the table with two pieces of leftover birthday cake (I froze them after Nico's birthday) and then a wrapped present for Guy. We lit candles and sang Happy Birthday and Nico and Guy both ate some cake. Guy's birthday is not until October, but the present I got for him he was wanting and was planning to buy it himself, so I told him not to buy it, and gave it to him that Monday, the day it arrived. We will still celebrate on his actual birthday, too, but this was a fun precursor!

On Tuesday evening, Nico's cousin Lexie had a soccer game in the same sports complex as his baseball game, so I walked over to try to find her game. I found Jonny and Alanna and sat down with them for a while and watched Lexie play, she is an awesome goalie! After both their games were over we met up again in the field, Lexie and Nico ran toward each other when they saw each other, and gave big hugs. It was really sweet.

On Wednesday Guy stayed home from work because he wasn't feeling well, but we got a call telling Guy that he got a promotion and a 9% raise! That was great news!!! I am so very proud of him. He is a Technical Engineer II now. They told him it would be more responsibility but that he's probably already doing all of it anyway. Hehe. His boss said that when Guy called in sick he said Oh Shoot! because that was the day he was going to tell Guy about his raise. I am glad that they called to tell us :)  And Guy had today off from work and has tomorrow off too! He has been working non stop the past two weeks, evenings and weekends. He's been working on issues that were popping up at work, so his boss gave him a few days off. 

Tonight Evelyn came over for dinner. They did art. Well, Evelyn did art while Nico did a workbook on how to write cursive. After dinner they made Halloween decorations at Evelyn's art desk in the garage.

Nico wearing his new Newport, OR sweatshirt from Grandma and Papa's recent vacation. He also received a chocolate truffle from a chocolate shop. He says "All this Newport, Oregon stuff makes me want to move to Newport!"

Readathon is still on the back burner for Nico at the moment, but we have still been accruing reading minutes. He gets minutes when someone reads to him, so several hours have been spent lately reading the book Matilda. Guy reads this to him. When Guy was younger, apparently he liked this book so much that as soon as he finished it for the first time, he went right back to the beginning to start again. We are up to about 16 hours total for Readathon. 

The moment when Nico sees the swimmers in the ditch water!

Library, Readathon, GG

On Saturday Nico and I met some friends at the library. Nico checked out a bunch of books to read for Readathon which started last Friday! Then we played some board games, and took a walk on the greenbelt which was right next to the library.

For several days Nico was all about the Readathon and he accrued 11 hours in 4 days! He has since stopped the effort. I tried to encourage him not to give up, about how when you're older, being able to stick to something is an important skill to have, you know, I said the most parenty thing I could think of! But I think he's done! He wanted to read the most minutes of the whole school and win the Chromebook. But on Monday he found out that someone already had 20 hours because they stayed up all night to read. I think that deflated his drive a bit. I reminded him that anything could happen and to not get discouraged, but I think he wants to be done with it. 

Here he is in bed at night with his timer and his book.

Sunday we had Bible Study in the evening and one women brought her son with her (10 or 11 years old maybe?). Nico brought the State game and wow they had a LOT of fun playing it! 

Monday was a baseball game and Tuesday we went to visit GG and Aunt Pat. We heard all about their trip up the Mississippi and saw some pictures! Afterward we went to Red Robin and picked up some food to bring home and eat. Nico has been asking to get Red Robin for a while. He says, that because he's been reading SpongeBob and about the "Crabby Patty" (a cheeseburger in the comic), that he's been hungry for a cheeseburger. 1 patty, 1 bun, 2 cheese, ketchup, 4 pickles. So that's what we ordered!

Last night Guy taught Nico some algebra using his Numberbots and Alphabots.

That's pretty much it for this week!!

Microscope, Baseball, and CHESS!

Jeff and Allicia went out of town again last Friday so we watched our Saturday movie downstairs again. It was Guy's choice, he let Nico choose between 3 things and Nico chose MST3K!

Nico had a sore throat and cold over the weekend, so we didn't do anything extravagant, except Guy did take Nico to Lakeshore Learning and Nico bought a microscope with his own money. He came home, got into bed because he wasn't feeling well, but brought his microscope with him.

Nico had baseball games on Monday and Tuesday. He was not feeling well at his Monday game, he came back to the bench from the field during an inning because his tummy was hurting. He was able to rejoin the game later. And after the game when the snacks were handed out, he was all over that. His last up-to-bat during that game all his team was cheering him on. You can catch a video of that at the end of the blog!

Evelyn came with us to Tuesday's game. Her and Nico's cousin Rory played in the huge field next to us for part of the time. Guy worked late that day so I brought him dinner, he works very near the baseball field.

On the way home in the car, Evelyn sat in the middle so she could read a book to Nico while he ate his snack.

Wednesday was the FIRST DAY OF CHESS CLUB! It was like the first day of school all over again, Nico woke up early and got dressed right away. He put on his chess shirt, but I reminded him it was picture day that day so we decided on the airplane shirt. I tried to get him to change his shorts, too, but he made a good point. "The picture won't show my pants!" True, true. So this is what he wore to school on Wednesday.

Wednesday after school, we went to the Tropical Smoothie Cafe, because a coupon had been sent home the day before for a FREE 12 oz smoothie. It was right downtown. It was a fun quick outting before dinner. He taught me a new game while we were waiting for the smoothie. It's called Sticks and you use your fingers. It was fun.

Thursday is today. Evelyn came over for dinner, we had tacos. Afterward, we all went to the church, Guy and I are part of another small group that meets once a month on the 2nd Thursday. That was tonight. Nico and Evelyn came with us. They hung out in the kids room while the group met. 

Here's the baseball video!

Library, Baseball Game

Last Friday, Jeff and Allicia and their whole crew left for the weekend. We took advantage of the extra space and watched movies and shows downstairs throughout the weekend.

Friday night we finished up a craft project after dinner - we made a bookmark for Grandma Russell's birthday. We made two and chose the best one to send to her, with a book.

Saturday morning we went for a bike ride! We suited up and rode to the library along the greenbelt. We had put several books on hold to checkout so Nico could pick one for his Book Project he'll be doing at school. We sought help from our favorite librarian, Grandma Russell!! She gave us a few ideas to get us started. He hasn't chosen one yet, and has been spending most of his reading time reading a HUGE Spongebob Squarepants comic book that he also checked out while we were there.

After the library we went on further to the post office, which is also along the greenbelt. I dropped off some stuff I was mailing, and then we rode home, stopping once to take a break.

Backpack full of books

Saturday it was Nico's turn to choose the movie and we watched episodes of Captain Underpants while we ate our pizza downstairs. Monday afternoon we watched Ponyo downstairs. It was a GREAT 3 day weekend and we got a LOT of relaxing in!

Tuesday was Nico's first baseball game. They are the Royals (unofficially the Dodgers). They got their uniforms on Tuesday, Nico chose #12 this time.

Playing 3rd base

Suiting up to be the catcher.

Snuggled up. It was warm but the breeze was cool!

Playing games after dinner on Wednesday.

That's it for this week! Enjoy the slow-motion Baseball Hit!