Sleepover, GeekCraft, Stem Night!

Friday after school, Grandma Salisbury came by and picked Nico up for an overnight with the cousins! This was him BEFORE school that day. He was all ready!

We picked him up Saturday morning and then went to the GeekCraft Expo downtown. I thought it would be bigger than it was, but it was actually easy to find parking, and the setup was a quaint room with about 20 GeekCraft vendors selling all kinds of hand made geeky stuff. Lots of zelda, Dr. Who, Harry Potter stuff, made from wood, plastic, cloth, cookies! All kinds of interesting things to look at.

We saw Jeff and Evelyn there, which was expected, and when we were all done we went outside and had some fun on these stationary bicycles that made music when you cycle on them. It was very cool! Video at the end of the blog so you can see what I mean!

Saturday pizza night was fun, and it was Guy's turn to choose the movie. He chose an animated series called Revolting Rhymes, stories from Roald Dahl. There were just 2 thirty minute episodes. It was very good.

Monday night was another baseball game. It was treat day for me, so I brought the treats for the team. Tuesday night was Stem night at his school. Guy got home a bit early so he could take him. Allicia and I, and Avery and Ivy hunkered down in the basement while Guy, Nico, Jeff, and Evelyn went to Stem Night. We watched Mulan! By the time the movie was over, the big kids were home. Nico made a brush robot: a tiny robot that has toothbrush-like attachments that moves along by vibrating. You can see a video of it at the end of the blog!

Readathon ended yesterday, Nico read a total of 20 hours in 2 1/2 weeks! Guy finished reading Matilda to him and now we plan to watch the movie.

This morning my mom and I left for Moscow. We are up here to help one of my Aunts out for a few days. We'll be home on Sunday! I know this afternoon Nico was able to go swimming in a geothermal backyard swimming pool belonging to Jeff's sister. They took him over there while Guy had band practice tonight. I just got a text from Allicia saying they were done and home. I bet he had a BLAST! The original plan was for them to go the Farmstead today (hay rides, pumpkin patch, games, that sort of thing), but the weather was too rainy earlier for that, meaning it would be a bunch of sogg and mud!

Today I got to see my Grandma, we all ate dinner at our hotel and I heard many stories about her and my Grandpa. It was so neat.

Nico won a prize at Sunday School on Sunday, a mini game of chutes and ladders, a Christmas version. We've been playing it nonstop the last few days.

We played a version of the bird matching game where the cards were put all over the clubhouse, not just in one area. So we had to get up to get the cards. It made it a little easier remembering where some of the birds were, though!

That's it for this past week!

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!!