Birthday and a Boo Bash!

Friday after school Nico and I went on an hour long bike ride on the greenbelt. Nico brought home an activity calendar from school and you can color in a star every time you spend 30 minutes exercising. If you fill in all the stars you get a free pass to Wahooz.

For dinner that night we made "Crabby Patties", Spongebob style. Nico even put onion and tomato on his burger because that's how you actually make one on the Spongebob show! Eating Crabby Patties while watching Spongebob, we thought it was appropriate :)

While we were over at Grandma and Papa's house last Tuesday, while Nico was home from school sick, he discovered a drawing book in their living room that Rory must have left there. He practiced drawing from it, and when we got home that afternoon he gave me cash so that I could purchase him a similar drawing book from Amazon. It arrived on Friday! Here he is drawing.

Saturday was Guy's birthday! We went to Touch-A-Truck in the morning. Nico got to sit in a lot of different kinds of trucks.

After that we went for a little walk on the greenbelt, we hit the post office and the library.

Nico wanted to catch a leaf that was falling from a tree. We found some trees that were dropping lots of leaves, and he caught one!

That evening we made pizza and watched Matilda downstairs in the basement because Jeff and Allicia and the kiddos were out of town. Then we cut Guy's birthday cake and ate a few pieces of that! If you remember, we were trying to get to the bottom of Nico's tummy aches. We went a few days without one, we pulled all sugar out of his diet. On Saturday night we let him have a piece of Guy's cake, and the tummy ache came back! So we know sugar is involved somehow!

On Tuesday we went to visit GG and Aunt Pat. Melody was there and Nico brought out the US map that he had brought with him and they looked at that together for a while.

After leaving GG's house, we stopped at the Farmstead. We met Guy there, and Jeff and Allicia and the kiddos. First stop was the huge inflatable monster maze. 

Then tonight was the Boo Bash at Nico's school. He is going to be a ninja again this year for Halloween. Yes this is the THIRD year Nico is wearing his ninja costume! That was quite a good investment! Not that it cost much.. he he.  Here he is walking with Ivy.

Nico won the cake walk on his first time. Apparently Evelyn won the cake walk on her first time, too. It was a strange coincidence. Nico picked out these purple spider web gluten free cupcakes. Evelyn picked out a spider cake! Evelyn was standing on #1, Nico was standing on #2. Not at the same time, they had to be in different rooms because the 3rd - 6th graders were separate.

It's tradition... eat some of the cake you won at the cake walk this very night!

That's it for this week!

Persistent Tummy Ache!

Last Friday while I was in Moscow, Nico and Guy went to Red Robin for dinner. I knew what they ordered because I got an email receipt from Red Robin. That was neat. Saturday they went to the library and watched the Little Prince with pizza. They wanted to watch Matilda but I am making them wait until this coming Saturday so I can watch it with them!

Aunt Mary Anne and Me!

Facetiming Guy and Nico. They were working on making a small video game.

My mom and I returned from Moscow on Sunday.

Monday morning Nico complained of a tummy ache all of a sudden, but I sent him to school anyway. The nurse called me a little bit later saying Nico was in her office saying he felt sick. He had asked her if she had oils to help him feel better.. he he. I talked to him for a minute on the phone and he told me the nurse had given him a hot water bottle to put on his tummy and it had made it worse. I asked him if he wanted me to bring him some oils or if he wanted me to come pick him up. He said he wanted me to come pick him up, so I did!

After picking him up, I did a Zyto scan on him, slathered him in oils, and brought him with me to my parents' house! I had some work to do over there. 

So the strange thing about Nico's tummy ache that started on Monday is that it comes and goes, and even when he has it, he still eats normally. He has no fever or lethargy, but the tummy ache has been persistent in its return. It went away that afternoon, but returned in force during his baseball game that night and so we left early. He was still feeling sick the next morning, he told me he wanted to go to school because he didn't want to miss PE, but I decided to keep him home. I took him with me again to Grandma's house, and the tummy ache went away that afternoon. He woke up the next morning (Wednesday) telling me he felt GREAT! So off to school he went. 

Another call from the nurse around 12:30, saying that he had been in her office three times already telling her he felt like he was going to throw up. She had the "wait and see" mentality, so they brought some schoolwork in to the nurse's office for him and he worked on it a bit in there. The nurse called me, not to come pick Nico up, but to tell me what had transpired and to ask if anything might be going on with him. She recommended keeping a food journal, so I started one. He does not seem to be avoiding school just for the heck of it, when I try to probe with questions his response is just as always. The only part of school he doesn't like is the free-write time.

The tummy ache was gone when he came home from school Wednesday, but returned shortly after eating Blue Cow Frozen yogurt that night. 

This morning I realized that the tummy ache on Wednesday morning started shortly after Chess class, where they are always given a sweet treat. So, I was thinking I had narrowed it down to SUGAR.

Tonight, Evelyn came over for an early dinner right after school, so we could head to Nico's baseball game. It was cold! But it was his last game this season. 

At one point he was standing on first as the first baseman, totally oblivious to the game, instead he was watching a bird in the sky. The pitcher threw a ball to him to make an out and he didn't see it. Everyone was screaming "NICO!!!" and the coach asks Nico, "What kind of bird to you see?" and he said "It's a red tailed hawk!" then he heard everyone yelling at him for his attention and he kept yelling, "IT'S A RED TAILED HAWK!"

It was a good last game. He had a great coach and a great team. Excited to see what next Spring brings!

Tonight while reading in bed, his tummy ache came back all of a sudden. Poor boy. Still moving forward...

That's it for this week!

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!!

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!