Magic Tricks!

Hello everyone!

I just got back from taking a spring vacation with my Mum and Dad and my dog Rex- it was lovely! We went to visit my Granny, since she came to visit me last time. (You can read about that visit in the green book if you like - she gave me lots of attention and all sort of sweets and candies. I love it when Granny comes to stay). As soon as I got home, I found this letter from my friends -- it was so exciting!

To our cool Friend Nicholas,

My Brother Lance and I LOVED the email you sent us about the disappearing coin trick! We practiced it many times and once we had it right, we decided to put on a magic show for our friends. Everything had to be perfect! We had recently seen a great magician perform in our town, and after the show he sold magic wands for $2.00 each. I already had a black and red cape to wear and a tall velvet top hat.

My brother wore a suit jacket because he didn't have a cape. He was ok being my assistant. We have a puppet theater that we used as a ticket booth for our magic show. Four of our friends came over and our mom made buttered popcorn for the show.

I, Marc the Magnificent, will tell you how it went....AWESOME!

We started with your disappearing coin trick and our friends were amazed!

The only problem was that my five year old brother quickly told everyone that I dropped the coin down my back. We know that a good magician should never tell his tricks. I also did a card trick my uncle showed me and later pulled a green hanky out of a red velvet bag (there was a little switch inside to do this). The last trick I performed was a mind reading trick. The other person has to be in on it. You ask your partner to ask someone in the the audience to give them a number from 1-20. The magician can't know this number. Then you place your fingers on the sides of your partners head (temples) and say that you will read their mind and know the secret number. Your partner will then bite down and clench his jaw as many times as whatever the number is. This is how you know the number.

When someone clenches their jaw, you can feel this on their temples.

They should try not to make clenching the jaw so obvious.

This is a really great trick too because you are never saying or writing down the number... most people can't figure it out.

Magic tricks are as cool as ice cream...

Thank you for sharing your trick with us and we hope you like the one we shared with you!

Your friends,

Marc and Lance

Wow! That is such a cool trick! Thank you so much, Marc and Lance, I'm going to try it out on my gang as soon as possible -- I bet Jeremy will fall for it for sure! Magic IS as cool as ice cream. I'll be sure to send out more magic tricks to my friends -- if you want to get the newsletter, you can sign up for my great club by going the website www.phaidon.com/nicholas. Hope you are having nice weather, and I'll write again soon!

Your friend,

Nicholas

St. Valentine's Day is coming

Hello!

Today my teacher told our class that St. Valentine's Day was coming up and that we were all going to celebrate together. She says that Valentine's Day is a holiday about love and so you cut out little paper hearts and write nice things on them and give them to your classmates.

Jeremy asked if we had to give hearts even to the people we don't like very much and Teacher got cross and said of course we do and not to give her any more trouble. Mum is going to help me with my Valentines, and I've got some glitter and pink and red paper to make them. I think all that glitter is a bit girly, but Mum says it's nice.

I think I'll make my Valentine for Louise extra special, because she's so lovely and has a fantastic kick when we play soccer. We are going to get married when we grow up, after all, and Dad says you have to be extra nice to your wife or they get will mad at you. Anyway, I am very excited about it, because Teacher said if we're good and play nicely, St. Valentine will bring us some chocolate, and I love chocolate.

Have a great day everyone, I'm off to play with Rex!

Your friend,
Nicholas

Happy New Year

Hi again! I'm so excited that it's 2009 and I can't wait for all the fun things that will happen this year. Look, already two of my friends have sent me things they made:

Daniel made me a newspaper!

And so did Lisa!

Thank you so much Daniel and Lisa, I feel so special when I read these, it's like I'm famous! If you visit my website www.phaidon.com/nicholas, you can play games, color and write newspapers too- just like Lisa and Daniel did. My friends are so much fun!

So, my mum was telling me all about New Year's Resolutions today. She said at the beginning of every new year, you decide on a few things you want to better than you did last year. She said her resolutions are to learn how to make persimmon pudding and try to be nicer to our boring neighbors, the Billings. I told her I thought I was pretty terrific already, but then she got quite cross with me and told me to sit and think about it for awhile. I decided my resolutions would be to spend more time with my dog Rex (he's such a great dog!) and to try to be nicer to Cuthbert, even though he IS a huge sap. My mom says that those were a very good start and then she went off to go make dinner. I also decided to eat as much cake as I possibly could this year, but I kept that resolution secret because I bet mum won't like it very much-- so, shhh, don't tell! Did you make any resolutions this year?

Okay! Time for dinner!

Until next time,

Your buddy,

Nicholas

Happy Holidays to all my friends!

Hello everyone!

I love December because there are so many holidays to celebrate! I celebrate Christmas, but I have friends all over who celebrate Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, St. Nicholas Day, The Winter Solstice, Eid'ul-Adha, St. Lucia Day, Omisoka and lots of others!

Whatever you celebrate, have a really lovely time, and I'll see you again next year!

Your friend,
Nicholas

A Lovely Day

Hello!

I got to go to a really wonderful event on Saturday, November 15th at Forster's Book Garden in Bolton, Ontario, in Canada! It was great fun, and it was wonderful to see my friends there. Miss Laurie read to us from some of my books and we colored together and ate one of my most favorite treats- croissants! I like to travel all over to visit my friends, so if I'm ever in your town, I hope you'll stop by! Here are some pictures from our afternoon:


we all love to read!



Also, more of you sent me letters and drawings and I love them! Look, this one is from
Nell:There I am, next to the Eiffel Tower! And Vita wrote me a letter:


It sounds like Keely has a hard time keeping track of her things, just like I do! I hope your concert went well Vita and Keely!

Thank you so much everyone- I love the pictures you send me and I hope I get to see you soon!

Your friend,
Nicholas

My mittens and my friends

Hello! I'm so excited! I want to show you the great pictures my friends just sent me!

Look, this one's from Nicole:

Wonderful work!

And this one's from Geordie:



Thank you so much for making these and sending them to me! I love them and I hope you'll send me more. My friends are terrific!

Also, I almost lost my mittens yesterday, which would have been awful! I was playing with the Avenger's Gang (those are all my friends, in case you didn't know. You can read all about us in my new green book, Nicholas in Trouble) in the old abandoned lot with a broken car. We were playing cops and robbers and I put my mittens on the ground and then I forgot them when we left! I was nearly back to my house when I realized I didn't have them, so I had to go all the way back to the lot to get them, and then mum yelled at me for being late to dinner. But just imagine if I'd lost my mittens! Then she REALLY would have been mad. It's hard to keep all your stuff together when you're out playing, but I do like my mittens an awful lot so I'll try to look after them better. Well, I'll talk to you all again soon and have a lovely weekend!

Your friend,
Nicholas

Winter Morning

Hello all!

It's starting to get cold here now- I woke up this morning and the floor felt like icicles! Dad told me to stop complaining and put on some socks. It wasn't too bad once I got some breakfast and was on my way to school, though. I quite like the cold when I'm dressed properly, because the colder it gets the more likely it is that it will snow! I love it when it snows because then my gang and I can have big snowball fights, and sometimes we get off school. It hasn't snowed yet, but Mum said it would probably snow by December, which is only a few weeks away. I can't wait!

I'm working on my Christmas list to give to Santa. I think I'm going to ask for checkers and a puppy. I already have two Chutes and Ladders games, because Dad's boss sent me one in the mail. Did I tell you about that already? Well, you can read about it in the green book, Nicholas in Trouble if you'd like. Mum told me that there was a new President elected in the United States and that he told his daughters on TV that they would get a puppy! I told pop he should run for President so that I could have a puppy too. He and Mum just laughed, but maybe Santa will listen. What are you going to ask for for Christmas?

Okay! I'm off to go play, but I'll write again soon.

Your pal,
Nicholas