Category Archives: Maggie

Griffin, Maggie

Yellow Cabin

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Perfect weather for time out on the water. We couldn’t believe how warm the water was already—the kids loved it.

Some of Griffin’s favorite things at the cabin this weekend:

  • Finding agates
  • Swimming
  • When I was in the front of the canoe doing the driving.
  • Having butterscotch candy from the candy jar
  • Kayaking with Mama and seeing lots of turtles. We found a log with ten turtles on it. We called it turtleland.
  • Seeing pictures of the flying squirrels
  • Going to the dock and balancing on the edge
  • Snuggling with Mama and Daddy in the loft when we woke up

Some of Maggie’s favorite things at the cabin this weekend:

  • Finding special rocks
  • Finding some shells with Mommy while you guys going somewhere [Griffin and I dropped Sarah and Maggie off to do some beach-combing while we continued canoeing around the lake.]
  • Having jellybeans
  • Going up in the high high bunk bed
  • Seeing baby squirrels [in addition to the baby flying squirrels, which the kids didn’t get to see, we uncovered a red squirrel nest in the pump box for the well]
  • Reading books with Mama and Daddy and Griffin
Griffin, Maggie

Watercolor Birthday

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Early on Maggie’s birthday, while I was blearily making my breakfast in the kitchen, Griffin quietly padded downstairs and hunkered down at the art table. In less than an hour, he produced a series of eight surprise paintings as a gift for his sister. After drying them on the radiator, he kept them in a secret pile until we opened presents in the evening. He presented each one to Maggie with a title and a short explanation.

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The Park
It’s not a play park. It’s just a park that you can run around in.

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Sunny Day on the Beach
It’s about a beach that’s blue and sunny. It’s always sunny. And it’s always fun to play at.

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A Tree Losing its Leaf
“This a tree that lost its leaf when it was spring and it was just a little maple tree that didn’t have any other trees around it. It was in the middle of nowhere and no one gave water to it and it was just in the middle of nowhere.”

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Funky World
“This unknown world that has a green sun and the houses look like hand prints. This funky world is like so funny.”

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A Tree With No Leaves
“This tree is so new that it doesn’t even have its leaves yet. It’s just like a little baby tree and it is a maple tree.”

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The Roller Coaster
“That’s a roller coaster that has only roller coasters in the fair.”

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The Cave
“It’s a cave with all these teeth and some scary eyes and the purple line if you were wondering it is a spike in the cave.”

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The Alien
“This alien lives in space and it’s always happy and it has one eye and this is a green eye and it’s always smiling unless if it’s mad.”

Griffin, Maggie, Photo

Pulp Cabin, Chapters I-III

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Spring break = five epic days of adventure at the cabin.
(And time to serialize the experience!)

Chapter I — Crevasse

Our adventures began as we drove up the dirt road to the cabin and discovered a section covered with thick ice. The culvert under the road had frozen solid so a marshy stream began trickling over the road. In the course of the winter it produced a few feet of thick, glacier-like ice. (It had the same blue color associated with glacial ice.) This was only a mild obstacle due to loss of traction until we encountered the crevasse—water had cut a channel directly across the road, easily two feet deep. On our way in we didn’t spot it in time and jolted across it. If it had been any wider, it would have been bad news. As it was, it just gave the shocks a workout. (A neighboring cabin owner with sharper eyes turned back rather than trusting his car to make it.) On our way out on Monday we laid logs inside it to provide support for the tires.

Pointing upslope, where the meltwater cut into the ice.
Pointing upslope, where the meltwater cut into the ice.
Griffin, measuring the depth.
Griffin, measuring the depth.
We were lucky that it wasn't any wider.
We were lucky that it wasn’t any wider.

Chapter II — Lake Ice

One of our main goals this trip was to cross Spring Lake and to continue exploring the trails on the south bank. (I would link to a post about our January skiing and snowshoeing adventures, but I haven’t posted it yet. Must remedy that soon.) Unfortunately, the lake ice was thinning and we weren’t brave enough to cross. We saw some ice fishermen out on our first day, so we assumed it was solid, but upon scouting we found too many dicey areas for comfort. Hearing the ice loudly crack beneath my feet sent me scurrying for shore. With the warming weather the lake remained vocal throughout the trip, providing a soundtrack of otherworldly groans, crystalline pops and cracks, and occasional booming detonations.

Spring Lake
Preparing to head out
Scouting the ice
Sarah demonstrating some ice safety techniques
By Sarah’s feet you can see one or our ski trails from January.
Contemplating an icy plunge.

Chapter III — Bushwhacking

Deciding to remain on the north shore, we went on some extended hikes, including one where we left the trail and bushwhacked for a few hours. We clambered over (and under) fallen trees, examined fairy doors on mossy tree trunks, debated the origin of animal spoor, and got remarkably confused about our location. (Google Maps, of course, sorted things out for us, but we were astonished at how quickly the unfamiliar landscape threw off our direction sense once we left the trail.) The pictures below, from a few different hikes, don’t do justice to the beauty. Click on any image to see a larger version with the option of viewing all of them as a slideshow.

North Bog
North Woods
Icy puddle
Maggie the Explorer
Griffin the Explorer
Bushwhackers
Deer blind (kinda Blair Witchy, isn’t it?)
Griffin on the ladder
Botanist
The full group
Grandpa
Grandma
Splashing in puddles

To be continued…

Griffin, Maggie

Pinterest Fail

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“Pinterest Fail” is not a phrase I utter often. I feel like I’m pretty good at picking out projects that are realistic, fun, and ones I’ll actually do, either for myself or with the kids. Today was my first fail.

It seemed innocent enough. Indoor snowmen! Two ingredients! It came from a blog entitled “Modern Messy Parent,” but that’s me! I’m modern! I’m a parent! I embrace mess!

The photos from the blog looked realistic: A cute little one mixing the cornstarch and shaving cream in her box, happily playing, probably singing songs from Frozen…Indoorsnowman5

I mean, look how cute! The kids can do that!

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Griffin has been bugging me for weeks to break out the cornstarch and shaving cream, so I finally did it. Here’s how ours turned out:

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Thank goodness I set this up on the front porch instead of at the dining room table! What this picture does not show is the trail of cornstarch and shaving cream mixture leading from the kitchen to the porch to the ultimate removal of this project to the sidewalk. Now I don’t get too crazy about mess (I let my children use glitter and Sharpies, for goodness sake!), but this. was. everywhere. In minutes, I was on my hands and knees with the dustpan and broom muttering, “fail, fail, fail.”

In the end, to be fair, it wasn’t really that big of a deal. The kids had fun, and it was a fairly easy clean up once it dried a little. So perhaps not a big fail. Just an I-might-be-hyperventilating-during-this-fantastic-experience-I’m-providing-for-my-kids fail.

I will be removing that pin from my collection.

Griffin, Maggie, Photo

Valentine’s Day

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Valentines
Valentines

We had planned another jaunt to the cabin for the long weekend, but wind chill is -25° here in Saint Paul at nearly noon and quite a bit lower than that in Duluth. With the road to the cabin potentially blocked with snow (requiring some significant hiking with heavy gear and children) we decided to stay put. Had a fabulous breakfast at the Birchwood (pork belly steamed bun with egg and kimchi was outstanding) and then came home to make some Valentine’s Day cookies. Coming up this afternoon, Griffin has circus school, and then we’re going to the East Side Freedom Library to hear Claire O’Connor, one of the six Minnesota freedom riders, tell her story. Pretty good day!

Mixing
Scraping
Rolling
Yum!