Maggie and Olive are up north at Camp Widjiwagan this week. We just received this photo from their counselors.
Maggie and Olive at Widji
Category Archives: Maggie
Du Nord 2023
We spent the third week of June up at Camp Du Nord. It was our fourth visit to this amazing family camp on the edge of the Boundary Waters in Northern Minnesota. We eschewed our tech gadgets on this trip, so we didn’t take many pictures. But it was a fabulous week of hiking, swimming, canoeing, kayaking, enjoying the arts and crafts options, and playing lots of games on our cabin’s lovely screen porch. And we appreciated, of course, the wood fired sauna with a ramp leading directly into the cool lake—the perfect way to feel refreshed at the end of a hard-working day.
For the second or third time, we got our camp reservations with the Brown family. We met them when Griffin and Gabe were in ECFE together when we first moved to Minnesota. All three kids are in the same age groups as ours, so they have a lot of fun together. (There were multiple sleepovers and late-night games.)
I always like to include a map or two because maps are cool. Obviously. This is a topo map scaled at about 8 meters per pixel (at full resolution… click on it). Camp Du Nord is along the north shore of the North Arm of Burntside Lake, north and east of the “Birch Bay” label. Sarah and I hiked out toward the pink lake on the northwest side of the map (around the red 33). Griffin’s age group canoed south into the channel that connects to the larger lake. They portaged from the channel to Chant Lake and then swam out to a small island there. (My borrowed sunglasses may still be wedged in a crevice on that island.)
As with our last visit, inkle weaving was a popular pastime for Griffin, Maggie, and Sarah. Sarah is, in fact, considering making her own inkle loom for home use.
One of the daily activities for the kids is called “Nature Notes.” They gather at 9:00 AM, before regular activities, and learn about the ecosystem around the camp. On the first day, Oliver received a “Plant Passport” with sketches of different local plants that he could try to spot in the wild. (I may have been more excited by this challenge than he was.) In the end we were able to check off all but one of the plants. We’re pretty sure that we saw that last plant, too, but it wasn’t blooming so we weren’t 100% sure. The most exciting find, especially during this hot, dry week, was a sundew that we found on a walk through a bog.
passing insects with its sticky droplets of “dew.”
As a nerdy aside, my first encounter with a sundew was in the 1980 D&D adventure, Slave Pits of the Undercity. In the adventure, naturally, characters encounter a giant variety that happily gorges itself on human-sized prey; barrels of vinegar from a nearby storeroom were required to dissolve its glue. I was surprised to learn, many years later, that sundews are both real and relatively petite.
A Doozy of a Valentine’s Day
Tuesday, February 14, began like many other Valentine’s days at the Stocco-Roy household. The table was set with a surprise for the kids. Andrew got up early to make strawberry shortcake.
Griffin awoke and was frustrated that a lingering cold seemed to be getting significantly worse. He was tired and stuffy. We had him do a COVID test just out of habit. Meanwhile, we were all enjoying ourselves.
Laughter turned to shock when Griffin’s test came up positive. Panic! Everyone else takes tests. Maggie is positive too. What? How can this be?
First COVID in our house since waaaay back in November of 2020 when Oliver tested positive. That time was far scarier, of course, because it was pre-vaccine and we thought we would all catch it from him and it wasn’t clear how bad it might be. Now, even though COVID is rather hum-drum in the world around us, it was still surprisingly upsetting. No school for the two of them. Testing every day for the rest of us. Worries about sub plans and school.
Most importantly, we had a wild weekend planned for Presidents Day: three nights at a cabin in northern Minnesota, skiing, a sauna with potential icy dip in the lake, and a dog-sledding adventure (Sandy and Stape’s awesome Christmas gift to the family).
At first we duped ourselves into thinking that we could still go as long as the rest of us avoided the COVID. Griffin and Maggie would have to stay masked, but we could avoid others until Sunday when they would be in the clear. The dog sledding was on Monday, so everything would be fine. We had the kids packing on Thursday and were getting ready to load the car on Friday when Sarah realized that she wasn’t feeling well. COVID test was negative, but she was worried.
We sat down to think it through. Instead of focusing on how to preserve our plans, we considered how we would feel if someone else showed up at Du Nord (the place with the cabins) with active COVID cases in their family. We would think they were jerks for putting the rest of the community at risk. Sigh. So, we did the right thing and cancelled the trip. (Darn golden rule…)
This turned out to be a good thing. No further COVID cases that we’ve yet detected, but Sarah definitely had a stomach bug (not fun) and Griffin’s recovery has been slow. We managed to make it feel like a staycation, complete with the kids cooking a surprise feast for us on Friday night. The menu: fresh French fries appetizer (from scratch, hot oil and everything!), pasta with fancy sauce, fresh squeezed orange/mango juice, and butterscotch blondies for dessert. There was an intention to make a salad too, but somehow they forgot that bit.
This set a great tone for the weekend, where we chilled out, played lots of games, watched some movies, and managed to do some epic cleaning of the house.
Maggie and Oliver’s First Day
Finally, the first day of school for these two big kids: 5th grade for Maggie and KINDERGARTEN for Oliver 
It’s a testament to their teachers, who they both know very well, and the school, that they were excited (and not at all nervous) to return!
Circus + Horses
In addition to her regular circus classes, Maggie has started taking equestrian circus classes. Today, she practiced standing on two horses at once!
Three Generations
Birthday Slumber Party Water Park Extravaganza
If that title makes you think we’ve gone entirely insane, you may be right. After two years of low-key COVID birthdays, we decided to pull out all the stops this year. Maggie and Griffin agreed to have a joint birthday party at the water park at Great Wolf Lodge. Yep. Sarah and I agreed to take our kids plus six of their friends to a hotel water park for an overnight birthday bash. (This is so out-of-character for us that I can’t even believe I’m typing it.)
Needless to say, it was tons of fun. Even for the grownups. And we were all worn out by the end of it. (Oliver and Griffin both fell asleep in the car on the way home.) Here’s a photographic sampling of their escapades.
Maggie’s Monthly Reflection
A glimpse into the work that Maggie is doing at school and the evolution of her handwriting over her fourth grade year. “Marsh” is the name of Maggie’s classroom. Click on the image to see a higher-resolution version.
Pumpkin Juice
Our first face-to-face role-playing game of 2022 took place at Hogwarts. The kids took on the roles of second-year students and pursued the mysterious disappearance of a popular prefect. Besides drinking a great deal of pumpkin juice, the protagonists had to sneak into the restricted section of the library, avoid getting detention, complete a long herbology assignment, and discover the secret entrance to the warlock’s tunnel. The game culminated in a magical battle with an evil wizard.
Luminary Loppet 2022
The 2022 luminary loppet took place on Saturday, February 5. It was a lovely evening of mild weather after a long, cold week. (Temps in the teens rather than hovering around zero plus wind.)
We’ve attended the event most winters, though it doesn’t always make it into the blog (see 2011 and 2017). It features a beautiful ski/walk/snowshoe trail that winds around the surface of the Lake of the Isles in Minneapolis. The trail is lit entirely by ice luminaries (frozen columns, blocks, or spheres that contain candles). It’s otherworldly, to say the least.
Oliver wrote a book about the experience at school. Each page features an illustration and a caption (in the blue bar). I’ve added typed captions additionally in case you aren’t adept at reading Oliver’s calligraphy.
