Awesome corn maze adventure.
Corn Maze
Big Math
In Oliver’s Kindergarten class, they’re using their Montessori “golden beads” to solve some epic math problems. In this instance, Oliver (seated on the floor) was one of two farmers trying to sell their pumpkin crop to three Trader Joe’s stores. They had 4,572 pumpkins to divide evenly. Each store got 1,524 pumpkins.
Faculty Family Fun
Kudos to my colleagues Neil and Diane for organizing a faculty gathering at Afton State Park earlier this month. Families were welcome at a large group site. Some folks brought tents and stayed overnight. Many others stopped by to enjoy the fire for a portion of the evening.
Sarah was out of town, so I brought our three kids plus two extras. They basically ran off into the woods and only emerged occasionally for hot dogs and s’mores. Social gatherings like this have been few and far between since COVID struck, so the time felt quite special. We didn’t stay overnight, but had a lovely time spending the evening with a stellar group of people.
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!
Cookies
Believe it or not, when Sarah and I went to the fair on Labor Day, it was the first time that we ever bought Sweet Martha’s cookies. They are a legend at the fair and we’ve always seen people walking around with their pails or cones of cookies, but we’ve always been drawn to other foods. We couldn’t justify the pail, so we got a towering cone (the smallest size you can buy). They were good, but very sweet. We only managed to get through about half of them.
Griffin’s First Day of Eighth Grade
First day for this 8th grader (and his 8th grade teaching dad)!
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
Piper Graduates
Piper finished her final class of “Foundational Skills” last night at The Canine Coach. Sarah and I have been taking her to weekly classes for the past seven weeks. As always with dog training classes, it’s more about training us to be consistent with our commands, expectations, and rewards than it is about truly training Piper. The main job for us is to continue to practice with her at home in the coming months.
Still, there were some areas where Piper excelled. The “stay” command was one of those. Check out her self-control below as Sarah laid out treats in front of her.
Broken Wrist
Griffin canoed in the boundary waters with Camp Widjiwagan from June 20 to July 1. He had a fantastic trip, but he had an accident in his final days. On June 29, he was leaping from rock to rock (as one does) in “Disappointment Lake,” about six miles from the Canadian border, when he landed on an unstable stone and pitched forward face-first into another one. Cracked two teeth and injured his wrist. At first it seemed like the wrist was merely sprained, but after a few days with little improvement, x-rays confirmed that he had a buckle fracture on the growth plate. At least he doesn’t need crutches for this one. (He broke his foot in April!) Cast should come off at the beginning of August.
