We made it up to the cabin for a long weekend. The weather is perfect: highs near 70 and lows just below 50. It’s dog heaven for Piper. The kids are engaged in a construction project. We saw the comet from the dock last night. A jigsaw puzzle is underway and we played a shockingly close game of Farkle. Not a bad way to recharge in the midst of a very busy autumn.
Note that while “GO MOM HQ” sounds like a worthy homage to Sarah, it actually stands for “Griffin, Oliver, Maggie, Olive, and Murray.” (Olive and Murray are two of the kids’ best friends who regularly come up to the cabin with us.)
It’s the first day of school at SPA. This is Griffin’s fourth year on campus, and his second year in the upper school. It’s Maggie’s first time, joining the seventh grade. (This is Andrew’s 15th year.)
Griffin has spent the last three weeks on a canoe trip managed by Camp Widjiwagan in northern Minnesota. This year his crew traveled up to the Quetico area in Canada.
Griffin went with his good friend Murray. We pick them up tomorrow but just received this group photo from camp. Looks like a great crew!
Griffin’s companions for the past three weeks in the Canadian wilderness.
This weekend we joined our friends Ellie and Kelsey and two of their kids at Wild River State Park about an hour from Saint Paul. It was our first time tent camping in years and Piper’s first trip. She was amazingly well-behaved—nervous when we bumped into some horses on the trail, but she never barked.
Chef Griffin has outdone himself once more. The kids have a new cookbook based on a video game that they love: The Official Stardew Valley Cookbook. This isn’t the first recipe that they’ve tried, but it was certainly the most complex. Maggie, sadly, was out this afternoon, so Griffin was the primary cook with Oliver as sous chef. Served in pineapple bowls, this curry looked as spectacular as it tasted!
Griffin participated in a local fencing tournament today which was very exciting to watch. This was a small tournament, so Griffin’s cohort included high school and adult fencers. He was up against some extremely experienced fencers. And he is still a beginner. As always, he entered the fray with a positive attitude and had a lot of fun. His first words at the end were something like “That was fun. I’m glad I did this.” I appreciate that positivity.
Fencing tournaments begin with pools where you have short bouts to five points with each member of the pool. This establishes the seeds for the elimination rounds. Griffin won his first of five bouts in the pool. The other four opponents were far better than he was, though he did manage to score a point against one of the best fencers in the tournament.
Griffin won one of his five bouts in his pool.
To our relief, in the first elimination round, Griffin faced an opponent at his level. In the elimination bouts, you win with 15 points, so they last longer. Griffin took the lead initially, but then his opponent tied it up. They were neck and neck up to 12-12. Then Griffin found a hidden reserve and landed three quick touches to win, 15-12, with barely 5 seconds remaining on the clock.
Griffin won his first elimination round (this is the first time he’s managed that feat in a tournament), but then faced the #1 seed. Yikes!
His next opponent was the #1 seed of the tournament. 😬 Alas, no Hollywood victory. Griffin was soundly defeated, 0-15. To our great surprise, however, his opponent did not manage to win the tournament. Indeed, he was ultimately defeated in the final round by the fencer from Griffin’s pool that he managed to score a point against.
I see at least three things to be proud of here. First, and most importantly, Griffin’s positive attitude and sportsmanship. Second, Griffin’s hard-won victory in an elimination round. Finally, the fact that he managed to score a touch against the tournament champion!
As of today, Griffin is an official member of USA Fencing. This allows him to compete in more competitions, such as the TCFC June Challenges tournament coming up on Sunday, June 23. This will be his first off-season competition through the Twin Cities Fencing Club (rather than the SPA team).
As a Father’s Day treat, we attended A Year With Frog and Toad at the Children’s Theatre in Minneapolis. It was a fantastic performance of the Arnold Lobel classic. If I could have only one children’s author with me on my desert island, it would be Lobel.
This week marked Griffin’s first time as an official, paid employee. He worked as a counselor at one of the Lego robotics camps that he used to attend. After a full week, he says he’s “ready to retire.”
Maggie’s graduated today from Cornerstone Montessori Elementary School which she has attended since kindergarten. It was a beautiful ceremony on a perfect day. Next year, she will attend SPA (where Daddy teaches) as a seventh grader. She will be on the same campus with Griffin (entering 10th grade) but most of their classes are in different buildings. We are enormously proud of her!
