The Faculty Fun Committee organized an afternoon of bowling at Sunray Lanes, not far from our house. Maggie opted out, but the rest of us had a great time. (And Griffin beat Andrew!)
Faculty Family Bowling
Tag Archives: Griffin
Kid Dinner Night
Earlier this year, the kids agreed to cook at least one dinner per week for the family. They have chosen a number of bold recipes, including their first lasagna this week! It was delicious.
Almost 15
I was just thinking about this kid this morning, as I lay in Oliver’s bed to wake him up (he likes to snuggle awake, which I will take as long as possible). I adore Griffin as an almost 15 year old, and I continue to be amazed at the person he is becoming. He is remarkable in all ways, and I love growing with him. I have no desire for him to be little again.
Except.
I do desire to be the mom I am now to the kid he was then. I know so much more than I did then about myself, about children, about life. I want to scoop that little boy up and let his little head fit perfectly into the space between my neck and my shoulder and whisper to him: I love you. I love you. I love you.
Wyre
Griffin and his friend, James (and a few other friends), dove into a programming contest last week: the New Year, New Skills Game Jam. The contest ran for exactly one week, from January 7 to 14. They worked hard and developed a prototype game called Wyre. James was the lead coder and Griffin composed the music and designed many of the graphics.
You can play the game here and see the contest submission here. A few screenshots posted below.
Congratulations Griffin and James! This took a lot of work to put together.
A Bit of Culture
We spent a fabulous day exploring the Hirshhorn Museum on the National Mall. We were wowed by sculptures by Simone Leigh, Yayoi Kusama, and Rodin. We also explored other worlds through an exhibit of contemporary Chinese photography, Laurie Anderson’s “Four Talks,” Mark Bradford’s 400-foot long “Picket’s Charge,” and John Akomfrah’s “Purple.” And food trucks. Obviously.
Griffin’s RPG campaign
Griffin just sent this message out to his friends and their families (parents are still involved for rides). It warms my heart.
Good day, everyone!
I am excited to announce that next Sunday (26th), from 2 pm – 8 pm, I will be hosting another RPG session at my house (finally)! We will have dinner provided, as well as the game, characters, dice, and a trampoline. We will not have a lot of snacks, so if you want to bring some, please do (Ava, if you decide to come, some extra Wii and Switch remotes would be delightful!) My father, a very experienced DM, will be running the session, and we will have about equal parts gaming and other stuff. Please respond to this email so I know if you will make it!
My address is ■■■■■, St Paul, MN ■■■■■, and you can contact either me or my parents for questions at:
[email addresses removed]
Quick note: We have a new member! Everyone, please welcome Ellie to the campaign! Ellie, if you need help with a character or something, just contact me.
I hope to see everyone here next Sunday!
-Griffin Roy (Dragonborn Wizard)
For the gamers in the audience, we’re playing the Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game (Powered by GURPS), which has been my go-to game for the past few years. They created a wild array of characters:
Half-Elf Bard
Cat-Folk Thief
Squid-Folk Martial Artist
Human Cleric
Half-Ogre Barbarian
Opossum-Folk Phantom-Thief
Human Druid
Dragon-Blooded Wizard
Note that the pictures of Maryx, Mozell Bolick, and Red were created with Midjourney, a generative artificial intelligence program that creates art based on written prompts. I’ve been experimenting with the service for RPG art like this. If you look carefully at Red, you can see some of the details that AI art programs struggle with. Her eyes are a bit wonky and her left hand appears to have three somewhat misshapen fingers.
Birthday Gathering
Saint Louis Wedding
We drove down to Saint Louis to attend Clay and Meghan’s lovely wedding. Everyone found new fancy outfits for the occasion. Oliver’s was the talk of the town.
Brandi Carlisle
Sarah, Maggie, Griffin, and I went back to the fair on Tuesday evening for the Brandi Carlisle concert in the grandstand. It was Griffin and Maggie’s first big concert, and Brandi set the bar pretty high. It was a phenomenal show.
First Day of SPA, 2023
Well, it was Griffin’s first day, even if I had already been at school for a week of meetings and classroom prep. It’s hard to believe that Griffin is done with middle school!
