We celebrated Oliver’s sixth birthday at the cabin. Oliver prepared by creating a schedule for the day with his siblings:
In reality, we didn’t really follow the schedule, but the key elements were all there: cupcakes, playing, presents, and games.
Awesome corn maze adventure.
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.
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.
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!
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.
“Griffin, that happies me up!”
— Oliver
Oliver wrote his first entry in the cabin journal today!
March 25, 2022. We heard wolves last night, maybe 2. We’re doing perler beads. From Oliver.
