New Cabin

After years of dreaming and saving and searching, we found a getaway cabin!! We closed on March 1, but the family who were living there rented it back from us until today to give themselves time to move out. Since we only had about half a day, we didn't move in yet, but we spent the morning exploring and unloading a few boxes of dishes and other small things that some friends were kind enough to donate. The kids had not yet seen the cabin, so it was so much fun to show it to them today!!

The property is a little over an acre. The backyard has a deck and a gently sloping hill that backs up to the National Forest.


We asked the owners to leave their playset. We don't have one at our house in town, so the kids were pumped about this surprise!
This is the kitchen before the previous owners moved their stuff out:
Living Room:
Same living room, other side:
There are 3 smallish bedrooms:
And the other big surprise for the kids . . . an attic playroom:

Odyssey of the Mind 2011

Uh oh. I uploaded all of these pictures onto the blog back in March but forgot to write anything. Now I've forgotten what I wanted to say . . .

Basically, Campbell and Helene worked on Odyssey of the Mind most of the school year. They practiced with their teams once a week (and much more than that the last month) to prepare for competition in March. I coached Helene's team, which was a K-2 team. I was so impressed by their creativity and ability to respect each other and work as a team. Helene's team's project was "Money Maker," about an inventor with wild ideas to make money.

Here they are creating their props and set:
Sofia:

David:
Josh, Quin, Sofia, Brenley:
Helene and David in the helicopter (which can pick you up after school with a press of a button on the backpack our Money Maker Sofia invented):
Helene, Brenley, David, Quin, Sofia, Josh, Kayla:
Performance at competition:



Primary teams do not advance on to state or worlds, but they do get score reports. I was so proud of these guys, and their high scores showed that I wasn't biased!

Campbell's team did a problem called "Full Circle". Campbell played a bully that transported some other kids through various portals to different parallel universes.

It even involved a dance segment!


One of the best parts of the competition is when all the kids gather in the gym at the end to await the awards ceremony. They get silly and celebrate all their hard work:

Coaching was a truly rewarding experience. I hope to do this again next year.