Saturday, September 27, 2008

Fall comes to Lake Clear

We finally got tired of sleeping on/in the peaks and valleys of our ancient mattress, and so got a new one, which we have all been enjoying...


Ben loved eating Kix, a relatively harmless cereal, out of coffee mugs, and watching TV with Mom and Penny...


Ben got this cool airplane for his birthday, it charges off of a base unit, and then launches to fly around for a minute or so in each flight...we went over to the Lake Clear Elementary School to enjoy this toy in the big open spaces of the athletic fields...


Ben loved playing with the plane, and ran all over the place chasing it down...


Penny had a good time also, enjoying our company, chasing butterflies (they taste yummy), and just running around...


We had a great time...Ben even forgave me when I got it stuck up in the trees a couple of times...



In most cases, the plane would circle and swoop and end up a hundred or so yards away from us, but in a couple of cases, it would loop back around tightly enough to force us to dodge and/or dive for cover...it hit Ben once...


One pass came close enough to hitting Penny that she had to dodge, and after that she stuck closer to us, not trusting the evil flying banana...

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Camp Pok-O-MacCready

The 6th grade went on an overnight trip to Camp Pok-O-MacCready, an annual event that I've been able to participate in for the last 8 years...it's a really fun trip, and a great way to get to know all of the kids in the 6th grade...we sleep in cabins with the kids, eat family style at every meal, and have lots of fun in their excellent outdoor educational programming...


We arrived in the morning, and formed a bucket-brigade to unload our stuff from the yellow buses, then mill around a bit to try and find our stuff...


Thursday was a beautiful and sunny day, we broke up into our groups (about 10 kids, 1 Pok-O staff member, and one LP chaperone per group), and headed off to various parts of camp for our first session...during our visit, each group would rotate through team-building activities, wildlife ecology, sensory awareness, canoeing, and a low-ropes course...


The staff is well-trained and always provides intro activities to get the kids set up for the coming session, as well as thoughtful (and thought-provoking) debriefing when we're done to help them understand what we learned and to help process the experience...


Because the Pok-O staff is in charge, we chaperones get a welcome opportunity to get to know the children that we're working with in a more informal setting, and to watch them all interact from a "fly on the wall" perspective"...


A variety of fun starters at base camp got the kids ready for the more involved activities up in the woods around the property...


Kids have to challenge their usual roles and comfort-levels with the change in environment and demands from the classroom, but the stress and stretching is hidden beneath a fun game (often described as involving piranhas or lava or nuclear waste)...


We all had lots of fun on the low-ropes course, a kinder/gentler/safer alternative to high-ropes challenge courses...


Balance and teamwork and planning were all important to success, and it was cool to see the kids work together to help everyone in their group accomplish the goal, and cheering on the other kids in a cooperative rather than competitive environment...


It was a gorgeous day, sunny and in the 60s, and simply perfect for having fun in the woods...


The Pok-O staff made sure that everyone, LP-staff and students both, were aware of safety considerations, and that we could all be safe and have fun...


Sometimes during our visit, additional challenges, like blindfolding one or more students or not allowing an outspoken leader in a group to speak, would force the group to re-focus on how to approach a given challenge as a group in order to succeed...


Both before and after lunch, between activity sessions, we had some time to enjoy some freeplay down at camp...George got out his guitar and played some...


Some kids played volleyball or tennis or soccer or just ran around...


We also had a visit from Devin, the camp director, to talk a bit about the really cool night time activity, Pok-O's "Underground Railroad" experience...
A role-playing activity that takes place at the 1812 Homestead. Students play the part of run-away slaves, while teachers and chaperones serve as their conductors. The Pok-O staff fills in as abolitionists, bounty hunters, court marshals, and more. The “slaves” must rotate through a series of stations where they answer questions about the history of slavery in America while avoiding capture by the bounty hunters. The evening ends with an in-depth debrief about their experience and slavery today. - from the Pok-O website


We spent some time studying for our roles as "conductors" in the activity...


In the afternoon, we had another session, and this time I went with a group of kids that started out with some sensory awareness exercises, including a "blind hike"...this entails following a rope through the woods...experiencing the changes in elevation and slope and texture...


What normally would seem like a simple and short looping walk in the woods got to be amazingly complicated and arduous when blindfolded...


We then headed over to a team-building course up in the woods a short walk away from camp, and the kids had to work on their communication and planning skills to overcome some group challenges...


Again, some of the people who had either tried this sort of thing before, or were naturally leader-tastic were asked to keep silent and/or blindfolded to maintain/increase the challenge for the rest of the group...


Before supper, we had a bit more downtime, and some kids who had had enough outdoor play chose to have some indoor fun and games...

After supper, we got dressed for the cold and ready for the "underground railroad" activity...it was a ton of fun, and likely the most memorable part of our trip for lots of the kids...


The next morning, we got up and were ready for the day by 7am, and had a choice of canoeing or feeding the farm animals for our pre-breakfast activities...I went with the kids who opted for feeding the barnyard beasties...everyone loved watching the pigs eating the slop generated by our table-waste...


The goats followed us around the entire farm, talking to us and subtly nibbling our clothes and boots when we weren't looking...


The chickens were a big hit with the LP kids, as were the eggs, which were brown and not as uniform as store-eggs...


After breakfast, another group did some group and team building activities before heading up to the confidence course for their turns...


Everyone from Lake Placid, students and staff, had a great time at Pok-O!

The outdoor educational activities were fun, the staff was knowledgeable and fun to work with, the meals were really good, the cabins were nice (although some of the kids could have gone to sleep a little more quickly), the "Underground Railroad" activity was awesome...and we got a great chance to get to know the kids we'll be working with this year (and vice versa) outside of the classroom...

Monday, September 08, 2008

Ben's Birthday Weekend!!!

Ben's birthday was last Friday, the 5th, which was also the second day of the new school year. We sent him in with yummy brownies made by Gail, and had already invited his whole class (and a few friends outside his class/school as well) to a big party the next day, on Saturday.

The other exciting thing going on last weekend was a visit by his grandparents, Muz and D. We were excited about getting to see them a bunch during the birthday weekend, and Ben had been making plans for an overnight since early in the summer...


We met then at their hotel room at the Golden Arrow in Lake Placid after we were all done with school for the day/week, and had some present opening...Muz brought him some great pajamas...you can see him wearing a birthday crown made for him by his teacher...he wore it all day and all night...


We kept opening presents in the room, with Maggie's help...it got a little crazy, but was lots of fun!


Ben and D and Maggie went out to the room's deck for a while we cleaned up and got ready for dinner...


Ben picked his favorite restaurant in Lake Placid, The Great Adirondack Steak & Seafood Company...it's not just a clever name, it's pretty great...we all had a great meal, everyone in the restaurant sang to Ben, and he got a huge chocolat-astic dessert mounded with brownies and ice-cream and whipped cream and chocolate sauce...


Rather than have any/all of us go insane, we had decided to have Ben's birthday party at the Lake Placid Elementary School Playground, a super playground with a castle motif...we nervously watched the weather forecasts all week, and set up some tarps in case the rain came, but ended up only getting about 5 minutes of light drizzle during the party (although it rained long and hard after we were all packed up and had left for the afternoon...


We brought in decorations and pizza and drinks and such, and mostly left the kids to do what 5-6 year-olds want to do in an awesome playground...run around and engage in imaginative play...


The kids tooted and sang "Happy Birthday to You" and then it was time for the cake...


It was a beautiful "Pirates of the Caribbean" themed cake, complete with Kraken tentacles reaching up and out of the waves...


When it was time to open the presents, which we did under one of the big tarps (hence the blue light), Ben had a distinguished-looking "soul patch" left over from the icing of his cake...he got lots of wonderful presents from all of his friends, and everyone crowded in to take a look...my favorite thing about the picture above, and one of my favorite things about the party was the mystery-kid peering over Ben's shoulder during the gift opening...he was everywhere and participated in every part of the party (I'm pretty sure that I gave him some cake too), but nobody knew who he was, he just rolled himself into the party, and kept playing and having fun with everyone there...


It's a really neat playground, and the tarps set up throughout made natural play and rest break spots for the kids (and parents who stayed to help and hang out during the party)...


Ben and one of his oldest and best friends, Ayla...


When the party was all done, everyone had moved on to their afternoon activities, and we had packed/cleaned up, Ben was filthy and happy and tired and a bit overwhelmed by the fun and noise and presents and long playtime...we headed back over to Muz and D's hotel to continue our afternoon...


THEY HAVE A POOL!!! We were all excited by the prospect of a swim in the pool (although we insisted that Ben shower first, to avoid leaving a ring in their pool)...


We had the pool to ourselves, and had a great time splashing and swimming while we watched it downpour outside and talked about the party at the playground earlier...


Ben likes playing with, and splashing, my camera since he knows it's waterproof...


He took this picture of me swimming underneath him to tickle his toes...if you put your ear really close to the screen of your computer you may be able to hear my eyes sizzling from the obscene amounts of chlorine they use to keep the pool clean...


Ben had a great time in the pool, and recharged his batteries for an overnight stay with Muz and D...he kicked us out shortly after we got back from the pool, and Gail and I went out to an anniversary (our 11th) dinner at Desperadoes, and then a quiet night at home...


The self-timer came built-in with my camera, so I feel like I'm wasting money if I don't try the occasional run-around (or in this case swim-around) picture of all of us together...

Muz and D had a great view of Mirror Lake and the surrounding mountains from their room...



Even on a rainy weekend, it's a beautiful spot...


We came by the next morning, bringing our puppy Penny to visit with Maggie for a while...


They had a great time playing and chewing and leaping around the room (from bed to bed and such) for awhile, and then Penny crashed a bit...


She loves Maggie and sometimes just stares at her...


Muz got in some extra Penny-love before they had to take off...


We went home for a couple of hours to regroup before our next engagement of the weekend, Ayla's Birthday Party...Ben and I explored some of his presents a bit, and Ben built this Lego Star Wars ship all by himself...


We had a great time at Ayla's party, Ben played a lot with Sammie, the only other boy there, although he had an equally good time playing with all of the girls in attendance...


We played some inside and some outside games, and everyone had plenty of fun...


Ben never misses an opportunity to grab and check out a toad, no matter when or where he finds one...


Everyone had fun playing musical chairs...


There was a super jungle-themed cake, and after this weekend Ben has come to the realization that we need to have more cake more often in our everyday lives...


We got home and had one final present to open, a laptop computer...he's been using our laptops for years now, and has shown himself to be responsible and careful and curious and eager to learn and play and explore the resources available through the WWW...


He opened it up and checked his email immediately, then he went on to visit some of his favorite websites from his google-page...he is so excited about having his own computer (and the fact that it is RED. his favorite color), and played around with it for awhile before an early supper and bedtime to close down a busy and fantastic birthday weekend...