Cup-Stacking

So evidently there is such a thing among the youth of America - at least in this part of America - known as "cup-stacking." It seems as though it's positioned as a sport and to hear my kids talk about it, you'll probably want to start looking for it in Future Olympic Games.

Griffin has asked me a few times over the past god knows how many months for cup-stacking cups, a request that due to my own ignorance and dismissiveness of the entire concept, I let slide by, unheard. So thankfully, Griffin's friend Grant gave him a complete set of cups, complete with cup-stacking mat and timer.

Griffin was pretty excited about this (Rowan too, actually, when Griffin will let her use his gear) and has spent some amount of time trying to improve his time on this particular sequence. Right now, I think it's 21 seconds.

Today I went with Rowan on her Integrated Class field trip. Integrated is either social studies or science. The one she is currently in is social studies. It's called "Mysteries of History" and she is studying pre-Columbian Central and South American tribes - Aztecs, Incas, Mayans.

Normally, their ADI (All Day Integrated) field trip for this class would involve recreating a pre-Columbian village - a day in the life sort of thing - up in the foothills above Boulder, but because we've had some snow of late, they switched to the Build an Inuit Igloo field trip, for which we went up to Brainard Lake - also up in the foothills.

Unfortunately, the snow was light, powdery - great for skiing, not good for igloo building - so after a morning of shoveling snow into boxes, spraying it with water, and making igloo bricks that just wouldn't hold together, we had lunch and bailed on the igloo project. Instead we went walking  - SLIDING - on Brainard Lake.

It's probably hard to tell from the photo, but Rowan and I had a blast. And also, damn it's gorgeous here.

Buried Alive

The other night, Rowan was bent on going out and playing in the snow. She donned her coat, hat, gloves, and snow pants from the ski bag, and went out after dinner in the dark. And cold. 

Very cold. Griffin went out into the yard with her, but I was having no part of it. Even after Griffin came back in to do his math homework and told me that Rowan wanted me to come out and see something, I said no no no. Too cold. But this worried Griffin - he wouldn't tell me what Rowan wanted to show me, but he did check back outside on her. 

Of course, the story doesn't really have a punchline - you've already seen from the picture. Griffin had buried Rowan in the snow, which is what I discovered when I went out there, and she wasn't moving until I came out.

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This morning, Rowan is upstairs coaching Griffin on a song to sing to try out for the Peanut Butter Players' Christmas play. Awesome.