Corinne's 7th Birthday

March 20, 2022 9:42 am

Corinne's birthday was a smashing success this year. School was an early-release day because they're doing parent-teacher conferences this week. When she got home from school her treasure hunt was ready and waiting.

First she needed to find which cone was hiding the next clue.

But when she did reveal it, she didn't see it (in the blue).

But she eventually noticed and moved on to the Chasm of Chaos!

The clue collected from the chasm of chaos directed her to the shooting gallery.

Which was a bit more difficult than intended and we all took turns helping out.

The four clues indicated they would need to be assembled.

Upon assembly their bread-shape was clear and the clues said that to reveal the next secret the bread would need to be toasted (toast is one of Corinne's most favorite foods).

Interesting photography note: The photo was apparently captured between LED refreshes on the toaster oven display which appears blank.

After a thorough toasting a message written in invisible ink (lemon juice) was revealed. The paintbrush I used was a bit too big and the juice spread a bit too much, but they managed to decipher about 90% of it without help.

She then found the elephant that was sitting on a blanket that was hiding her presents in the family room.

A chicken, from Heather. It looks like the chickens they're raising in their co-op game of Stardew Valley.

Corinne's teacher read the book Slugs in Love at school on Valentine's Day and Corinne was absolutely in love with it. So we gave her a copy for her birthday and Grandma made the two slugs as stuffed animals. Corinne just about popped when she unwrapped them.

The slugs smooching.
The just-released, 9th "Princess in Black" book.

London didn't want to miss out on the family excitement, but was less enthused.

After presents I had to go back to my closet and do more work and before dinner the girls had gymnastics class. But once they got home it was Corinne's favorite dinner: spaghetti! And then cake!

On Saturday we went to the zoo with the Spencers because that's what Corinne wanted to do to celebrate. So she got to be in charge of where we went. We had lunch of chicken strips, hamburgers, and corn dogs at the zoo. Afterwards we stopped at the Ghirardelli factory store for ice cream.

January Hike: Morgan Territory

January 16, 2022 7:28 pm

I have a goal this year to do one hike a month. It seems fairly doable. We did this month's hike today at Morgan Territory with the Spencers. It ended up having significantly more elevation change than I anticipated, so it was more strenuous than planned. But, we all made it through the other side. It was about 2.5 miles. Lots of nice dense woods, a few patches of open hillside, but the sky was a bit overcast so it wasn't too hot.

About a third of the way on we had to cross a stream and a tree had fallen right at the crossing. So we had to climb under and around the tree and as we crossed. Corinne put her foot right into the muddy water. We rung out her sock as best we could, but she did the rest of the hike with a soggy foot. No blisters though.

I got some neat pictures of mushrooms and some little wildflowers: