The First Week of School

And thus concludes the first week of school for the Matteson kids. Both of them are really glad to be back in school, see their friends, and settle into the school routine.

Fourth Grade
Cassie is so far really enjoying fourth grade. she was somewhat disappointed that the teacher just dived right in and they did actual schoolwork even on the first day, however, homework doesn't start until next week. This year each 3-5th grader has a planner, and they record notes about what they're doing in different subjects, as well as the homework they have to do each night. Then we, the parents, have to review the planner, sign it, and confirm the homework is done every evening. Cassie is a bit disappointed at the more rigid structure, because she manages her homework quite well on her own, but I think she's going to have more homework and more subjects to manage this year.

Cassie is starting to organize her life differently and be more aware of needing some space and time to her self. We have a long-term plan to move the computers out of our computer room and give each girl their own space. But as it requires a complete redesign of how our house is organized, this isn't happening very fast.

First Grade
Zoe complained on the first day of school that we told her it would be longer than kindergarten but it wasn't. We smiled and explained that it really was longer, but she must have had lots of fun for it to fly by so quickly. It took her a few days to adjust, but by Friday she was really really excited about her new teacher, class, and schedule. Eating lunch at school is the biggest adjustment- self-managing her time so that she gets to eat something during their 20 minute lunch-break.

I took the first day of school off and volunteered to help kids get to their classrooms, but they had so many 5th grade helpers that they didn't really need me. I helped the TAG/Reading teacher catalog some new books, and delivered a car-load of paper to the high and middle schools. The paper was leftover from media testing at work, and slated to be recycled or sent to schools. I choose to help out with the latter, realizing that getting a hold of nice paper for art projects is really difficult for schools.

Hartstine Island

Ok, I know you've all been waiting to hear about Hartstine Island, our last camping trip of the summer. Our girls had been waiting all summer to go. We left Newberg August 22 and returned August 25th.

Hartstine Island is in the southernmost tip of Puget Sound. To get there we traveled North on I-5 to Olympia Washington, then headed west on HWY101 to Shelton, a small forestry town (see the map linked to the photo album).

The entire area looks like a lake or river, until you get near enough to smell seaweed and saltwater. When you walk along the pebbly beach, you unexpectedly find barnacles, crabs, sand dollars, and oysters. The water level is affected by the tides, although it is still a 4 hour drive north to where this water opens up on the ocean proper.

The cabin we stayed at belongs to my friend Sonia's uncle. It's a place she and her family have been coming to for years and years, originally purchased as a Christmas tree farm by her Great-Grandparents. So while we "camped" in the bus, to allow others to use the cabin's bedrooms, we had access to the huge bathroom, modern kitchen, and spacious dining room table.

Sonia has a lot of friends. She invited 35 people, and most of them showed up at some point during the weekend, although there were about 20 of us who stayed overnight. Annick and Sean brought their new baby Eadon, and Will and Kathleen brought their daughter Gretchen. Kate and Torey brought their kids Claira and Zoe.

This meant my Zoe and Cassie had plenty of kids to play with. Zoe was especially surprised to be the second oldest kid there. She's used to being the littlest, but rose to the "be a role model" challenge just fine.

We had awesome weather for Saturday. Activities included pickleball, swinging in the large swing, relaxing, reading, talking with friends, swimming (for those brave enough to ignore the cold), canoeing/kayaking, and hanging out. Saturday evening the party really got started with great food and loud music. After S'mores, the girls joined the patio dance party and had a blast!

Check out the photo album here:
Hartstine Weekend

Sunday morning was fairly nice, but most of the guests had to leave to prep for work on Monday. By the afternoon, we were the only guests left. It started pouring really hard, and so we made use of our indoor games and activities. We took naps and worked on craft projects. Sonia was leaving the next day for the desert- going to the Burning Man art festival in the Black Rock Desert, Nevada. One of Sonia's favorite traditions about this is the many costumes that people wear. So she worked on her costumes and got them organized for later when she would be tired from travelling and unwilling to search through unsorted stuff.

The sunset that evening was spectacular, I couldn't stop taking pictures, and then they all turned out so good that I had a really hard time weeding them out. Check out the full array here:
Sunset Photos

We were sad to leave on Monday morning, but happy that we came and created yet another fond Hartstine memory.