Ravenclaw prefect

During the last quarter of the year, the 5th grade classes at FPE go all in on a Harry Potter theme. The teachers read the first book out loud, the kids are divided into the 4 Hogwarts houses and they compete with one another for house points, there are Potter-themed writing assignments and art projects. The teachers even post extra credit games online -- scavenger hunts, riddles, puzzles, math games. Liesl was sorted into Ravenclaw (they took an online assessment, but the teacher also helped kids find the right house) and took the whole thing very seriously. She spent hours drawing a banner to hang over Ravenclaw's corner of the classroom -- we were pretty impressed with the eagle she drew.

 

She also took to wearing blue every day, as blue and bronze are Ravenclaw's house colors. She created a wand with paint and feathers and wire.

 

And then during this final week of school, her class had a Hogwarts day -- they watched the first Potter movie, they were encouraged to dress in magical/wizard clothes and house colors, they played Potter Jeopardy and other games in class, they had Potter snacks and treats. And at the end of the day, the winner of the Hogwarts cup, the house with the most points, was announced.... which was Ravenclaw. Yay! She was thrilled. She also was the person in her house with the most points, so she was named prefect and got a special sticker and key. She came home extremely happy.

field day

Liesl had an absolutely wonderful field day, her final one at FPE. So glad she got to have one more chance at this fun tradition before moving on to middle school.

Her class started out with the classic egg-on-a-spoon team relay race, but with pingpong balls.

Next up: the long jump and foot races. Liesl raced twice against Ollie (they had a bet on who could win the day) and once against Ella.

Love the game faces in these race photos. Also, it was raining.

And then it was on to the water balloon toss.

And the sponge relay (moving water between buckets).

 

Giant soap bubbles.

 

Scooter relay races.

 

 

Musical chairs, with a prize of a frozen ice pop when you lose.

 

OBT performance

I was supposed to be backpacking this weekend with Adrienne and two other friends at Lake Chelan, in WA. The plan was to drive to Chelan, take the ferry to the trailhead, backpack along the lake for two days to Stehekin, and then ride the ferry back to Chelan. But the weather forecast was for thunderstorms on Friday, a constant chance of rain, and possible flash flooding. So we decided to err on the side of wisdom and cancel, which was such a bummer.

However, I made some lemonade out of my lemons. It was fun to see Liesl's field day on Friday, and to watch Seb's baseball game on Friday and Liesl's softball game on Saturday, and I went running this morning with Anja on the muddy Leif trail in Forest Park. I baked chocolate muffins and read some books. And, I bought some last-minute tickets to see a performance by Oregon Ballet Theatre at the Newmark, called the Americans. Three contemporary ballet pieces by three different choreographers on various themes (masculinity; Covid shutdowns; childhood). Liesl and I had a wonderful time together.

Jasper on the hillside at Gabriel Park, watching Seb's baseball game.