Palo Alto Tender Tracks Day 51, April 10, 2012

Waxing Moon
Walk to Jr. Museum

Three out of four children were back from their holidays. Bodie is still traveling about the Earth with his family.
The children spent the first half hour with Audrey exploring the plants and playing in the area while I interviewed a new family.  Actually the children helped with this as they introduced themselves and were very curious about he and his family.  They were also finding LOT’S of left over plastic Easter Eggs and they were delighted to find these.   When I came back to join them all the entire group was climbing on the trees in the Olive Tree area accept Giulio, he was VERY focused around the circle area looking for more plastic eggs.  I think he found one over there earlier and was not about to leave this area due to potential treasures!!!!

Circle time was a bit wild and Jasper was being accused of taking a stick that was not originally his.  This was a theme throughout the day; sticks being taken that a child found, put back on the ground and then became very upset that someone else picked it up and “took it, when it was mine!!!!”     Giulio and Jasper were like two rambuncous cat cubs throughout the day.  They were enjoying fighting, rolling and rough housing.  Paul was delighted with this too and Kashi was in and out of this.  He and Jasper had their typical struggles and then would be seen playing joyfully together and then not and then mostly together.

We picked new jobs and realized that we only have about 7 1/2 more weeks together. Due to this a plan was devised so that everyone would for sure get to experience all of the jobs before years end.  Then we had a short story about taking care of gardens and beautiful flowers due to the Fairies that live in them and this laid the foundation for discovering all the beautiful flowers and plants along our walk to the Jr. Museum.

The walk to and fro was BEAUTIFUL!!!  They all got so involved in taking in, smelling, touching and experiencing the many, many colors and different types of plants growing all around.  It was a magickal and delightful walk.   The rain started to gently drizzle as we got there and kept up this sweet shower for the rest of the day.  They ate in front of the Jr. Museum and played on the wonderful logs there.  We then became our traditional caterpillar and made our way through the museum and out into the back where all the animals were.  They stayed right with being this caterpillar and staying together better then ever before.  They know this now to be a tradition and even though it is quite tempting to play inside they were able to stay with our group.  Quite an achievement!!

Outside they all ran to where they were drawn.  At first it was hard to find all the animals as it seemed that the rain brought many into cozy hiding places.   That is all accept the rats.  There the children starred at them as one Rat appeared to be trying to climb up another Rat’s tail!  They just all laughed and laughed and laughed at that!!! Jasper, Giulio and Kashi discovered the wonderful Bob Cat play ground and took off there.  Some trouble arose with being less then friendly with children they didn’t know in there and rearranging of play strategies was introduced.   They were playing a game of being cats and protecting something.  Gracey stayed snuggled right up to these statues of baby Bobcats because she was “protecting them.”  The rest were moving in and out of the “cave” in the back.   Due to the struggles with others though we needed to leave this area and make it out to the wilds of the Museum spot.  They spent at least 30 to 45 minutes then entranced and in joy on the bridge running back and forth and back and forth watching the turtles and the ducks go under the bridge.  There was a turtle there that seemed quite stuck under the bridge door.  It took this turtle a long time to finally figure out how to get past this dilema.  He then made it underneath and onto some land under the bridge.  They were all very excited about this!!!!!   The birds there were BEAUTIFUL as they had this Pheasant that was filled with Golden colors and another exotic bird of many plumed colors.

When we finally had to leave the walk back was delightful again and Audrey became the tickle something that they were filled with joy over.  We stopped to watch a man put a car on his tow truck.  Giulio’s babysitter was right there, as his house is on the way.  We finished watching, he went with her and down the road we went.

And oh yes, in the beginning of our walk to the Museum we took a different direction and discovered Bodies house as well as HUNDREDS of snails that they really enjoyed holding and then putting on other plants.  I have never seen so many snails of so many sizes in one area.  It was remarkable and they enjoyed these beings GREATLY!