Palo Alto Tender Tracks Thurs. Feb. 13, 2014 Day 42

Full Moon
Martins Creek

Serena was absent today.
What a beautiful day it was today as we had Cole’s Mother play with us all day!  He was delighted and it was so fun to see him beam as he hugged her close when we all got settled on the bus.
The day was packed with explorations, experiencing the waters that were pouring down the creek bed and ponds played in with delight.    We had circle and the story became one that I promised to tell them and that they reminded me of. I usually only tell it at Thanks Giving, which I did not do this year, so I told it on this day. It is a story about the importance of Giving Thanks. I was given permission to tell it by Tony TenFingers a Lakota Sioux from the Pine Ridge Reservation.  They have very clear rules about Storytelling protocol. It is in grave bad form to take a tale and tell it without permission!
After story and our Valentines day snack of Gluten free Heart Shaped  Chocolate Brownies, and Ripe Red Rasberries that Jill brought, we moved on to the days adventures.
Most of the children wound up in the water pool creek that was  below from where our belongings were. The climb down was challenging and they all rose to the occasion with a great deal of joy and exuberance.   Last time they were here the creek was completely dry; just a month ago!  It looked so different now with the water in it. Finn did not even recognize the place where he and Julian had played for such a long time.   There was a big log that went across the water and, of course, the desire to climb across it came flowing through their bodies.  After taking a bit of time to see how slippery it was and what way to cross it might be the best if they wanted to stay dry, they sat on it and schooched across with such exuberance and all the while building such great respect for themselves and this accomplishment.
Cole, Julian and his Mom wound up going on a grand adventure all the way down and back up the creek.  I met them down there and then came up with Zac and Juliette.  Cole’s Mom came up with Cole, Julian and Ridham. Ridham, it seemed, helped her greatly through some troublesome creek spots!
Later in the day I got out our eggs and natural earth paints.  I cracked the eggs, some of them helped separate the yolk from the white and then I mixed the yolk with the powdered rock paint adding some water and making smooth and beautiful paint.  All painted their rattles accept Cole and Julian.  Finn was in total delight as he painted it from head to toe with green.  Zara and Eden spent a long time painting their rattles too.
Later on I brought them into a game of silent observation as I camoflauged some gifts for them along a trail. One by one they looked closely along the trail to see something that did not look like the natural world.  When they found it they then found their Valentines gifts of Nature books and a few Earth pencils/ crayons.
We were right at the end of our day and needed to pack things up and go.
It was a beautiful, beautiful, alive and full day.  All the walking along the creek bed with water, logs, challenging climbs was exquiste. The Earth and Sky gave forth so much and your children were surrounded with the love of life.  And oh yes, we found a lot of very large down to the smallest heart shaped rocks.