Palo Alto Tender Tracks Thursday May 22, 2014 Day 66

Waning Moon
Pichetti

Ridham still gone. Today we were celebrating Serena’s birthday. Her Father baked a delicious gluten free chocolate cake with strawberry icing.  Do you think the children enjoyed this??!!!!! Yes, THEY DID!
But, before that came, we got in the bus after great games from “Mr. Thumbs” AKA Serena’s Dad.
They came in wild and happy and then, off we went.   When we got there we set up our circle in the parking lot next to the bus and commenced with all the traditional birthday aspects.  Serena beamed from the story to the snack and to the singing Happy Birdie to her!
Then we went on our adventure right to where she wanted.
On the trail there Jill saw a bunny and we all got very, very quiet as we did our best to see it and stalk up closer.  Well, we didn’t get to see it but, we did get to see it’s trails and hide outs.   The Roosters were at Pichetti again and so many birds singing and Jays squawking.   When we got to our regular place there were some children there yet leaving.  We set up camp and by mid day they were all at the other side of the empty pond.  Clearly rain had come signs of it were all around, ie, plants growing all over  the pond floor.
The structure on the other side made for great climbing and Serena was DELIGHTED with her ability to climb up and down and up and down asking, “Watch me, Watch me!!!” So we did. Right about then her Dad and big sister came along to fetch her as they needed to leave early for a trip.   She didn’t want to go but finally was able to pull herself away from the fun and off the three of them went.  We had already given her great thank you’s for the wonderful gift of chocolate cake and Pichetti.
After that, I went foraging through the bushes with Zara and Eden, due to Zara’s request, to look for birds and plant wonders.    All the rest were delighted with their explorations on the wooden “house” structure.
Later I brought them into racing games  to different descriptions of the wooden logs laying all over the pond.    I would describe the log and they had to find the one I was describing.  Zac nailed it EVERY time and Cole ran to it first.  There were many “winners”.  I wanted to give them all presents yet could not find the right ones laying about in my pack.  When I couldn’t Juliette gave Cole her necklace of Eucalyptus caps that we had made a long time ago. That could not have been more perfect as he really wanted to make another one of those.
I also brought out my magnifying glasses and half of us spent the rest of the day trying to make fire, in a very safe way, with the Sun, magnifying glasses and dried leaves and grass. Finn was the most successful. They were all told how to do this with grownups safely at home.  It was very hard to pull ourselves away in order to get ready to go back to the bus. But the prize from the races became one more piece of the left over chocolate cake so, off we all ran!
There was a lot of climbing to today, finding plants that they recognized, wanting to make things, listening to stories, being wild and joyful, playing baseball with sticks and Oak galls and much delight.