Palo Alto Tender Tracks Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2013

Sept. 10, 2013
Day 3
Waxing Moon
Dennis Martins Creek

All were here ready and ready to go.  We were celebrating Zara and Ridham’s birthday but first, settling into the bus with stuffed animals, “reading” the Moon picture and playing a nature awareness game “,”who is wearing what color shoe..?”
They had a lot of fun with all of this and then, off we went.  Both coming and going Jill played, per their request from last weeks fun, the Bird book. They each took turns calling out what they wanted and they all listened to the many fun and funny bird sounds as well as seeing the pictures and hearing the names of what the birds were.
When we got to our destination oh dear, it was much darker. Why?  Because the trees were to be our great friends throughout the day protecting us from the hot, hot Grandpa Sun’s rays.  We sang our songs, played a game of Be this Animal to the tune of my Ocarina, finished our songs, got in our circle, heard a grand Birthday story for Zara and Ridham, ate the wonderful snack they both provided for us, figs, pound cake and crackers,and then off to continue our day.
I gave them land marks to find all along the way until we made it to where we were to settle in.

Sirena, Ridham, and Jill began lunch while, Liam, Cole, Sirena ( at first), Julian and Zac went down to play with rocks, sticks and all that they created with that.   As some began to play with “guns” and such I knew that they were mightly protectors and asked if they would protect us from the “Bad Guys” that they said were coming up the creek.  They were DELIGHTED to do so.
They carried on for awhile, I left to eat lunch with the others and the rest followed not long after.
Zara and Eden made a “house” to eat in and this led everyone else into creating their homes for a lot of the rest of the day.  Each one had their own style home.
Cole went by himself after lunch down below where he started and found a very large log stuck in the side of the hill that he wanted to get out. He asked for help and I came. Then Zara and Eden came to help as well as Zac.  We all helped to lift, pull and drag this BIG piece of log up the hill and to, at first, Zara and Edens home but then he realized that he really wanted it for his home so off it went.  Ridham made a grand house that, with two sticks he spent a long time whirling and twirling to “Get the wind out of the house.”  And, “sticks are allowed in my house but not dirt” said Ridham.   Zac made a Castle that he did not want to share with others.  He had a great many “swords” and sticks in there that he liked very much.    Down the creek Juliet, Julian and Serena with Jill were making their own grand home with a fire and fish that they were fishing out of the, now dry, pond.    It was a grand time visiting each house and in the midst of this I told some funny stories.
They discovered the incredible branch swings? that are there.  You must come and see these creations that grow from, is it possible? the Redwood trees that you can swing on.
All the while they were to find sticks that were as long as their arms and as thick as their thumbs.   Eden and Zara got GIANT sticks and we laughed a lot about that.   At days end we found just the right stick and I told them what it was for: counting the days we are together and our weather stick.  At the beginning of the Day Juliet found a great feather, Owl, and we tied that on the stick, after cleaning it a bit with a sharp edged stone but, before we did this, Zac put his knee on a bee and got stung!!!!!!!  He was so brave and all the children, when they heard the upset, came straight over and were so very kind and helpful to him.  We put special medicine on him and gave him an ice pack.  He didn’t want the children too close to him and they most graciously moved the distance that he requested.
After all was said and done we had a good by circle with wonderful thank you’s about the gifts from Earth, Sky and Friends, played a teeny bit more even though they requested “90 minutes more!” and off we went to the bus and back.
Jill continued with the bird book per their request and some nodded off in sweet sleep.