Palo Alto Tender Tracks Tuesday May 6, 2014 Day 61

Waxing Half Moon
Denis Martins Creek

Serena is gone on her trip to France and the rest of us came back from holiday with joy and excitement to be together.
Finn and Julian got to choose which direction we took when we got there and they chose to go through the great dark tunnel and then explore the area where we found the incredible cave underneath a big Redwood Tree.  But, before that we had a grand circle.   They got to choose a story from the pictures on the story box and they all agreed on the carrot story.  It took me awhile to remember which one this was but, with a bit of their help I did and off we went with the story.  We sang our songs too, counted on our stick and watched the wind blow our wind feather then, off we went.
Through the dark of the tunnel some fast and some slow and out to the other side we came.   There was much to navigate with fallen logs, water, rocks, small bolders, sliddey areas and they did it with enthusiasm and willingness to flow with some edges.
Finn found mud rather quickly and began making his famous mud balls. By the end of the day Zara and Ridham joined this endeavour as they were curious how he was able to make such a perfectly round ball.  They did quite well.   All at one time or another went to play inside the deep cave underneath the tree.
Zac, Finn, Cole, Juliette, Julian and I explored up the slop to get to the top of the tree. There we all found a Redwood stump that had a big hole and drop in it.  They found a hole at the bottom where they could go into.  This was very exciting and there was great learning about how safe or unsafe aspects of where we were was.   We found a lot of Poison Oak at different places around there and made different choices as to where we were going to play.   I got a bit concerned about some aspects of their safety so down to another area they went.  Jill stayed with them after that and then I was with Ridham, Zara and Eden.   Ridham was immersed in making different paints and was delighted when he made “Gold!”   Eden was trying her best at it and Juliette stayed and played with painting with Ridham.  I began building a stone house and finding materials for the top.  Ridham said it was a very nice house that I made.  🙂
Zara was playing around with different things too.
Lunch happened on and off throughout the day and then, I went with all but Zara, Ridham and Eden down the creek with the rest.  We explored, they LOVED taking off their pants and shoes and getting wet and on the way back I heard them say, “This was the best day ever!!”
Juliette was proud of herself for not getting wet at all though and she, Finn and I made it back before the others.  The others were beginning to come find us when it became time to go back.
There were so many other fun things that took place during the day but alas, this is the jist of it.
We took a long time getting ready to go back, yet going through the tunnel was easier then coming through.  The light was at our back as we made it through. On the way back they all had lot’s of thank you’s and then Jill read a couple of books that they enjoyed.