Palo Alto Tender Tracks Wed. May 21, 2014 Day 33

Waning Half Moon
Foothills Park-The Island

Jasper was out with with family today and Aurora’s Mom and sister came with wonderful birthday treats to celebrate Aurora’s fourth birthday, which is actually tomorrow.
When we got to the park there were all sorts of painters all setting up their wonderful easels and paint and, right where I had planned to have circle too so, Bosch found another wonderful spot and there we went.   We sang our songs, got our wonderful snack from Aurora and then sang her her Tender Tracks Birthday song.   She and Emme passed out the snacks, and Dahlia and Eric passed out the drinks.  Then I retold the story from last week.  After that most of them immediately ran off in the direction that they were very familiar with only, that wasnt the direction we were actually going on this day.  Bosch, after awhile, was able to round them up but, something happened?  Natalie found a plastic suction cup type of ball.  Eric REALLY wanted it as well as Emme.  Eric had tears and then I brought him into some awareness that there would be a special gift for him today too.  It might be a feather, a stick, a butterfly landing on his cheek….and sure enough, later in the day he found a stick and a wonderful bird feeder underneath some trees. Those seemed like his gifts to him and he smiled with joy over finding them.
When we got to the Island we got fishing poles from the wonderful Cattail folks, we found ducks, slipped, a fair amount, upon the little hills, sat upon the rock near the pond with Bosch and watched the wonders go by, ate, and then played Hide and Go Seek.
Bosch, towards the end of the day,  became an Orange Monster and Aurora’s little sister was having a grand time with them all.  Aurora though slipped in the water and did not like that. We remembered that that happened last time too. Mom was there to take off all of her wet things and put on new ones and then off she went.
Eric, Nareya and Dahlia kept slipping and it seems it will take them a bit to figure out how to slow down when they are on slippy ground.  Hide and Go Seek was wonderful fun as well as looking at all the plants that were Poison Oak and how NOT to hide in them.
Emme wanted a treasure that Nareya found and it seemed that, after awhile, Nareya was willing to share it a bit because I saw Emme with it for awhile.
I noticed that there was a lot of getting the Cattails and then immediately crunching them up, throwing them away, disliking what they had and then asking for another one. Today it felt right to me to bring the point of view of the gift that the Cattail people  bring and how to really use what we have instead of cutting them down, throwing them away and then asking for another one.  I had them take their time and really notice what exactly they wanted before I cut one down. We gave thanks as we cut them down and then we took very good care with the one’s we had as there were no more to be  cut for the rest of the day.  I did  not get any more requests.
Anissa was delighted with her lunch and play. Aurora with water and play. Nareya and Dahlia had their usual squabbles as well as love for one another and were the one’s who said “IT’s time to play Hide and Go Seek!”
Eric, as I said, was very sad with not having found the wonderful toy that Natalie did but delighted when he found his own treasure and he got better with his falls.  Natalie did not like the other children wanting the toy she found yet happy when I suggested that she put it in her backpack and leave it there until she got home. After that she was running all around the Island.   Emme too was falling yet got up like a trooper and had fun. Most, if not all noticed the most wonderful red, and blue dragonflies that were all around.  Bosch spotted a Great Blue Heron up in the tree and we sat there watching it. The children came by to try and see if they could see it. Emme and Dahlia had to go pee so I had to leave and we did not see it take flight from the tree.
Eric earlier helped me gather fire tinder of dried Mugwort and Old Man’s Beard from the ground and trees.
Aurora went home with her Mommy and the rest of us took our usual path back to family and home.