Palo Alto Tender Tracks Wed. Nov. 20, 2013 Day 12

Waning Crescent Moon
Foothill Park: Back side

It was a gloriously gray and sometimes blue skied day.  We were only sprinkled on a very little bit  though prepared for much more rain. It only came as we drove away to go home and then it came down in buckets!!!
We took them to a wonder filled place at the very back side of Foothills park. There is a row of Redwood Trees. Inside they are all like houses and are grand for when it rains.   Some knew that we were going to make gifts for the birds but first, eating snack, singing songs and hearing a story about how Robin got It’s Red Breast.  This led us into giving gifts to the birds because in the story Robin and another bird and a tree were given gifts, right about this time of year, for their wonderful assistance to a very little child.
Half the children stayed with me to make these gifts: apples cut in half, string put through both sides as a handle, middle scooped out and bird seeds put in the middle.  After the children put their bird seeds in then they went to hang them up somewhere.  All the children went on their own, well accept Natalie aided them all, to hang up their apple nests. And, they hung them up BEAUTIFULLY!  The ones with me were Natalie, Anissa, Hailey, Emme  and Jasper.  The others, initiated by Aurora, went to go “touch” a deer.  When we drove in there were three male deer with many prongs on their antlers.  Aurora, who wanted us to call her Tara all day, Nareya, Dahlia, after making a nest Emme, and Eric all went with Bosch on their Deer adventure.  We saw then go towards the deer but then they veered off and went off trail and up the hill.  After awhile we heard them and they came scampering down delighted and ready to eat their lunch and make their nests.
Once everyone was down and fed we played hiding games, stalking games, playing with the orange cones that were in the parking areas and making music out of them.  We took the long beams out of the cones and used them for jumping over.  There were several bathroom times, and chasing each other times.  Tara AKA Aurora wound up having half of us stalking her and then this turned into tag, at least by Emme.  Dahlia and Nareya were making mud pies or something like that on the boulders we were near.
On the way back they loved playing their, “wake up Bosch game” only this time they had to guess what he was dreaming by the movements he was making while he was “asleep.”  And, when we got there, as you know, it was POURING  rain and we rushed them out to you as best we could.
A fun day before the Thanksgiving Holiday. And oh yes, their end of the day Thank you’s were filled with gratitude, smiles and joy.