Palo Alto Tender Tracks Wed. Sept. 25, 2013

Day 4
Waning Moon
Hidden Villa: Slippey Sliddey

The day began with Emme’s Mom noticing that my description of the Moon was not correct.  She DID look at the board in the bus and SHE WAS RIGHT!!!  What a delight it was that, first she noticed and second that she was willing to ask the question about what she thought was true and what I wrote.  Thank you, thank you, thank you Emme’s Mom!! ( FYI, I do not use parents names for anonymity)
What a BEAUTIFUL new Autumn day.  The wind played games with us all day, blowing hard and slowing down.Grandpa Sun’s warm rays shone bright yet His warmth was decreased at times due to our friends the Wind Children.
They seem to be settling down with each other and just get more and more cohesive.  Driving to Hidden Villa was fun and easeful. When we got there we saw MANY Deer on the lawn.  After using the bathroom they all went stalking the Deer with Bosch and then came running back for circle.  As we circled up Bosch went out to see if he could get closer to the Buck.   As we washed our hands and got our snack, very quietly!, we watched and watched, the Buck and Bosch, Bosch and the Buck.  It was fun to watch how the Buck responded to Bosch quietly taking a different route , away from the deer in order to actually get closer and then see how the Deer stood still, listening, not listening and then finally, ran away!!!!
We all then sang our songs and heard a story about why we sing songs at the beginning of every day.  We also heard another story about Trilly Trully and Trippy Truppy and their discovery of Fall, Mother Earth and how She is calling Her children back home and why our days are going to get colder and colder and darker and darker.
After snack and story we had great chase games with ME!!!  They chased me and chased me and I ran them and ran them.  Some stayed with Bosch as they discovered the wonderful delights coming from the Cedar tree that we were near.
We finally made our adventure to the Slippey Sliddey but, how do we get there?  ” Find the trail with the Light that shines bright on it” I said.  And off they went but oh wait a minute, not before Bosch taught us how to listen to our tree friends.  We put our ears to the tree and got right cozy up to it and then, we got to begin to get to know the tree!!!  And we did!!
As we were walking to the Slippey Sliddey Hailey fell and scraped her palm a bit.  We took our time to help her as big tears came rolling down.  All the children ran to help her.  They gave her songs to make it better and lot’ s of kisses.   They helped with bandaids and gave so much love!!!   While we were walking Natalie was asked if she would hold Dahlia and Noreya’s hand and she beamed! with joy.  Then they said “Look at us, Look at us!”   Bosch had about three or four children holding his hands and I was wandering in the midst of them all.  We found our next landmark, the bridge. Emme thought for sure that if it was a bridge that water would be under it but, NO WATER!  “Where could it be?” and “Will it come again?” We looked and noticed and then, moved on.
At the Slippey Sliddey they all scurried to climb up this very slippey sliddey  place but Dahlia and Hailey and Noreya cried trying to get up.  They followed me to an easier way but it was too much for Hailey and I suggested we sit down below and have fun watching those who wanted to go up. Noreya and Dahlia decided to keep trying.  Hailey ate and the rest, well they had FUN!! I think particularly Eric because when we were all eating, all of a sudden he would come sliding down. Then he would disappear and come slidding down. Then he would disappear and come slidding down………
There was much play with being covered like a blanket under the leaves. Noreya really liked this and Aurora loved to take the leaves off.  She thought that was very funny. There were those who liked putting the leaves on and those who liked to take them off.   There were also some wonderful logs that all of us were climbing on.  Jasper really liked climbing on this one log by himself.  It would wobble and you had to work at staying stable.  Annissa was amazing as she liked going up and down and up and down the hill. She never even flinched when she got bumped into. She just would get up and go about her merry way, happy and laughing with fun.
Bosch climbed up on a big tree limb and they were all very excited about that.  Some tried to get up there with him and he helped them to be just at the beginning of where he climbed.  Natalie would say “Look at me, Look at me!” she was delighted.
They finally found that part of the day where they get fully immersed into the natural world and their interests, settled down and in. And so often that is right when we have to go in a few minutes.   They were truly having a good time yet, we got our belongings together and made our way back to the bus to playfully go inside, share our thank you’s and playfully make our way back to Elearnor Pardee park.