Tender Tracks Friday Day 15

January 11, 2019
Waxing Crescent Moon
Lake Lagunitas

A wet and wonderful day was had by all at Lake Lagunitas! We revisited the spot with the water trough, which we hadn’t been to since the warmer days of fall. The children noticed how full it was and Charlie stuck her hand in the water and declared it “so so cold.” Despite the water temperature, we splashed rocks and sticks into the trough and stirred it up. We were also on the lookout for other changes that were brought about by the rain.

Many children noticed that there are various mushrooms growing on the land in the wet soil and that observation prompted a mushroom hunt. We embarked on an adventure in search of mushrooms and found large brown ones, very yellow ones, teeny tiny white round ones, and even pink ones! We also followed deer tracks to a spot with great puddles for walking and splashing through. We saw more tracks from people and dogs, and made some tracks of our own in the mud.

While exploring out into the woods, it began to rain even more, so we went to the covered picnic spot for a yummy cereal bar snack that Wendolyn made especially for us. We closed our eyes to better taste all the different flavors in our snack; crunchy rice, dried cherries, maple syrup, and even a topping of sunbutter. Ruby told us a story of Little Tommy Tiddlemouse and his search for the perfect home in the grass and all the friends that came to visit him.

After snack, Charlie, Miles, Rohan and Blake found a deep puddle to wade in and splash through. They used sticks to make a stream flow faster out of the puddle, then they worked together to build a dam where the water was escaping. With all the wet and cold, we decided it would be a fantastic time to build a fire to get warm. The children helped carry supplies to the fire pit and sought out the perfect dry sticks (collected in those dry, warm days of autumn) to build a fire fairy home. We had a story about How Coyote Stole Fire From the Sun and even had our lunch while sitting around the fire!

A silly chase game was underway after lunch where the children caught each other and would ‘toast’ and ‘eat’ their giggling captive. Chasing and puddle play filled our afternoon and then Margot, Siena, Charlie and Rohan all warmed up by the fire together before Miles and Charlie, Blake and Margot filled buckets in the creek to put out our fire.

We got even warmer once aboard Juniper Rose and cuddled up under blankets – so cozy! The children shared all of their gratitudes from the day while Ruby and I drew their memories and gratitudes for the wonderful wet day. We sang our goodbye song and made our way back to our friends and family (and toasty cars) at Peri Park.

A pink mushroom!