Tender Tracks Friday Day 29

May 3, 2019
Almost New Moon
Lake Lagunitas

Today we celebrated Charlie’s birthday in the sunshine of Lake Lagunitas! Charlie also brought a book to share for the bus ride, which all the children enjoyed while holding their stuffies. Raccoon Family play began immediately as the children dropped their packs at the backpack tree and launched themselves towards Raccoon Family HQ, the Redwood Fairy Ring!

Then all friends were in our climbing tree and each Tender Tracker was perched on their own branch. Later, Charlie and Miles searched for rocks to smush into rock paint. We found another fairy circle that looked like a little room, and Violet found a cozy nook and took a ‘nap’ in it. The children played in the space that used to be a huge puddle and remembered all the splashing and boot-filling of a month ago. While running, Siena took a tumble and all the Tender Trackers came to check on her and then Blake, Rohan and Miles ran to get the Guardian of Safety kit and help get some special sauce and a bandaid for their friend and Violet helped Siena walk to snack.

At snack we had Charlie’s special treat and heard the amazing story of her adventures through her life and wished on the birthday story candle for future fun and adventures for our friend! After snack, Ruby showed us a way to create fire by rubbing our hands on a spindle and spinning it in a fire board; fire by friction! Margot, Blake, Miles, Violet and Charlie came with me and we went to collect some food for the fire fairies, some dry twigs and soft things. We found some dry moss, lichen and madrone twigs and Margot collected lupine flowers for all her friends. Siena and Rohan were with Ruby trying the spindle and fire boards. Siena also painted her face with charcoal like the Yellow Jacket Sisters in the story Ruby told about Coyote stealing fire. We returned with our bounty of fire fairy food and many children tried the spindles and Miles noticed how it got hot after he kept making it spin. No flames were made on this day, but much fun was had!

The creek is lower now and we all had fun crossing it in various ways: over downed logs, balancing on rocks, or just straight through the water in bare or booted feet! The children climbed, waded and explored on both sides of the creek, and quite a few got wet. Charlie’s keen eyes spotted small fish in the water! We found more rocks to grind into paint and decorated each others faces and arms.

On Juniper Rose, we shared our gratitude for logs, the creek, sun and sky, fish, lichen, and fire food. We had more creek play at Peri Park (where Charlie spotted more fish!) while we waited for our family and friends. Also, at one point during the day, Violet exclaimed, “This is the best day ever!” Which is something she says almost every week (because, well, it’s true.) Thanks for letting us share the best days ever with your children!