Tender Tracks Tues. Day 15

Oct. 31, 2017
Lake Lagunitas
Waxing Moon

Devin absent as he was at a Halloween party at his other school today and we celebrated this Grand Holiday by dressing up in capes and hats that Tender Tracks brings out every now and again. We painted with our paint brushes just made from last week with our rock paint and carved out a pumpkin to put upon the land camouflaged for the animals and birds to find.

The day was a VERY mellow and peaceful day.  Vita had a gradual progression to just laying down almost anywhere she was. She was either very, very tired or is coming down with something.  We spent the day out of the cold Redwoods and in the very warm sun near where we usually are for circle.  I was hoping that the warmth of the hugging sun would nourish her body.  The others were very, very content to play Hide and Go Seek there, running, chasing, monsters, stalking and the like.

We had circle and ate Pumpkin pie as we said goodbye to all of our October Pumpkin songs for the year.  They gobbled this up and asked for more.
After circle they explored a bit more.  Puma got into finding and capturing a spider. He put it in a jar that I had for a bit.  He and Austen had a great deal of fun trying to do this.  I then set up the table for painting but not before a great deal of Hide and Go Seek took place.

AND, what was this??? there was all manner of capes and hats to be worn.  There was a blueberry cap with a blue cape and an acorn cap with a tan cape and a Holly Berry cap with a green cape and holly berry thistle and a great white long material.  Vita took the white material and happily draped it around herself, Avaline scooped up the Blueberry cape and cap, Puma the Holly Berry and Austin the Acorn.  They ran all over the forest playing games and having so much fun together as they flew in their flying capes.

This is when Vita began to petter out. She ran around for just a bit and then sat down.
The were all called over a bit after all this fun, to come and paint with their new paint brushes. They all had their own paper, the rock paint was set out with water, and they began. The colors were beautiful and they painted and painted. I was so impressed because they never complained about these nature made paint brushes, at all. They just used them and painted and had fun.  That was fun for me.

We then had lunch.  It had been getting warm so we started in the shade but then it got cold! So, we moved to the sun. When we got there we discovered some incredible little insects around us to enjoy and explore during our lunch.  The Honey Bees were around a lot today too! It appeared that they really, really just wanted water
Austen went to wash his hands after lunch but the water was not coming out of the spigot that we used earlier.  So we went to see if the other spigot would work, IT DIDN’T either!!!  Avaline had joined us. We went to the creek to wash hands. They both laughed because the water was so cold.  But then, all of a sudden, the water spigot behind us was not only working but we couldn’t turn it off. We saw some men working so we went over to let them know. But, before we got there, the water started POURING OUT!  We then went to the Porta Pottie. When we got out the workers were over there fixing that one and all the rest!  A fine adventure that all was.

When we got back to where Vita, Puma and Linda were, oh dear! Where was Puma??? This just kept happening all day. He and the other children would just disappear!!! ( They LOVE this game!!!)
Ahhhh, he popped right out and we all had another good laugh.
I then brought out the last of the pumpkins from this past Sundays celebration. They all worked at carving it and then, finding different places where people would not find it but the animals would so they would have a Halloween treat.
We then made a map of where they placed everything so that we can come back on Thursday and see if we can find it: who might have eaten it, any tracks, scat, teeth marks….

During the map making Puma had to go poop so Linda took him. Avaline, Austen and I went to see if we could truly find where they placed the different pumpkin parts. We did.  Vita had put the top of the pumpkin up the hill. We didn’t find that but we will look again on Thursday.

And oh yes, earlier we took some of the pumpkin seeds from Sundays pumpkin carving, brought out the cook stove and cooked them up.  They were then eaten in short order!

When Puma got back we packed up and made it to the bus to go home.
A mellow Halloween school day filled with fun.