Tender Tracks Tues. Day 3

September 19, 2017
New Moon
Lake Lagunitas

Our third day yet it feels like the true beginning of our year.  Devin was able to come in and say goodbye to Mom with ease.  Avaline was just FINE!!!  Vita came with a beautiful picture that she drew for her sisters upcoming 7-year-old birthday to share, Puma went to the wrong school in the morning and Mom brought him to school just in time for snack time!!  His mat was already out and waiting for him and he settled in with the GREATEST of ease.  Amos brought his sister and grandmother and traveled with them again to and from.  Austen was his delightful self though seemed a bit tired today. Still alive, loving, and full of fun however.

When we got in the bus I showed them straight away the Llama fur that we put into the Redwood cone colored water. I had soaked it for three days.  It was a soft mauve. Amos LOVED the color and all the children really enjoyed seeing the difference of the color it was before, pure white. I held them next to one another to see the contrast: white to mauve.
Then stuffed animals given and off we went.

When we got to the lakes we went out to play and Austen took a bit of a tumble fairly early on.  He made it through and the children had a grand time climbing up and down the rock slope and hill next to the creek.  I took Vita to go poop in the bathroom. When we came back Ruby let me know that the children had GONE!!!  She looked to the East, she looked to the West, she looked to the South and the North but NOOOO children. Oh dear.  Then, she heard them. It sounded like they were underground. Could they have turned into Moles???  She looked and looked and then OUT THEY POPPED!  from the culvert nearby.  Big laughs and joy of course.  When Ruby told me the tale they then all wanted to show me what they did and where they had hid. I, of course, needed to check and see if they were indeed still little boys and girls and NOT little Moles! Phew, all was well and your children were still intact.

We had a very fine circle with a new story.  If you have my CD you will know the story A House with No Doors, No Windows and a Star inside.   I went and picked many apples this weekend at a farm in Petaluma.  We ate some of these in addition to our snack and they were GOOD!  To eat it though I brought them into a little Mindfulness eating game. We slowly touched the apple slice, felt it, smelled it, listened to it and then put it in our mouths, sucking the juice out, feeling it in our mouths and then slowly eating and chewing. We really, really experienced this little bit of apple and our delicious food. What a treat!

My intention was to take them on an adventure back to where we all went on our first day. We got our packs on and up, up, up the stone stairs we climbed but…. there was just so much to see and do there that, we just stayed too long in order to make our way to that particular adventure.

The children discovered how to get down to where we had seen the turtle, crawdads, and frogs last week.  We did not see any of those on this day, however. They DID find where the water goes down when it is really flowing through. We found an old brightly colored and half in tact crawdad and other wonders.  They really enjoyed playing down there and exploring.

Then it was lunchtime. We stayed at the picnic table, set everything up but, THE YELLOW JACKETS WERE RELENTLESS.  I tried all manner of things to pursued them to find another place but, to no avail. So, we packed up and intended to make Juniper Rose a place where we could eat.  And that is what we did.

After lunch playing right where we were was what was best too.  They were delightful with wanting to play Monster chasing, turning into different animals, playing on the bouncy tree, gathering sticks for the coming fall and figuring out which sticks were wet and which were dry enough for firewood.

We then got on the bus and drew our first picture of our Story of the Day.  They were remembering things about the day the rest of the way home.  What a delightful, DAY 3!