Thursday, September 24th

Today was a beautiful day for playgroup!! Milo was off of school today, so he joined us. We met at Lincoln Road playground, and shortly after everyone arrived, our friendly playground maintenance friend began sand/leaf blowing. This happened to us last week, and although it was exciting at first, it gets old quickly, as it means we, along with our stuff, have to keep moving to different spots on the playground to stay out of his way. So this time, instead of staying for the constant migration, we packed up and headed to the Nethermeads. 

Abe and Arbor rode in the bike trailer while I walked the bike (with a few scuffles between them about handholding or not), Nomi went in her stroller which was pushed by Milo most of the time, and Juni got in the Ergo with Laurel. When we arrived at the Nethermeads, it was still early enough that there were a bunch of dogs off leash in the filed. We got visited by a few dogs, which was very exciting.

Soon after, we had snack: apple slices with almond butter and roasted tamari seaweed. I brought a book to read after snack, about the life cycle of apples, but nobody was having it. I put it away and pulled it out again later and I still couldn't get anyone interested, so I let it go! We spent much of the morning in the Nethermeads area wandering around, playing with sticks, making leaf piles, exploring a few logs, and then later playing with scarves. The scarves were a hit and reserved to stave off a collective meltdown, which they mostly prevented. We seemed to have a slightly tired/cranky crew that needed lots of encouragement and new activities to keep from going over the edge :)

At around 11:30am, we headed back towards the loop and camped out near the covered pavilion for lunch a lunch comprised of food that was varying in popularity. Most unpopular: tuna salad (made with kefir instead of mayo) with cucumbers -  only eaten by people age four and up. Most popular: corn-on-the-cob. Take it or leave it, depending on who you were: black sesame tamari rice crackers, Concord grapes and green grapes.

After lunch we played under and ran around the pavilion for a bit before heading back to the playground where Abe and Arbor gravitated to the new sand, and Nomi and Juni wandered around the play structure.