Thursday October 15 at the Natural Playground

After a harrowing drive across Caton Ave, our hosts (Hannah and Juni) met everyone at the carousel. The kids were a little glassy-eyed, maybe from the nippy morning, but they sure looked cute in their outerwear!  We hung around the carousel area for about an hour-- it was practically empty, which was nice.  They chased some birds, did some wandering off, and then we had snack in the sun before heading to the Natural Playground to get dirty.

Good Morning, Abe!!  I like your shirt and I like your soul.

Don't ask me why, but it took me FOREVER to get here this morning!

Juni and Nomi called each other in the morning to discuss color palettes for the day... 

Nomi saying cheese...couldn't quite capture her big smile.

I'm from Brooklyn, my friends were all born at home.  

Selfie attempts with some sweet chickens

We were all a bit cold, so we spread out the snack feast in the sun.  We had apples, (fresh picked, so good!) almond butter out of the jar, hippie-style apple crisp, cheddar cheese, raisins, and some other goodies.  Arbor was all about the almond butter, Abe liked the raisins, Nomi ate some cheese, and Juni had milk on tap!

Arbor, having his way with the buffet

Made some hippie apple crisp/mush.  It was pretty good!

After snack we walked up to the Natural Playground and did some exploring.  There was a fairly large group of moms and kids for a 'free forest school' meet-up.  They were singing and clapping, which had our group quite curious, to say the least.  Arbor played in the sand, Abe wandered off, Juni went into the stump area, and Nomi inspected the other kids.  They all seemed a little tired, or at least, as Laurel suggested, just getting used to this new fall weather.  I think she's spot on.

Stumping it with Laurel.  Oh, Laurel!

Sometimes you just have to steal your kisses.  It's no secret that Nomi is an excellent kisser!

Trees are for loving!

The water pump was a big hit.  

Free Range, warming up after getting the wet clothing off!

After getting wet and cold with the water pump area, we corralled everyone over to another sunny patch and set up for lunch.  We had brown rice balls, (rice squeezed into balls to make it easier to eat!) bean salad, hard boiled eggs, pickles (i think), more apple stuff, more almond butter, and a bit of tofu.  Abe said, "I need a fork!!", Juni stepped in the apple pie, Nomi enjoyed herself, and Arbor ate with zeal before taking off into the woods.

At our house, we take our pants off for meals.  

getting a little space

a meditation

this little wooded area where everyone wanted to push branches around through the crinkly leaves

After lunch and some lilting around in the woods as the kiddos hit new thresholds of exhaustion, Laurel and I did some considerable wrangling and managed to get everyone strapped in for the walk back to the carousel.  No one fell asleep on the walk back.  Everyone loved the music; there was a bit of dancing and surprisingly no protests about not actually riding the carousel that day.

What a special bond they have already!  

self expression

It was a good day!  What a great group of love bugs.

Oct 8th sleepy morning but ends with kisses and hugs

The hosts snoozed and arrived late to Vanderbilt playground, but it was a beautiful sunny fall day.  Arbor showed up with a handknitted sweater from his grandmother with each button a different Safari animal, and all the kids had a look and smiled.  Nomi and Juni started with squeals on the swings while Arbor and Abe quietly enjoyed the ride.  The early snacking began and Arbor jumped in one of the strollers to have so quiet time, so we all decided to take a walk to Nethermead field.   Upon arrival, the snacking quickly continued and everyone finished the snacks so we decided to go ahead and eat lunch at 11am.  We all ate tomatillo chicken and rice.  Abe enjoyed feeding Nomi.  Arbor stayed seated in the stroller and Juni and Nomi danced a bit.
Everyone seemed tired so we decided to walk back to the playground and Arbor and Juni both fell asleep.  When we returned to the playgroud, I transferred Juni to the stroller (felt very accomplished by this) and Nomi and Abe enjoyed the rest of the playtime, especially the kisses good-bye

October 13 at Caton/Gazebo & another Vanderbilt day

Beautiful October Playgroup Day!! October 6.

It was the most perfect playgroup day ever!! The weather was gorgeous and the kids were so happy. Pics below.

We got into the gardens when the gate at Empire & Flatbush opened at 9am.

The kids led the way and were so excited to have a long road to follow...

We found a little pavilion overlooking the school kids' gardens.

I think I only had to add one kid to stage the photo!

We headed over to the newly renovated Children's Discovery Garden.

This table with the scale and the shoots was super fun to try out with acorns and pine cones.

Wandering Juni!

Kind of hard to see, but this is an outdoor xylophone. It might be made of bamboo?

Running up and down and all around the ramps was a popular activity for this spritely group.

A little snippet of the day's action.

At 9:30am, there was a free toddler program in the Discovery Garden. The theme today was worms.

This lovely lady guided Abe as he made his worm art. The kids used glue stick on paper. They sprinkled (or in Arbor's case, dumped) dirt and grass on the paper. The adults helped to hole punch spots for the red pipe cleaner worms to crawl through. Abe really got a kick out of threading his worm through.

There was a compost bin with red wriggler worms. This lady showed Abe and Arbor  an adult and a baby worm. There were also a few kids books about worms laying about, which Abe and Arbor looked at for 10 seconds.

Not pictured here, but there was an epic trip to the bathroom which included everyone's diaper being changed, Laurel and Abby peeing, and Lara Bars for snack, followed by tamarin rice crackers.

This is a nice little hill near the northern part of the Discovery Garden.

Nomi got lots of compliments on her coat!

This little pond, I think, is meant for the kids to dig around in. They have scoopers with long handles for the kids. I didn't think we were quite old enough to go there yet - maybe next year!

Nomi swishes the duckweed at this station in the Garden.

Not staged. They all wanted to get on the log!

This is at the Cherry Esplanade.

There was some tree hugging and tree kissing.

Tree kisses!

Juni taking a moment to grace her diaper.

Laurel, Nomi, and Abe busted out some dance moves, and later everyone joined. We did some twisting, swinging, jumping, and Nomi's signature hand moves.

We made a little leaf pile.

This was our semi-chaotic picnic on the grass at Mount Prospect Park. We (sort of) ate peanut butter and jam sandwiches on fruit seed bread, sigg bluberry yogurt packs, purple/yellow/white/orange baby carrots, and apple slices. 

Migration from picnic to playground.

All in all, a 5-star playgroup day!!