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.

Third coop day: Vanderbilt, ducks, snacks

 Ethan, Laurel and charges started the day at the playground, they headed straight for the big-kid structure (Ethan supplied them with fake IDs)

 They spun on things, slid down slides, swung on the swings. We snacked around 10:00 on hard-boiled eggs and roasted sweet potatoes and savory corn muffins.

 At around 10:30 we headed across the loop road to the water. There were LOTS of ducks. All the kids liked the ducks, here's an especially lovely picture of Nomi with them.

 We had quite spread for lunch. Steamed grean beans and carrots and garlic-labne dip, blueberry spinach smoothie, and sugar-free oatmeal raisin "cookie." All the kids ate something. Arbor especially--that kid can eat! Ethan read "Eating the Alphabet," one of Abe's favorites, during lunch. We cleaned up and headed back to the playground.

 By noon you could tell that the kids were getting ready for a nap, but everybody held it together.

Another great day! These kids rock. Laurel really helped wrangle the kids--and Ethan.

Second Day of Playgroup

A scary douse of pesticides over Prospect Park changed the course of events for our second playgroup day.  So plans changed and we all started the day at Nomi's place and warmed up to a rocking horse, blocks and almond peach muffins.  Nomi slept in until 9am, a lazy host :)

At about 9:15am we headed out to the playground.  We stopped to pick tomatoes at a house on the way.  Everyone picked one or two.

  Ditmas Park tomato garden right on the sidewalk

 Abe picks a few

End of summer harvest

 Abe gets the full bunch

We were the only ones at the playground the entire time which was nice and easy.  Everyone played together on the swings, slides, and bells. 

Lining up at the swings

 In full swing action

Then about 10:15am we had melon/cucumber/mint popsicles.  (Juniper guided everyone over to the snack bag)  The popsicles were a big success.  Recipe: 1/2 honeydew melon, 2 kirby cucumbers, 1 hand full of mint.  Blended and frozen.  Easy!

We stayed at the playground until about 11am, more slides, climbing, hugging, laughing

 Taking shelter from the rain

We decided to come back to Nomi's place because the rain started to get heavy. 
At Nomis house we had a tea party, story time, tunnel time, and sofa jumping.  For lunch I gave them red pepper walnut dip with carrots, cucumber and tomatoes and more muffins.  Everyone ate a decent amount of some things but everyone pretty much had bites all morning.  It seemed like everyone was hungry at different times.