Tuesday, November 3rd - PERFECT DAY IN THE PARK

Abby & Arbor hosted playgroup on this lovely day. The leaves were truly at peak, the sky a perfect blue, and the temperature hit 70 degrees! Milo was off school for election day, so we welcomed him as our alumni guest. The kids (especially Abe) are always happy to have Milo along for added entertainment.

Arriving at the park, all we could do was to say "oooh" and "ahhhh" at all the beautiful colors and the perfect weather.

Very dangerous bike selfie. Sadly I was not able to get Arbor in the pic, as he was down below in the trailer. He was there, too, though! I was lucky enough to get Phil to help bring Milo along on his way to work.

Shortly after we met at the carousel entrance to the park, we all headed out to the Natural Playground. Naomi in her stroller, Juni in the ergo (very much against her wishes, but she mostly obliged), and Arbor and Abe in the bike trailer. Milo was our leader.

It's pretty much the best thing ever to arrive at the Natural Playground before anyone else in the world does, especially on the most beautiful fall morning that's ever existed. We had it all to ourselves for about 20 minutes before another soul showed up. Everybody got down to business pretty quickly, fully utilizing all the sand tools I brought.

Everybody's doing somethin'.

Wandering Juni.

Nomi won the cutest hat award. But because it reached at least 60 degrees pretty quickly,  we sadly had to remove it.

A happy Abe who enjoyed claiming the tree stump after Milo.

Snack time, presided over by Milo. Lazy snack day: we had our own individual ziplock bags filled with spelt sesame sticks, raisins, and pumpkin seeds. Bananas completed the picture. Nomi fished out all her pumpkin seeds first. Abe picked out just the raisins. Everyone definitely dropped portions (or in Juni's case her whole bag) into the sand, and everyone definitely ate some sand. Some more than others. Everyone loved the bananas.

Post snack impromptu dance party, conceived and directed by Nomi, assisted by Laurel. Followed by intermitent  sand play, hide and go seek around the tree stumps, leaf inspecting, drawing with sticks in the sand, and general wandering.

Fun in the forest. Everyone dispersed, roamed and came together and then apart for a little bit after snack.

Shortly after snack, we anticipated the need for a location change, plus the sand area was starting to fill up with kids. Milo found some friends from his kindergarten class, so he was taken care of. Laurel and I seem-successfully wrangled the kids over to the log/stump area on the grass. Abe and Arbor were pleased, and they focused on destroying mushrooms they found growing on the side of the log. Naomi ran the other way, promising to look for Juni, who was already with us. It was a Nomi theme of the day - wondering where Juni was, when she was right with us!

Someone, I can't remember who, led the group over to this little patch of forest which was a delight. They ran up and down the incline here, and they also took unprompted turns running all the way around this patch of trees, making a loop.

Shortly after, Nomi and Juni led the group over to grassy area next to the loop drive in the park. Arbor drifted off to the sandbox by himself. Not pictured here, but Abe, Juni, and Nomi had a delightful time running up the hill and being cheered on to run down the hill, into Abby's arms. We had to peel them away to go take a water break back at the playground area when Arbor started to ask for us from way over yonder.

At about 11:30 or so we loaded up and heading back through the trees on the path back to the carousel area.

We set up a lovely picnic lunch on the grass next to the carousel, and it seemed like everyone was enjoying their first 3 bites until... the carousel music played. They went bonkers. And that was the (first) lunch ending. Our lunch lasted the course of 45 minutes, with much cajoling and begging and standing eating. We had Aberdeen Hill ham slices, sheep milk cheese, black bean dip with lime and cilantro and tortilla chips, endless avocado slices, and then some kiwi slices. The kiwi was a big hit. Juni ate (squeezed) bean dip by the fistful, and rubbed its all over her pants! Abe ate it by the spoonful,

Post lunch leaf tossing.

And then... the promised carousel rides happened for the the whole group, once parents arrived! Great ending to a lovely day with these fun kiddos.

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