Today was
Arbor's first day hosting playgroup using his home as the base, due to
the arrival of the cooler weather. Fortunately we were able to make it all
the way to December before we had to do this! Everyone was quite cheerful when
they showed up this morning.
We started out our day with some free play as everyone arrived. There was some coloring with crayons, playing at the toy kitchen, and general exploration of Arbor's toy bin. At one point they discovered that parts to a wooden train could fit on their fingers, and everyone wanted in on the train jewelry trend. Meanwhile, Laurel and Abby enjoyed hot cups of tea and put on some jazz music in the background, which occasionally got a few fist pumps here and there from the kids - you know, when they really started feeling it.
When playtime was over, at 9:40am, Laurel and Abby began singing the clean up song, and everyone (well, almost everyone) observed and listened to their adult charges and began pitching in to clean up! It was truly an unexpected turn of events. They really enjoyed participating and we were quite impressed with their clean up stamina. Next up: hand washing (major traffic jam in the bathroom) and then a sit down at the little table to be served snack.
Kiddos had breakfast cake for snack, with a side of grapes. Breakfast cake was freshly baked by Arbor and his assistant/mother, although he would have added far more raisins if he could. The cake was made from mashed banana, eggs, coconut oil, coconut flour, baking soda, salt, and a lot of raisins. Nomi was fasting, but everyone else devoured.
After snack, there were a few uneventful diaper changes, and then we confronted the challenging act of putting socks, shoes, and coats on the kids, in addition to getting down the stairs, out the door, and down more stairs! We did it. It did include some singing of Row Row Row Your Boat and Twinkle Twinkle. By two strollers and two carriers, we made our way over to the local cemetery and narrowly averted Abe from falling asleep.
The sky was blue with partial clouds, the air brisk, and the wind a bit chilly. But as soon as we arrived amongst the gravestones, we were thrilled to be free and out and about. We were smitten with the large lawn mower and leaf blowers, and it became apparent that the operators of this equipment were equally smitten with the kids, due to their frequent stops and waves and smiles.
We spent about an hour, maybe a bit less, frolicking around the gravestones, climbing in and around them and finding small spaces to squeeze into and often get stuck in. We touched many different textures of stones. Some of us made occasional breaks for it, but always got caught by the grown ups. There were a few positive and cheery yelling and screaming sessions. Sometimes, yelling with your friends for no reason, in a place where hardly anyone can hear you, feels just great.
Before we felt the chill to our bones, we headed home and then straight to the back yard for few minutes, just to work off a bit more energy. We were a little cold, so it was short lived, but nonetheless useful.Once we made the massive journey up the stairs to shed our layers, we had a brief playtime while our food was being heated up. We sat down together at the little table to have basmati rice, shredded chicken, roasted carrot sticks, and hummus. We loved it! For dessert we had pomegranate seeds and more grapes.After lunch we had a bit more playtime and then suddenly it was time to go and the mamas were here!! We had such a lovely day and can’t wait for the next playgroup date.
We started out our day with some free play as everyone arrived. There was some coloring with crayons, playing at the toy kitchen, and general exploration of Arbor's toy bin. At one point they discovered that parts to a wooden train could fit on their fingers, and everyone wanted in on the train jewelry trend. Meanwhile, Laurel and Abby enjoyed hot cups of tea and put on some jazz music in the background, which occasionally got a few fist pumps here and there from the kids - you know, when they really started feeling it.
When playtime was over, at 9:40am, Laurel and Abby began singing the clean up song, and everyone (well, almost everyone) observed and listened to their adult charges and began pitching in to clean up! It was truly an unexpected turn of events. They really enjoyed participating and we were quite impressed with their clean up stamina. Next up: hand washing (major traffic jam in the bathroom) and then a sit down at the little table to be served snack.
Kiddos had breakfast cake for snack, with a side of grapes. Breakfast cake was freshly baked by Arbor and his assistant/mother, although he would have added far more raisins if he could. The cake was made from mashed banana, eggs, coconut oil, coconut flour, baking soda, salt, and a lot of raisins. Nomi was fasting, but everyone else devoured.
After snack, there were a few uneventful diaper changes, and then we confronted the challenging act of putting socks, shoes, and coats on the kids, in addition to getting down the stairs, out the door, and down more stairs! We did it. It did include some singing of Row Row Row Your Boat and Twinkle Twinkle. By two strollers and two carriers, we made our way over to the local cemetery and narrowly averted Abe from falling asleep.
The sky was blue with partial clouds, the air brisk, and the wind a bit chilly. But as soon as we arrived amongst the gravestones, we were thrilled to be free and out and about. We were smitten with the large lawn mower and leaf blowers, and it became apparent that the operators of this equipment were equally smitten with the kids, due to their frequent stops and waves and smiles.
We spent about an hour, maybe a bit less, frolicking around the gravestones, climbing in and around them and finding small spaces to squeeze into and often get stuck in. We touched many different textures of stones. Some of us made occasional breaks for it, but always got caught by the grown ups. There were a few positive and cheery yelling and screaming sessions. Sometimes, yelling with your friends for no reason, in a place where hardly anyone can hear you, feels just great.
Before we felt the chill to our bones, we headed home and then straight to the back yard for few minutes, just to work off a bit more energy. We were a little cold, so it was short lived, but nonetheless useful.Once we made the massive journey up the stairs to shed our layers, we had a brief playtime while our food was being heated up. We sat down together at the little table to have basmati rice, shredded chicken, roasted carrot sticks, and hummus. We loved it! For dessert we had pomegranate seeds and more grapes.After lunch we had a bit more playtime and then suddenly it was time to go and the mamas were here!! We had such a lovely day and can’t wait for the next playgroup date.
