Entertainment

Yesterday we spent the day at Kildonan Park.  We’ve been there before – many times – and I wrote a post about their playground here.  This time however, we didn’t spend any time at the playground  – we were otherwise entertained.

We began our outing by going for a hike. Stopping for snack along the way – cheese quesadillas, applesauce and water — plenty of water.  The scorching temperatures and high humidity meant many breaks for water and rest in the shade.

Some people had to work outdoors in the heat.  We noticed some workers on the other side of the road were preparing to take down a tree in the park.  The children were fascinated as we watched from a distance.  First they cut some notches;

Then they brought the tractor;

To push the tree;

Down to the ground;

We continued on our hike and then stopped to rest and play a little soccer;

We continued on to our lunch time shelter and were thrilled to have more tree falling entertainment right beside our table!  First the notches again;

We were waiting for the tractor to move closer but then we noticed the rope. This time the tree was pulled down instead of being pushed;

When it landed it was VERY loud;

One of the children didn’t notice – sleeping through the whole show.  After lunch we took some time to draw pictures of the flowers;

The gardens were pretty but I prefer the ‘natural’ look the coneflowers we saw by the creek on the way back to the van;

It was a great day at the park with plenty of entertainment.

Weekly Wrap-Up

It has been a busy week and for the most part it has gone by quickly.  The early start to the day (five children arrive before 6:50 am) has limited my writing and prep time in the morning.  However, the cats are quite enjoying having so much company first thing in the morning — then the baby arrives and they do this;

We’re still working on ‘be gentle’ so at this point a hug looks more like a bodyslam.  The garden flowers probably wish they could run away too;

The older children make a daily trip around the yard to collect spiderwebs to add to ‘soup’ and building projects.  I’ll admit it makes a good glue but I don’t like the web ball collections;

The girls’ favorite ‘toy’ has been a dead bee that they found.  Each day they build homes for it;

They made sure it had a pillow for its bed;

They love that it is “so soft and fuzzy”.  Together they go on many adventures;

We’ve done some art projects indoors;

And outside we painted the wood pieces from the loose parts area;

They created some wonderful designs – I was impressed by this color blending done by a four year old;

It is just tempra paint and this wood stays outdoors so I’m not sure how long these designs will last but they are beautiful;

Temporary or permanent these paintings will add some colour to the building projects and if the paint fades or washes away we can paint them again.