Playing in the Forest

There was no school on Friday because of MEA.  Mostly we stayed around the house, getting a few things done in the yard, making messes in the house, relaxing and playing.  In the middle of the afternoon our neighbors up the hill stopped and asked if anyone wanted to go to the forest to play.  YaYa was in the middle of a book and declined, and Mr. TOF was still napping, but the middle kidlets and I were excited to go.  As soon as the seventh and eighth pans of zucchini muffins were out of the oven we hopped in their van and away we went.  (I spent the early afternoon grating a baseball bat zucchini that Grandma Kathy brought along during her visit and turned it into a vast quantity of muffins).

One of the things I love best about where I live is that there are so many forested parks right in the city, so much open public land for all sorts of activities, and best of all, for just plain old fashioned playing.  It is so much fun to take a load of kids to the forest and watch them create, imagine, and play.  They started out working on a stick fort that was already started.  Stick forts dot this particular forest all over because it is used for nature education classes from the nearby nature center, and the primitive dwellings provide endless hours of fun.

Soon they were off playing Sardines, which appeared to be some sort of version of hide and seek.  We concluded the afternoon with some wonderful tree climbing.  It was a spontaneous, wonderful diversion for the afternoon.