oh boy! i've got joy...

so i spent a very eventful morning helping my neighbor kristin take her joyschool group on a "nature walk." there were six kids ages 4 or 5 and she wasn't sure she could handle them all by herself! (pictured back row left to right: siyi, ben, maren (yes! her name is maren!!), brooke and collin...front row: katrina) We walked to a nearby park...and all of the kids held onto a rope as we walked so they wouldn't run off. as we walked, we noticed things about nature: flowers on the trees, spiderwebs in the bushes, the moon in the sky, birds flying...and my favorite...since the needles were falling off some of the bushes, a little girl named brooke said, "those trees are bald like my grandpa!"

when we got to the park, we looked through our "viewers" (aka cardboard toilet paper rolls covered in consturction paper) to see different things close up: dew on the grass, a moth on a flower, blades of grass...and we used our senses to see, hear, taste (cupcakes, not nature), touch and smell (a yummy rosemary plant). as we climbed through the low trees and did lots of other activities, one little girl named Katrina said, "I NEVER need help" and then proceeded to ask for help with each activity. it was pretty funny.

leah sat quietly on her blanket as she watched the action around her and then sang with the rest of them (five little ducks and an ant song i didn't know...i have a LOT to learn!) as we walked back to our apartment complex.

we only had one bloody leg (band-aid is now in place and we luckily had diaper wipes to clean her up), one scratch, three falls, one smack (yes sweet little brook totally slugged katrina in the back) and only a few tears. all in all a very successful nature walk.

(sorry about the blurry pictures...they were from my camera phone...)