september 22
This morning, we headed to the park super early because we were eager to get outside and play. We decided that we wanted to wear our “Halloween costumes” on our adventure. Our first stop was a new set of climbing trees. Autumn climbed really high and her shoe got stuck in between two branches! She managed to wiggle her foot loose from her shoe and climb down, but then Deidre had to climb up and unstick her shoe :)
For snack, we ate hardboiled chicken eggs from the farmer’s market. Cracking the eggs and peeling the shells was a new experience for some of us and took quite a bit of patience and determination. But, in the end, we did it and felt very proud of ourselves!
In the pine forest, we made tree monsters with play dough and built another sundial. Rigel added lots of pinecone markers to our sundial and told us what each one meant. “This one tells us we can play for a long time and this tells us that we can make some monster faces and then this tells us that we can do some snack and this tells us that it’ll be time to go back to school.” Autumn added another marker, which tells us it’s time to go to sleep at home.
The rest of our day in the park was spent climbing on the bridge and up the Osage orange tree, visiting our horse friends, looking for secret hideouts, and collecting signs of Fall. Autumn said, “Today is a me day.” At first we were confused, but then we realized that she’s right! Today is the first day of Autumn or the Autumnal Equinox.
Deidre introduced us to a new special tree. Her name is Sassafras and she has three different kinds of leaves. One of her leaves is shaped like a mitten and her leaves are one of the first to begin changing colors in Fall. We had so much fun gathering her vibrant red leaves from the grass and holding them up to the sun.
After rest, we excitedly baked apple cake to celebrate the new season! We couldn’t believe that eggs come in so many different colors: green, blue, speckled, light brown, dark brown. We took turns measuring the ingredients and mixing them in our big bowl. Then, we arranged the apple slices on top of the cake and talked about how pretty it looked :)
While our apple cake baked, we listened to a story that Ridley brought to school today. We also played tag in the backyard, searched for the monarch butterflies, pet Vanilla the cat, harvested lots of ripe raspberries to eat and watched the chickens make silly noises.
Finally, the oven beeped and we got to taste our cake! Rigel and Ridley gave the cake a thumbs up. Sylvie gave it a thumbs sideways because she thought it could’ve baked a bit longer :) We saved some cake for Autumn because she had to leave early for her swimming lesson.
Today, we’re grateful for the hens whose eggs we used to make apple cake!