​Spring is showing up for real and the kids are loving it. We have ventured into the "poison jungle" (so named last year and it stuck) where we discovered luminous native plants like sorrel, which we love, and a clearing under the bridge to explore. We have examined some patches of earth to see how many creatures we could find in one area, lounged in and under trees. We harvested dandelions to make dandelion fritters. Yum! One day this week Peppi's woods hosted an extremely well run restaurant featuring "lilac smoothies", "daisy doodles" and more, complete with a check out station, a dishwashing area and a lovely display area. Other games included hide and seek in the woods, exploring magnifying glasses - and we can't leave out baseball! It's been a blast.

February has had us watching for signs of early spring - playing and wandering,  gathering around a fire, warming up with hot cocoa, doing sit spots, watching birds, constructing shelters, making fairy houses, and lots of soccer! 

Our kids continue to delight, amuse and connect with nature, thriving outdoors in all kinds of weather! Recent major events have included a circus performance, a wedding to a tree, knife certification and whittling, and finally, playing in leaves.  

​Adventure Club is just into one week of 2023.  On Tuesday we welcomed a new teacher, Liz, who has hit the ground running.  She is a mom to 1st grader, Redding, who has also joined our group, and 6th grader, Waylon.  It’s been fun getting to know her.  Kids have enjoyed lots of building this past week – fairy houses, nature art and even a couch! I was able to interest one kiddo in candle making, which we thoroughly enjoyed, but the rest of the kids were really into their building and nature art projects.  Group games have included favorites, Foxtails and Run, Rabbit, Run. The kids also finished an Amazing Race challenge that involved a scavenger hunt using maps, and a series of small challenges in groups. They always do great with teamwork. It is just a joy to play with them.  Monday we were deluged with rain just as school got out. Once again, the kids were troopers.  We quickly set up shelters with tarps on the playground and retreated under them for snack. The rain let up later and we walked to a lovely bit of woods in Frink Park where we made more shelters, dug up some english ivy and planted a baby Madrone tree that we found out of the ground with roots intact.  Pretty great start to a new year! 

Kids got excited about sanding graffiti off the brickwork at Peppi's Playground and in Peppi's Woods.  Go kids!

​-Camper

Each student received a necklace representing their growth over the course of the year:
dark blue, stamina and agility; light purple, self-care; red, knife skills; mushroom, nature connection; green, forest stewardship, yellow, kindness; dark purple, imagination; orange, fire; pink, risk assessment; black, crafting and creation; white, singing.
We did some cool stuff! Grateful for my families and kiddos and all of the above.