October 25
After reading a witchy story, we dove into creating our own magic potion! Then, after making and then baking, we warmed ourselves with our fire-baked pumpkin spice cake and apple cider.
These wildlings did not hold back when it came to decorating, sawing, carving, and then ultimately destroying until there was nothing left of the pumpkins!
November 1
These wild things worked so hard to get to the top of the coulees today! And what a beautiful view it was! On the descent down later in the day, we learned to navigate icy stairs. We settled in at the mines to make some leaf man masks (after reading the book, of course 😉).
November 8
We started the day with a challenge to build a shelter, and these wildlings did not disappoint!
They worked so hard, working together to build a shelter they thought was good enough for our water test 💦💦!
They did it—they remained mostly dry!
We then spent the remaining time starting fires and roasting marshmallows.
November 15
I’m not sure how it happened, but we did 10 weeks and not one week in the snow!
Our last day was crammed with tons of play, fired pizza and doughnuts, and using previously forged mint to make bath bombs and lip balm!
We’re gonna miss this crew like crazy! So grateful for all the memories made. We hope you all have an awesome rest of the winter!
Previous Weeks
We had our Forest friends return today due to popular demand to join us for a tea party in the woods. These wildlings quickly settled in after discussions on hibernation, and animals during winter with their Forest friend in hand to set up a tea party. We played camouflage, rested in hammocks. Explored the woods and just embrace is beautiful fall!
We ended the day looking at rocks with uv lights trying to spot fluoresce in them.
After taking the long way into the woods, we settled at one of our sites down by the water, where we painted on large canvases, played in the hammocks, applied glitter tattoos, and went to work with hammers creating nail art!
The day went too fast! We ended the day with a group story that ended up being about a skunk who farts glow-in-the-dark powder 🤷🏻♀️.
With our forest friends in tow, we dove into creating dens and homes to help them endure the winter ahead. Some built shelters under logs, while others took refuge in worn-out nooks.
They put up their own swing, which encouraged communication and planning together.
They created “prank” rocks, relaxed on the hammocks, and wrapped up the day playing games of fawn and coyote, as well as camouflage.
We started the day by discussing what fall means for plants and animals—it’s time to shake off leaves and create storage reserves, either in their bellies or in their nooks and crannies. After playing a couple of group games, we traveled to the pond to enjoy the warmth of a wonderfully beautiful fall day, complete with a mud kitchen and imaginative play.
But the most exciting part of our day was the coyote that graced us with its presence for quite a while across the river.
Resilience in the Rain ☔️
These wild ones are amazing at pushing through on our blustery morning! We headed off to the “mini forest,” where they explored everything and made up games to their hearts’ content. We ended the day sheltering from the heavier rains in the mine building, running, playing, reading books, and drinking wild lemonade made with our foraged yarrow and rose hips.
Oh, and we also found a freshly dead mouse in a tree… without a head! The coyotes wasted no time knocking it down, poking it, and causing the insides to squish out 😬. A few kids moved on like nothing happened, while others were a bit more concerned, so we gave the mouse’s body some peace and buried it ❤️.
Honestly, we have such sweet little ones—they didn’t say a word about how terrible our attempt was at remembering the lyrics to “Going on a Bug Hunt!” 😅 After they kindly and eagerly endured it, we set off to find all sorts of interesting things in nature. We easily settled in with both old and new faces, playing, exploring, and even making prickly pear cactus salsa (which had a pretty decent success rate among those who wanted to try it!).
We had a few things go missing today 😬. We found most of them, but if you could remind your kids to keep their things in their bags when they’re not using or wearing them, that would probably help. This age group tends to spread their stuff as far as they can! 😉
