A couple of weeks ago, I saw a flier at the park district about a free Arbor Day program they were hosting for kids ages 6 and under. When I called to register, the lady on the phone sounded very excited to have us call, and I got the impression that we were the first ones to sign up. Turns out, we were the
only ones to sign up, but they were still running the program anyway. Evidently, the park district received a grant to have trees tested for emerald ash borers and to have affected trees removed. One of the requirements of accepting the grant money was to host an Arbor Day event, but they only found out about it a few weeks ago. When we got there, another family was also getting out of their car, so the person in charge asked them if they would like to join us.
First, they read
The Lorax by Dr. Suess, then they had a craft where the kids made "Truffula trees," like in the book, out of pipe cleaners and pom pom balls. They turned out very cute.
They picked out three pipe cleaners (per tree), folded them in half, then twisted them to make the trunks. She had solid color pipe cleaners and some striped ones. Dorothy chose the striped ones, and they give her trees a neat, bark-like effect.
There is a white blob on the middle red pom pom where her glue is still drying. Once the trees were made, they picked a lump of play-doh, smashed it into shape, and "planted" their trees. It doesn't show up in the picture, but then they added green glitter to the play-doh.
Once the story and craft were finished, we went outside to plant a couple of trees. We planted a red oak and a white oak. The white oak is our state tree.
With her shovel, ready to start digging. Luckily, the landscaping crew had done all of the hard work for us ahead of time and the trees were already in their holes, just waiting to have the dirt put back into place. By the way, that "lake" behind her is not a lake; just flooded from all the rain we have had.
Filling in around the white oak tree. She really wanted to do it herself, but the dirt was very hard to move.
For the red oak, we switched her to a shovel with a shorter handle, but since the blade is for cutting, it was harder to scoop and push the dirt. If we do this again next year, I might bring her kid size shovel so that she can actually maneuver it.
She was leaning on the handle with all her might, but it wouldn't budge. It was hilarious when she turned around and tried to push it with her back.
Once the trees were planted, we spent some time on the playground before heading home.
Sliding! Right as we were leaving, she finally got brave enough to go down the tube slide. The rest of the time, she went down these little ones.
She loves swinging, but never stays in for very long. Whatever other kids are playing is so distracting and looks so fun.
She is finally tall enough to climb up on the turtle in the sand pit. She had a couple of slips, but was so pleased with herself when she got on top with no help.
The zoo wasn't open today (only weekends for now), but Annie the Clydesdale was laying in the sun, so we stopped by the fence on our way out to say hi.
The Arbor Day program was really cute and I wish that more kids would have been there, but Dorothy said she had fun, and it was nice to get out of the house and do something a little different.
