Despite the gloom and doom from the  chilly rainy weather, we at Forest Preschool never shy away from being outside and getting dirty! Our day started at drop off with everyone showing off their amazing rain gear, whether it be an awesome dinosaur rain coat, frog boots or a rain suit.  Inside some of us colored vibrant pictures of trees and birds to warm up our fingers and toes before journeying outside.  Others immediately wanted to play in the rain and started to cook up a delicious stew for the group in our mud kitchen.  This stew was one that Debbie and Emily had never tried before but couldn't wait to see the final product.  It was a very unique combination of water from a puddle, fake slimy worms, rubber snakes, stones, tomatoes, carrots and cabbage (aka leaves),  spices such as salt, pepper and chili flakes (aka sand), and obviously, MUD. Once our stew was done we left it to simmer on low and started our morning meeting. Our morning meeting consisted of us sharing what we did during the week and if anything special happened. We ran through our daily schedule and talked about what the days plan was.  Once our meeting was over, all of the talking got us hungry, so we obviously had snack.  Once our bellies were full and we got warm, we got ready for our adventure for the day. Some of us got thirsty right off the bat on our adventure, but that's not a problem when it's raining outside! Nature provided us with mobile lightweight hand free water bottles. There's nothing else like catching rain drops in your mouth! After we quenched our thirst we began our travels through the garden and woods as Victoria read the Giving Tree.  We would hike for a decent amount of time, but then when we would come upon a very nice tree, or some shelter from the rain, Victoria would read a few more pages from the book. We concluded our story at, none other than, Forest camp.  We sat around our newly created fire circle and talked about how the book made us feel. It was now definitely time to warm up, and with our new Kelly Kettle we needed to collect small chickadee perch and mouse tail size twigs for our fire to have tea. [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"9681","attributes":{"class":"media-image alignnone size-full wp-image-1084","typeof":"foaf:Image","style":"","width":"2304","height":"1728","alt":"img_3726"}}]] On our adventures at Forest Camp we stumbled upon another water loving friend in the leaves trying to camouflage itself in the leaves. We were very nice to our new friend looking and touching gently to then let him travel on his way. After exploring Forest camp we went back to the barn to have lunch and warm up. [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"9686","attributes":{"class":"media-image alignnone size-full wp-image-1085","typeof":"foaf:Image","style":"","width":"2304","height":"1728","alt":"img_3727"}}]] After lunch we then drew pictures to hang up at Forest camp and to thank the forest for giving us this amazing space to use.  Through the weeks we will decorating forest camp and making the space out own. [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"9691","attributes":{"class":"media-image alignnone size-full wp-image-1086","typeof":"foaf:Image","style":"","width":"2304","height":"1728","alt":"img_3733"}}]] Finally we ended the day outside of course.  We played in the mud kitchen more because, there is no better time to play in mud than right after it rains. Some us even took on a project of filling a white bucket with all of the water from a puddle near the barn, and TOOK OUT ALL OF THE WATER! Today, even though it looked dreary and sad, was full of fun adventures and laughs.  Nothing can stop us from spending time outside and exploring! We can't wait for even colder weather in the weeks to come!