Spring festival 2009

Yesterday afternoon was very, very special.

Grace's pre-school always celebrates the seasons with a festival. This year the Spring Festival was up in the Botanical Gardens on Mt Tamborine, an absolutely spectacular setting which was just perfect for all the little kids. How many other pre-school carers would hold a festival for the children on a Sunday, completely in their time? Another reason why I love school we have chosen for the kids.

One of the Mums had set up a stand for face painting, so of course both kids were into that. Grace asked to have a pink butterfly, whilst Xav was adamant that he wanted a "Big, huge, scary spider pwease"

We all set up our picnic rugs in a lovely shaded area, right beside a boardwalk that weaved in and out of the rain forest - a little persons dream location. The kids ran around playing fairies and monsters, giggling and squealing, having an absolute blast. The ran around and around, hiding behind trees and slipping in and out of the green bushes, running over the bridge and making little boats out of sticks to float down the trickling stream.

Everyone had bought along healthy food to share. The table was laden with so much yummy food, it was hard to choose what to eat. After the blessing on the food (Grace and Xav love singing this and both sung very loudly whilst doing all the proper actions) it was time to eat. My little family feasted on salad, sweet potato and cashew dip, roast vegie patties wrapped in sesame seeds, yummy vegetarian curry, fresh fruit and little home-made cakes. I did have plans of making something, but forgot and did a last minute dash to the farmers markets on the mountain and found a scrummy pineapple & nut fruit cake. It was delicious, and I may or may not have ditched the tag and layed it on a plate to look all homemade like.

After the feast, Miss Amanda and Miss Christine called all the children over to a large area, ready to show the parents something special they all had been practising. Skipping!

It was so sweet to see the 2 carers at either end of the ropes, all in their flowing fairy dresses, as they skipped the rope around for the little 3-5 year olds. Grace waited patiently for her turn, she looked like a mixture of excitement and nervousness and she got ready to start skipping. I was so surprised to see her actually do it and make it successfully through two consecutive jumps! Oh, it was so sweet to watch my little spring fairy concentrate so hard on doing her absolute best at jumping the rope. All the kids had their turns, whilst the parents watched with beaming smiles. Then the kids resumed chasing each other around the rain forest whilst the parents chatted.

Soon Miss Amanda walked through the forest, making a long line of hand holding children and singing "Take me to your story land, lead me gently by the hand" Once all the children were gathered up, they went back over the bridge and into a lovely grassy nook for the spring story. The first story was about a butterfly and Miss Amanda chose Grace to be the child who tries to catch the butterfly in her net. Grace was so excited and happily flitted around trying to catch the purple woollen butterfly. She knew exactly what to do, so must of watched it at pre-school before. The kids all listened intently as Miss Amanda told another story about a little chicken who grew wheat and needed help to pick it, take it to the mill and bake with it. The kids loved watching the little knitted animals playing out the roles of the story.

After the story, Miss Christine whispered to the children to follow her to a very special place. She gathered the children at the end of a winding path, telling them that she had someone very special for them to visit. All the children sat excitedly waiting for Miss Christine to invite them to amble down the garden path. The atomoshere was peaceful, well until my little Xav was so eager to visit Miss Spring, tripped over the rock edging and scrapped his nose and knee. Grace took his place and headed down to the hut to see Miss Spring, where she presented Grace with another knitted garland, a daisy flower and some sunflower seeds. Grace was over the moon, so excited to receive her gifts. After being calmed down by Daddies strong cuddles, Xav came to visit too and was equally excited about his presents.

Duane & I took the kids for a wander around the gardens, it is such a beautiful spot, with lots of themed gardens for the kids to flit in and out of.

It was a lovely way to spend a glorious Spring Sunday afternoon.