Olivia you are a sweetheart ...

Olivia was updating me on her life on friday morning.  She'd turned three the day before so there was lots of news to share.   As we walked outside the barn, she bent to touch the front of her leg and stopped to pull her pants out of her gum boots to show me something.   All the while chatting with her head bent so I couldn't hear a thing.   She plonked on the ground, took off her gumboot, and it was then that I could see she was showing me a band aid on her lower chin bone ... and had no doubt had been telling all about why it was there.   I asked, 'What happened Olivia, I couldn't hear you before, what's there?'   She looked up and said, 'A mistake, it's a mistake there.'

Later in the morning, Ari fell into the dirt.  He got a bit shaken and needed a dust off and a hug.   As we made sure he was OK, Olivia standing nearby and taking everything in, came up close to Ari and said, 'You can have my sticker Ari.'  

Ari perked right up, ready for Olivia to give him a sticker ... and in that moment I was keen to see what she was about to pull out.   

Olivia sat down and took her gum boot off and reached down to take her 'sticker' (bandaid) off her 'mistake' to give it to Ari so he could be fixed up to feel better.

How incredibly innocent and deeply caring is that!

Feeling good ...

Love .. love .. love

 

Friday morning Ari started the day in tears ... and all that did was bring on the love from everyone else.   Ari has just had lots of time with family and wasn't wanting that to end.   As he snuggled into my lap like a little kitten, the other children stood round and bathed him in love.   Yoshi asked if he was ok. and as I shared what was happening for him, Yoshi says, 'I know, we can stand in a circle.'   and all little hands reached for other little hands and the children spontaneously created a little circle round us and then decided to come in close and hug ... all at once.   The wave of love that was created was felt by everyone in the barn at that moment.

We then began to chat about what we'd do.   The Oak tree was a great idea for everyone except Yoshi.   He wanted to go to the Witch's garden and no amount of negotiating was going to change his mind.    I kept talking to see if we could find some give ... or even reach consensus in the situation. Yoshi suddenly piped up with, 'I know, what about the Peppercorn tree?'  Frieda instantly said, 'I'll go to the Peppercorn tree.' and without even a nano-seconds wait, Yoshi smiled and said, 'Ok, let's go to the Oak tree.'

Seemed all her really wanted was someone to feel the same as him and he was happy for us all to be together.

In that moment of agreement and unity, Frieda said, 'Look what I made' ... and held up a little love heart she'd just twisted from a pipe cleaner found nearby.

Which said it all really ... our Friday was love filled.   Hearts were melting all round as folk even stopped to listen and witness our long negotiations and one woman even gave a little 'Yay' when we found consensus.

We were in deep harmony and the power of love the children share was filling the air.

We headed off to the Oak tree and the children spent ages hill climbing.   They loved it, were challenged by it, were proud when they made it to the top and were really happy to celebrate and encourage each other.

We made a bit of a cubby which too ...

Olivia's love heart in the sun was something else, all holographic and luminous ...

... and Stretchy came along and was loved by Ari ...

Being with friends ...

Frieda and Yoshi were just enjoying being together, both singing ... different songs at once, bouncing lightly on the branch and take a peek at each other from time to time.

Olivia was so proud of being able to feed the horse all on her own.   She kept calling to Frieda, 'You didn't see me.  You didn't see me.'   With Frieda replying with a puzzled look on her face, 'Yes I can.'

Olivia kept telling her, 'You didn't see me.' ... and I filled in the subtext ... 'Frieda Olivia really wants you to see her feed the horse.   She's just telling you missed her doing it.'

Simultaneously Frieda says, 'Oh..h.'  and Olivia does a half chuckle and says, 'Yes, I can by myself.'

Cossies scarecrow ..

Hey .. look at me ..

I'm a ell-a-fent!

Can I take my shoes off .. ?

A science lesson from Samson ...

Samson was climbing on a big rock under the Oak tree today when suddenly he jumped off and said, 'Danella, this is volcanic rock.' with great excitement in his voice.

'How do you know that Samson?' I asked.

'Well, when a vocano a-rupts and explodes lava everywhere, lots and lots of lava.  It makes rocks with holes in them.  The ones with holes are volcanic rocks because they are made by a volcano.  This one has got holes so it's a volcanic rock.'