Sort of interesting when you greet a flannel shirt like an old friend.

"You promised us we could play with this stuff" ~ 5(?) year old Ashley, reminding me that during my presentation, I had assured them they could come up afterward and play with my jar of dirt.

No joke.

And thus, my life as an interpreter:

Woke up.

Ate food. Pancakes.

Showered.

Ate more food. Soup.

Spent the morning talking to friends and reading by the fire.

Donned on the green pants.

Went to Penrose for a surprise birthday cake for Rangers Kristie and Dan. Hung around at penrose talking about rocks.

Voice mailbox was full and so I went through old messages and laughed out loud and refused to delete them.

Kopachuck.

I thoroughly enjoy my time at Kopachuck- every time I go, there is something memorable I leave with. Today was absolutely fantastic. I had a great crowd tonight. The group was a good size, and more than that- boy, were they talkative! One girl in particular was so eager to talk and share and I just am so torn when that happens. You know she wants to tell you all of the cool things she knows and I want to hear them! but at the same time...they have very little to do with anything I am talking about. So I smiled at her and made a silent promise to her to somehow incorporate this girl and all of the things she was saying into this program.

Sunflowers.

For some reason, she got stuck on sunflower seeds, and so while I was trying to get them to answer "nitrogen" (what makes up 78/9% of the atmosphere but can't be used by plants when in 'air form'?) she was saying "sunflower seeds!"

"good guess, but not quite"

So we talk about the nitrogen cycle...("sunflowers").
The alder trees partner with bacteria so they can get nitrogen ("sunflower seeds")
the trees drop their waste, the leaves decompose,("sunflowers") become soil...

"and what is going to use that soil?"

"Sunflowers!"

Yes! Plants! Yes!

Holy cow it worked. And there were others...when she talked about sand, I talked about glass. When she talked about clams, I wove it in and talked about the waste left behind. I'm not saying it made any sense, but I think it did...I hope. It was fun at least.

And then we sang and clapped and laughed.

And then Ashley reminded me, "You promised us we could play with this stuff." So we looked at the jar of leaves and we looked at the jar of dirt. Little Gavin picked up the jar of leaves with one hand and asserted that it was so light he could just pick it up like that. So I asserted that I could too...and then giggles as for several minutes they showed me how easily they could lift the jar while whenever I tried to pick it up, it shot my hand down to the ground and I needed them to help me carry it. Awesome. AND THEY WERE PLAYING WITH A JAR OF DIRT.

Somehow in all of this I ended up doing pushups, and then jumping jacks, and then somehow we started playing tag. Ah ha! Time for them to learn a new game...and so I ended the day with Bat and Moth.

Enter the little boy from the campsite next door who didn't know anyone, but sort of watched us play. "Come on over!" He shakes his head and politely says no. And then a minute later he comes back to watch again.

"Come on over!"

Got him! "yeah." He grins. "it looks like a lot of fun."

And he was awesome and enthusiastic and opened right up.

And then it was time to say goodnight and little Ashley came up and gave me a big hug and shy little Sylus stood behind her in line. And we laughed and took pictures and said goodbye.

And that was my time at Kopachuck so now you know.