We added one to our number today, so I had thirteen kids to lead around the park. For once, we actually spent the majority of the time doing crafts and painting. We made paper mache, leaf hangers (leaves dangling from a twig with a string tied to it for convenient hanging on a wall or ceiling), and paintings (using "natural" paint brushes - mostly reeds and feathers). Nobody could tie slipknots except me (or at least claimed they couldn't) so the leaf hangers ended up being assembled by me while the kids were in various stages of doing the other activities. Chaos! There is still a great amount of paper mache slopped all over one of the picnic tables, making it look like it is a meeting place for birds with diarrhea.
On our hike, we saw a turtle in the lake. It seemed to know we were watching, so ducked beneath the water before we could get a good look at it, rising for air amidst the flotsam that collects by the dam, which made it harder to see.
At the end of camp, a parent informed me that there's a picture of me in the Los Gatos Weekly, our local free paper. I'll actually have to pick it out of the driveway this week. I remember when the photographer visited the park a couple of weeks ago, but hadn't really been thinking about it.

cds I listened to while making sure I saved some papers to make paper mache with: Test Dept "Pax Britannica", Roy Harper "Folkjokeopus", and Faun Fables presents: The Transit Rider, 9/6/02