May Day part 2...Celebrating Arbor Day at Dawes Arboretum

Ken and I took a break to go have a bite to eat...it seems we have both been running a pretty fast track pace of living this past week. We sat down for an evening meal and quietly went over the weeks plans and came home to get our pajamas on and an early bedtime. I am getting ready to watch a couple of my favorites. I am quickly going to review my activities from yesterday's celebration of Arbor Day at Dawes Arboretum. I will share as many of the photos of my tiny clients as we made crayon leaf rubbings of 16 species of trees found in the arboretum and then sent them out to have a scavenger hunt to match, identify and return to my community tent to report the proper name of their sampling leaf. I think I had over 400 children during the 8 hours and the horticulturists seemed real pleased to finally meet the one person sending the children out to locate the individual tree species. There were so many activities that it was possible to fill the day with fun and educational workshops with Naturalists, tree climbers, planting seedlings and flower pots for Mother's day, painting watercolor flowers and leaves, bee pollination booths, the Land of Legend Wood Carvers Club and selections of printed posters and materials from Ohio Department of Natural Resources. At the end of my day one of my four year students ran to me and said "Art Lady this was the best day of my Life! until I turn 8 and can climb the trees in the special harnesses." I had a warm glow all the way back to the car to unload my remaining Art supplies and made my notes to alter my plans for next year. My dear friend Priscilla came and displayed her photographs she has taken over the years at Dawes and shared her contact information for future Senior portraits and family sittings using Dawes as the natural backdrop in the images. I hope you enjoy the photographs and I thank everyone who made a trip out for a glorious celebration. Family friendly fun was free for everyone and created a heart's memory of the day. "This was the best day ever!" ....out of the mouth of babes...remember to enjoy the journey. Imagine and Live in Peace, Mary Helen Fernandez Stewart