Yesterday Papa Pan got lost in the woods with Nature Girl and Wild Thing.

He took them to find a swimming hole we were told about. I needed to have relative peace and quiet at home for a tutoring session. They were to be gone two hours. Well the two hours ended my tutor packed up and we said our goodbyes. Sprout was up from his nap and they still didn't show. After 4 hours I was miffed. The plan was they'd collect the rest of us for a swim at Lumsden and a picnic dinner there. I thought they were having so much fun they'd just blown the rest of us off.

Then the phone rang. Papa Pan was at the lumber mill waiting for a cab to pick him up and take them back to the car. They got lost and zigged when they should have zagged and went right past the car. When they got home they were full of the story...and blackberries. Wild Thing ate so many he threw up some. But he was still in great spirits.

According to Nature Girl "We survived on blackberries, corn from a field, and green apples!"

We used Google Earth this morning to see their path. It looks really impressive if you avoid looking at the scale. But it was a 6 km hike through unknown territory. I think that counts as a great adventure.

After they all washed up and cooled off and drank a ton of water we went to Lumsden Dam to swim in the twilight. Darkmirror was unwilling to join us as our "adventures" like this tend to come in clusters and he wasn't willing to get lost in the dark with us.

Editted to add:

"Oh and the best thing was that Papa Pan got peed on by a giant toad before we got lost She was brown. We also found trees that had been chewed down by beavers." - Nature Girl

Baxter's Harbour at Sunset

Sprout sharing a joke (I think it was about the many arms on Papa Pan's roasting stick)

Darkmirror directing Nature Girl in building Easter Island head at the high tide mark (he didn't want to get wet) They called it "Watcher of the Tides".

Wild Think fencing with hotdog laden stick.

Sprout relaxing in the glow.

Beach + Bonfire + Hotdogs and Marshmallows + Sunset = Perfect Sunday Night

Racing off to find good roasting sticks (we inheritted a fire and a lovely bouquet of fireweed). The dog is a typical beach dog - definitely has a home, but hangs at the beach on his own - a freerange pet.
Yummmmmmm! We don't do hotdogs unless we're at the beach or we can get REAL hotdogs from someplace where we know where the beef comes from. There is something about a beach roasted hotdog that makews it the best tasting food in the world. 6 people and 1 dog ate 16 hotdogs last night!!!

High tide. Sprout, Nature Girl and Wild Thing all went wading in the FREEZING water. The rest of us were not so brave or hearty.

I hope your weekend was lovely too!

I didn't get picks of Sprout's AMAZING face full of HIVES

These two enjoyed the face painting, the parachute games, the wading pools (empty), the Kindermusik class and generally running wild on a real live farm.

Sprout ate an apple full of worms and broke out in the worst hives I've ever seen.

Later on icecream smoothed out everything ...a bit.

Oh! And Wild Thing and I might be in the paper, the reporter/photographer really liked us dancing.

I did manage a few pictures of the kids though

Sunset birthday potluck on the beach

We hardly saw the big kids - they were out running wild until hunger lured them in for roasted corn on the fire.

Things are back to normal - loud, messy, full of imaginative fun.