One pinecone at a time

Only two and a half more weeks till MG's last day of preschool. I think she's starting to feel too old for it, but I'm going to miss it terribly. She's been at the same childcare since she was 10 months old. It feels almost like another family, with teachers and parents and kids we've known for years. I'm already nostalgic in advance about the free-form atmosphere and the hippie teachers and the mysterious art projects made of recycled materials, not to mention the vegetarian lunches they feed the kids so we don't have to pack a lunch.

Yesterday morning at preschool dropoff (I had the day off and got to do dropoff! Yay!), Mermaid Girl was shy and sulky and wanted me to sit with her by the fence. The other kids were running around in the sunshine, swinging on bars, playing soccer, digging in the sand, building things and knocking things down and climbing the low climbing tree, all in a peaceful anarchic muddle.

MG's friend Ginger was intently picking up these little green pickle-y tree droppings and putting them in a mesh bag she found somewhere. I didn't see why I had to snub her just because MG was, and we had the following lovely exchange:

Me: You're collecting those things?

Ginger: Yes. I'm gathering nature. I'm going to fill up this whole bag.

Me: That's a pretty big bag.

Ginger: Yes, it is! Luckily, there's a lot of nature.