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| The bouncy castle was brought out of hiding. |
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| The Family Tent was set up and equipped. (Thank you Ric for the tent and Dorje and Sarah for the face-painting) |
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| Jenn Cleary |
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| Jenn introducing Karen Horan |
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| Jenny Hodgson |
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| Greg Johnson |
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| Dylan |
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| Bree Ruen did some art at the scene. |
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| Sarah the face-painter was really good! |
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| Dorje had some really fun art projects! |
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| John Bunzli |
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| The sandbox provided plenty of entertainment, and it's in a good place to see the music too! |
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| Checking out the art and jewelry made by Karen A Dombrowski-Sobel |
Sarah Workneh the face-painter: sarahworkneh@gmail.com |
| We dug a ginormous hole and filled it with pea gravel (fortunately we had a lot of that!) |
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| 2 X 12 boards served as the frame for the stage |
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| Getting the frame level and straight was a real time-consumer. Thanks Jeremy and Richard for your help! |
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| Leveling logs until late at night |
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| Ready for concrete! |
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| Rowan was most patient as his mom was 100% occupied with stage building |
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| Can I stand on the big stump NOW? |
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| Beautiful! |
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| Mixing concrete, no small task, no easy task, each bag weighs 80 pounds! |
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| And each log was carefully surrounded by the concrete and packed tight. |
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| 13 bags of concrete = 1,040 lbs. carried and mixed by hand! |
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| Is this ever going to be done? |
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| In the beginning....we tore up our sod and planted a wee little garden. |
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| And that little garden grew, and grew, and grew
until it couldn't even be contained by the likes of a picket fence.
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Live Music Schedule:
Kid's Activities:
All-ages activities:
*More Info:
The Elm Tree is a preschool in North Boulder that has been serving area families for 29 years. Over the past two years we have been installing a new kind of playground in our backyard called a nature playscape. By doing so we hope to start a revolution in the world of outdoor playgrounds; very soon we hope to bring this concept to children everywhere by transforming public parks and public school playgrounds into nature playscapes!A nature playscape incorporates as many natural materials as possible instead of man-made ones, rather than a lone metal or plastic structure planted in the midst of a huge fall zone, children get to climb up hills, logs and boulders and wander through tall grasses, and vegetable and herb gardens. The emphasis is on helping children have real, meaningful interactions with nature so that life-long connections can be formed. All the research in recent years seems to suggest that children are more calm, engaged, cooperative and active in a nature playscape compared to traditional playgrounds. Features we have already installed from previous fundraisers include a chicken coop, willow hut, hill slide, veggie garden and greenhouse, outdoor art area, mosaic murals, boulder and logs for climbing, a dirt digging area and more!The fundraiser is held in our playscape so not only will guests get to learn about the concept, they will be able to see one, and witness children playing joyfully in one! We structure this event like a mini-festival complete with face-painting, kid’s art and dance classes, a bouncy castle,artwalk featuring local artists, beer, wine and food, silent auction, raffle prizes and of course, live music all afternoon! With the funds raised we hope to finish the outdoor music stage (which will also be available for community events) as well as an outdoor "musical soundscape garden" consisting of instruments made out of recycled materials. Come join us in this amazing project!
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| First, there were no chickens |
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| Almost there... |
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| And done! |
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| The "girls" are all very calm and sweet |
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| Inside the coop |
We planted greenhouse overflow plants, mainly tomatoes and pumpkins in the space for the summer and we put in perennial herbs like oregano, sage and thyme as well. In the fall we hope to raise enough money at a fundraiser to purchase the trees and bushes for the garden. The trees we'd like to include are peach, plum, cherry, apple, apricot and pear and we need about 5 blueberry bushes (of various sizes and varieties), 2 thornless blackberries and 2 raspberry bushes to complete the garden.. OH, and a really cool stone bench for sitting in the center of the fruit trees and maybe a great stone statue or fountain or some garden art to include would be super cool too! |
| Lawn removal: in progress |
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| Looking good! Can't wait to see it with trees! |
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| Parent helpers are the best. (: |
