If you get ever get tired of playing balloon games with your six year old, or if the crazy thing pops, you might try what Molly and I did yesterday.  A sunny October weekday is great at Potter Park, because they don’t charge for parking and there aren’t too many people around who will complain about throwing acorns.

The Park has an abundance of oak trees, which means a plethora of acorns all over the ground.  There are acorns in the small boulevards in the parking lot.  You park at the upper side of the lot and lob the acorns down the pavement.  With a little encouragement, those things bounce and roll forever.  Throw one at a time or throw a whole handful.  Leaping, jumping, bounding acorns flowing down the hill.

Then you find one of the small pavilions with a sheet roof. Dang. What a rush when you chuck a handful of acorns high in the air so that they land noisily on the metal and roll off at unpredictable angles.  Clanging, bouncing, falling acorns raining down around you.

Then you start targeting one of the open waste receptacles.  Hitting the side is sort of fun, but flicking it in is even better.  See how far away you can be and score a goal.  Flying, arcing, airborne acorns landing in the trash.

And look for the nature lesson along the way.  You find a couple of acorns that have sprouted and explain how these are seeds that can take root and grow into giant oak trees.  And remind the girl about all those helicopter maple squirts we swept off the back deck and how those can take root and grow into maple trees.  And then when you get home, point out the tiny pears on the front yard tree that the squirrels eat in the winter when snow is all over the ground – those are seeds, too.  Sprouting, rooting, quiet acorns growing into oaks.