The Pottery House

Today Gillian's class had a field trip to the Pottery House and I got to chaperone! Gillian and I arrived at school at snack time. Gillian sat on the carpet with her friends while I talked to the other mommies. We were each assigned a group of a couple of kids along with our child. I had Sofia, Serafina and Gillian. It was Sofia's birthday today too! She asked "Can we sit in the back of the bus?" I can't say no to the birthday girl, so we sat in the way back. 

We arrived at the Pottery House and all the kids got to pick something to paint. They had lots of choices hippos, lions, aliens, bears, lady bugs and more. From my group, Serafina went up first and picked a ladybug, the last ladybug. Sofia also wanted a ladybug. So I asked one of the employees to find another one. Thankfully they found one. And thankfully Gillian didn't want one too. She opted for a bear. Everyone set to work on their painting. 

The kids were great. They all focused on their own project and they were well behaved. And Gillian painted a beautiful bear!

Pick up

I don't always get to pick up Gillian from school, so I really look forward to my Tuesday pick up. Tonight, the kids were outside playing when I arrived. I watched Gillian run across the playground with Dorlisa and Nicholas. She didn't see me. They ran over to the climbing wall and Nicholas said "Gill, your mom's here!" She turned around, saw me, and then ran to the other side of the playground, staring at me the whole time. She noticed I was holding her pumpkin and she ran to me. "That's my pumpkin!" she told me. I said "Yes, you picked a nice one. And I see you made me a hat too." She laughed and said "No! It's mine!" Gillian and her class went on a field trip today to Huber Woods and they got to pick pumpkins, go on a hayride and make a fall crown. Gillian had a great day and I had an amazing pick up. 

The field trip

Gillian had her first field trip today.  Her class got to visit Huber Woods.  Since the trip was to a park, they allowed a lot of chaperones.  I was able to sign up (along with 12 other moms and dads).  Gillian and I got to her school this morning and we waited for all of her friends to arrive.  While we waited, her teachers put a red shirt on all the kids.  The front of the shirt had the school name and the back of the shirt said field trip.  Not only did all the kids have on a field trip shirt, but they also had wristbands that had the school name and phone number too.  Just in case the kids got separated from the group.  Finally everyone arrived and we were able to get on the bus.

Gillian was so excited.  She had never been on a school bus before.  She sat next to me and was sad that she couldn't see out the window.  But she still had a good time singing "The wheels on the bus" with her friends.  After a short but bumpy ride, we arrived at the park.  The class got split in half and Gillian and I were put into Miss Debbie's group.  Our first stop was pumpkin picking.  The park had a small fenced area where there were pumpkins laying on the ground for the kids to choose one.  Once again, we were split into two groups so that the kids wouldn't trample each other.  But I am sure you can imagine, wrangling 12 three year olds is pretty close to impossible.  Luckily it didn't take them long to choose their pumpkins and before we knew it, it was Gillian's turn to pick one.  Gillian picked up the first one she saw.  I had to reject it, because it had a little rotten spot on the back.  She wasn't happy with my decision, but picked a different one and I had her pose with her new pumpkin.

 

Our next stop was inside the lodge.  We learned about mammals and the park ranger asked the kids if they knew of any animals.  A couple of kids named a few.  Gillian shouted "Pigs!"  The park ranger then started to tell the kids about flying squirrels and how they really don't fly, that they just glide from tree to tree.  The ranger said "Wouldn't it be cool to be a flying squirrel?  You get to jump from tree to tree looking for food!"  Gillian shouted "NO!"  Got to love her honesty.  The kids then made a flying squirrel glider and we got to go back outside and try them out. 

The next stop was to a classroom.  We got to meet a few of the animals that are at the park.  We learned about snakes and got to see three of them.  All the kids kept asking if they could touch the snakes, but not Gillian.  "I not going to touch them!"  After the snakes, the ranger took out two box turtles.  One was named Scooter and the other was Rosie.  Gillian heard the names and said loudly "Just like you Mommy!"  Scooter was a fast turtle and ran across the room.  Again, Gillian said "I no touch them!"  The ranger was telling us more about the turtles and she took out a paper towel to hold under Scooter.  She told the group "He needs a diaper.  I like to call him Sir Poops-a-lot!"  The kids thought this was hilarious (this was also one thing that Gillian told John about her trip). 

Our last stop was a hay ride.  The kids loved the hayride.  They all said "It's so bumpy!"  By the time we were done with our tour of the park, a lot of the kids had droopy eyes and looked like they were going to fall asleep.  It was a great morning.  I am so glad I got to spend it with my little lady.

    

Nature Walk

Daddy asked me this morning why I was packing John's lunch in a brown bag. I told him that John was going on a field trip. He said to John, "Just another boring day at school today?" John said "Maybe for Gill! I'm going on a field trip. We are going on a nature walk and we are going to have a picnic." 

When I dropped the kids off at school today, I asked John if he wanted to wear his hat on his nature walk. He reached in the car and grabbed his new camo hat that Aunt Katie gave him. He put it in his head and said "Hope I don't lose it in the nature!"

At dinner tonight I asked John about his day. He said "I got to see three turtles and this is the part that Daddy doesn't like so much, cause he's afraid." Gillian screamed "It's a snake!"  We all laughed and I asked John if they saw anything else. He said "Well I didn't see a lot of natureous stuff. Like caves or bears." He is hilarious. I don't know where he comes up with this stuff. 

The Field Trip

On our way to school this morning, John says "I remember something important. Today we are going on a trip!" I agreed with him and said do you remember where you are going? He replied "To the puppet theater! Are you coming today?" I told him that I would love to go on the trip but they didn't need any chaperones today. I would have rather gone on a trip to the puppet theater than sit in the office all day. John thought for a minute then h said "Oh! Do you know why? Because Kindergarteners are like grown-ups!"

At dinner tonight he told me about the trip. First he said "I got to sit by the window on the way there and the way back." Yes, it's very important where you sit on the bus. Way more important than the show you got to see. Then he said "We saw two shows. First was the night before Christmas. And then we saw the snow queen!" We asked him if he like it. He said "Yes!" And that's all the information we got from him. Hope you weren't expecting a full review of the show!