Charlotte's First Field Trip!

 Who takes four year olds on field trips?? Charlotte's school does and I got to go too! The pumpkin patch field trip was the only one I've never been on with this school.  I was so excited!

She was soooo excited too! First Bus Ride! Whoo hoo!

 I had just 3 girls in my group and they were all great gals.  I had to chase them down occasionally but they were all well-behaved.

One of my girls hid in this little tunnel for quite a while and I really had to coax her out of there.  It wasn't Charlotte. :)

I tried to keep them playing all together in the same spot so I could keep an eye on them.  This was one of those few times.

We tried to take a group picture with some of the kids. Charlotte took the opportunity to slide off the pumpkin which started the group sliding off the pumpkin and this was the best picture we got. :)

 This section of the pumpkin patch was just a giant group of massive pumpkins.  Nothing is more fun that climbing on giant pumpkins!

 Oh hey! Here's a better group picture!

 We went on a hay ride to pick out our pumpkins.

 Everyone got to pick one out. Even the parents!

Charlotte and I had such a super fun day.  Too bad it had to end kind of badly.  We all got on the bus at the end of the trip and we noticed one of the kids was missing.  Charlotte's teacher and one of the parents ran off the bus and scoured the pumpkin patch trying to find him.  They ran around looking for him for what seemed like an eternity. Charlotte's teacher was bawling. Finally one of the kindergarten moms from the back of the bus said, "Who are they looking for?" I told them the name.  She said, "Um, I think this is him right here."  The little boy had been put on the bus by his mom who was a chaperone.  She left but told one of the other moms from Charlotte's class that he was on the bus.  That mom forgot that she was told that and instead the teachers were running around like crazy people in the pumpkin patch.  YIKES OH YIKES. I didn't think Charlotte's teacher would ever recover.  The poor thing.  But he was safe and they learned to take different precautions and methods of keeping track of the kids so it wasn't all bad.
At least Charlotte and I had a wonderful day.  Happy First Field Trip, Charlee!

Summer Camp Field Trip to the Zoo

 Someone backed out of going on the field trip to the zoo so I was able to snatch that spot up. Special bonus: I got to take a day off work and see animals! Yay!  

 I only had 3 kids in my group.  Tommy and these two sleepers.  Made my job easy!!

 We saw many animals, starting with seals.

 Then we hit up the dolphin show.

We saw in the Splash Zone.  I've never done that before.  Some of us got EXTREMELY wet.   I got lucky and didn't get very wet at all.  Yay! 

 But much to my dismay, rain DUMPED on it shortly thereafter. Dang it!

Tommy is a big fan of felines.  He was so happy to see the tiger, as you can tell.

 Those darn tigers are so huge that even behind a window, when they walk by you, still terrifying.

 Tigers don't like rain either.  She was running all over the place when it starting pouring.  Put on a good show though.

I had two sleepers to my right and one sleeper on my lap on the bus on the way home.  I was so glad I was able to go.  It was a fun day.

Graduation Day and Last Day of School

Can you believe the school year is over already? It went so fast.  During the last week of school, Tommy's teacher told us to send in a bag of treats for the Aloha Party the day of graduation.

I whipped up a sweet little bag of treats for him which I was soooo proud of until....
I re-read the message from the teacher that morning before school and realized that she said she wanted bags of treats for everyone in the class.  OH SH&%!!! Luckily Andrew saved the day and ran to the store and got treats for everyone and still sent my homemade bag of goodness.  Ugh, major fail.    I need to go to the Derek Zoolander Center for Children Who Can't Read Good.  

Tommy was super excited about his goody bag.  I don't know if the other kids were jealous because obviously they were not the same but oh well.  What can ya do? :) They certainly got a lot of cool stuff at least! 

So that night was graduation.  He was so proud and so cute.  I loved every minute.

The kindergarten and preschool classes performed songs for us.  K-5 did the pledge and the Star Spangled Banner.

He definitely wasn't nervous! :)

Then it was time for everyone to graduate.  I snapped a pic of Tommy's bestie while he got his diploma.

Tommy was the very last person to graduate. Awww.  He started at this school in October of 2011.  When he heads off to first grade, he will be have been there for 6 years! It was his home away from home.  He'll be there this summer but in August, he will leave it for good.  Let me tell you, he is EXCITED.  :)  He has a bit of the kindergarten-itis. Ha!

Look at how proud that kiddo is! Puffed out chest, what a stud.

I had to take a picture of him with his sis.  Look at that pose.  Where did she even learn that? She was in a cheeky mood that night.

Family pic! I love these people so much.

Tommy and Bode pic, of course!

Tommy and teacher pic.  We'll miss you, Miss Debbie!

We got pictures with the grandparents. Like I said, Charlotte was in a mood.

I have to post this one with only Tommy because Charlotte was being such a stinker.

I have to say it certainly makes for some great outtakes.  I can't stop laughing. 

The last day of school for Charlotte is a field day.  Each class wears a matching shirt and they go outside and do lots of activities.  I haven't attended Charlotte's field day with just her yet so I thought I would go this year.  I couldn't leave work when I wanted so I ended up eating lunch with her instead.  The pictures above are from the wonderful teachers who remember to take them for me! YAY! 

 We had a fun time at lunch.  Silly Hudson was eating his ice packs because of course. :)

 Then I took Charlotte with me and went to Tommy's field trip to the park.  Tommy is a wonderfully protective big brother.  Too cute.

 Maybe not always at home but around other kids, he is always watching out for her. :) So sweet.

 Bode is too!

 What a trio!

 At one point during the day, the teachers decided to take the kids on a trail walk.  OMG, I was terrified.  There were ravines and waterfalls and everything that I could just imagine some kid getting lost and falling or something but it went off without a hitch! Charlotte was exhausted though!  I had to carry her for part of it.

 When we came back, we had popsicles! Yum!

 Tommy, Bode, Miss Debbie and one of the preschoolers! Aww!

Good times! School is over and Summer Camp begins!  First grade and Pre-K 4's, here we come!

Field Trip to the Planetarium Take Two

 Tommy's school took a field trip to the planetarium.  With as much as he loves space, I couldn't possible miss this trip with him!

Before the planetarium, we visited the park.

 We ate our lunch there too.  Thanks for the fab dab in the background, Mason!

 Swinging!

 Hanging out with some preschool ladies in the playhouse!

After the park, we went to Jeff High School to see the planetarium. It was much better this year.  We got to see videos of rockets launching on the dome which was AWESOME.  My favorite part.  We also talked about the constellations and planets too.  We had a super fun time on the field trip.  I drove separately, thank the good Lord, so when we were done with the planetarium, we took off so we could get ready for vacation.  More posts to come soon!

Polar Express Day and Field Trip

 Every year after the Christmas Program, the kids get to have a Polar Express Day.  They basically reenact the movie while watching it.  They get tickets to the train...

They even get hot chocolate. (Not really, it's chocolate milk.  There's no way they work that out with a bunch of little ones.  Disaster for sure.)

They bring blankets from home and cuddle up for movies.  It's pretty cute.  Look at the three besties (Charlotte is in pink in the middle, of course).

 Now that it's been renovated, they had quite the viewing area.  How fun.

 While Charlotte's class was doing that, I went with Tommy on his field trip.

When kids need entertaining, it's best to do selfies.  :)

 We took a LOT of selfies.  We had to get gas.  It was a LONG time on the bus.  Craziness.

 The first stop on the field trip was a nursing home so they could perform their songs from the Christmas show.  The audience loved it.  Well the ones that weren't asleep anyway.  The people who worked there cheered pretty loud though. :)

 The next stop was the union to see the giant Christmas tree.

 Someone that worked there gave us a quick overview of how they got the tree in there.  It took 25 people to pull it in with ropes.

 That's a HUGE tree.

 The kids also got to walk through a giant gingerbread house.

 Tommy found an ornament on the ground and was all excited he got to put it back on the tree.  :)

Nice placement, Tommy! :)

 Class picture in front of the tree!

 Tommy had to dab in front the tree, of course.  It was LIT.  Haha.  Eh, I tried.

Our third stop on the field trip was lunch at Arni's.  The moms all sat with the kids and the teachers sat at a corner table (they were the smart ones!).  The food took forever and we were struggling to keep them from going nuts.  One mom found a pen and a highlighter in her purse.  I got out my reward cards and passed them around to trace with the two writing utensils we found.  Ha! We did pretty well, I thought!

I LOVE going on these field trips with the kids.  It is so fun to get to know the kiddos and see a day in their lives.  I was very lucky to be able to go with such short notice.  It was a really fun trip.