As the last days of elementary school come to a close for our family, I'm cherishing every moment. The class parties, special lunch dates in the cafeteria, field day, science fairs, PTA meetings, class plays, field trips. Over the years for both boys, I've spent as much time as possible being involved in thier schools.
This fall our oldest will embark upon his highschool career; while our baby will move onto middle school. This is a different era, one of independence. This is bittersweet for me.
When this last field trip of the year came up, I was thrilled that Brian wanted me to chaperone. (I realize that time is closing fast, as Cory informed me if I helped with his end of year dance at middle school he would just die.)
We boarded buses and left for downtown Nashville. I was blessed and got to de-board the bus due to overcrowding. (yes, I said blessed! The fumes and the noise level that pummels you from all sides as the wheels on the bus go 'round and 'round - I volunteered to drive myself!) What about sitting with my elementary student? Nah, he was hangin' with his buddies, I was to sit up front with the lunches. No thanks. I wasn't missing any bonding. I thoroughly enjoyed the peace en route to said destination. (and appreciated it even more once we were leaving!)
Once inside, we chaperones were given huge stickers to wear on our shirts to identify us to the children. Let me paint the picture for you. We had a little over 70 students! I had 7 very energetic 5th grade boys. We had a set amount of time to complete each section of the center. We also had a workbook that we had to fill in our experiences and answer some questions relating to the topic. (I enjoyed this as much as the boys did, it took away from us having fun!). We got most of the blanks filled in, and yes, I helped them with their answers so we could go play a laser game where we fought germs to keep a body healthy. We were the only group that got to do this, and were quite the envy of some other groups. We learned about our weight on earth versus our weight on various planets, how to check our blood pressure, and what foods to eat, and how metabolism works. The boys really enjoyed learning how to shoot off a rocket, they each got a chance to do that, and weightlessness. All in all it was a wonderful experience, and my son and I had a great time together.
This is only six of the boys, the seventh one was visiting the bathroom. I couldn't take as many photos as I wanted cause they moved so fast, and we had those workbooks to complete!
This is in the planet room where we all took turns seeing the differences between our weight here on earth versus other planets!
Google sponsors a booth that was a hit with all the kids! The kids could run their hands across this sphere and they could zoom in or out all over the earth!
Rinne - our goalie he was rockin' every puck that came his way! YES, (see photo below) the yellow horn thing from the Olympics? Yep there were two of 'em tooting their way through all night long.
See, everyone was standing up and screaming for the last 8-10 minutes of the game waving their rally towels! LETS GO PREDS!
Barry Trotz and the Nashville Predators!
