I genuinely wish there was a way that I could have live-tweeted Norah's first-grade field trip to the Busy Bottoms Adventure Farm (I am pretty sure that is not the actual name, but it's close enough). This group of seven-year-olds uttered more magical quotes than my brain could possibly remember and I am sorry my old brain couldn't store them. I ambitiously volunteered to be a chaperone again, since I'm kind of a pro now that I've done it a time or two. I showed up a few minutes early and since the kids were still getting ready I sat on a little chair in the hallway and waited. Norah's classmates swirled around me asking if I was really Norah's mom and telling me seriously random things about themselves, their class, their hats and jackets, and Skylanders.
Remember my Facebook post about the bus stop kid on picture day who wore the fancy Axe perfume? Well, he has an equally adorable younger brother who also tells fabulous bus stop stories and happens to be in Norah's class. He came up to me and said, "I really want you to tell my dad that Norah should come to my house or maybe I can come to your house because I really, really want to have a playdate with Norah". Of course I told him he is welcome at my house any time. As he finished this, another boy chimed in, "yeah, I really want to have a playdate with Norah too. I'm kind of addicted to her". What?? That creeper kid is not coming over.
When I got into the classroom and Norah's teacher was reading names for the groups, I could see Bus Stop looking at me hopefully. When she read off his name for my group, he went "yesss!" and I felt pretty cool. In all, I was assigned four boys and two girls, including Norah, to keep track of. As we walked out of the building to the bus I felt a little hand in mine, and looked down to see a boy I'd never met grinning up at me. He fought another boy in the group to sit with me on the bus and proceeded to talk the whole 45-minute ride (which he insisted was no less than five hours long). He had the most gorgeous brown eyes and dark hair and had many interesting things to tell me, many of which were about Skylanders and all of which started with "did you know...". I did not know any of those things. I think I might have been more comfortable not knowing that Pastor Roy has a train set in his basement, but then again Pastor Roy is *probably* not a Trinity Killer.
The Busy Bums farm itself was very nice and had a lot of fun stuff to do. We went on a short hayride and attended a brief seminar on Wisconsin agriculture. I found this quite educational, but I think the kids just wanted to go outside and play with goats. We did get to feed goats, as well as hold kittens, feed donkeys and horses, pet llamas and a cow, and see some newborn baby pigs. The kids then got to play on a giant playground and in a corn bin, check out a corn maze, and ride a huge slide in a hayloft. It was really a fun place. First graders are a tiny bit easier to manage than kindergarteners. I only had to deal with two temper tantrums and one lost hat, and since Hat Kid was the one who lost the battle to sit next to me on the bus he tolerated my attempts to get him off the ground as he had a fit (someone had thrown his hat down the slide against his will). I mean, he didn't stop kicking and yelling, but he didn't bite me or anything so I considered it a victory.
I ate lunch with Brown Eyes and Hat Kid (who generously shared his carrots with me). After lunch I got to hang out with the other girl in the group. She wanted me to watch her do everything she did, which was mostly climbing on and off saddled log horses. I think she was also a little nervous about going through the big corn tunnel so we tackled that together. She didn't talk much but I felt like we had a simpatico thing going on, although she insisted I run from place to place and I was really quite tired by then. Everything at the Busy Bee Adventure Farm seemed to be on a hill.
Finally it was time to get back on the bus. Suddenly the giant area that the kids had to explore became a serious inconvenience, since I was trying to round them up, find discarded jackets, and get them to stay with the group. It was one of those things where I had an eye on all of them until it was time to go, and then all of a sudden none of them were where they had been two minutes earlier. We made it back on to the bus, where Hat Kid won the battle to sit with me this time. He promptly curled up on my lap and fell asleep for the duration of the ride. I tried to snooze too, but the bus driver had some really regrettable driving tendencies when it came to taking corners without really, you know, braking. Maybe he was European.
Overall this was a very successful experience. I didn't hang out with Norah too much, since she was chilling with Bus Stop most of the day. I'm pretty sure he was only interested in being in my group to hang out with her, but since I had my own admirers I wasn't too jealous. The only kid in the group that was too cool for either of us was Neighbor Kid, who lives down the street and is over at our house all the time. I guess the magic of both Norah and I has worn off at this point, so I kept my eye on him but he was fine just having some bro time with the guys. They were doing some pretty manly stuff, like climbing on tall things and jumping off, and shoving each other into dirt. There was also talk of Skylanders. I really don't know what that even means.
And there you have it-- Another fabulous field trip. Bonus: Norah and Norah's mom, incredibly popular with seven-year-old boys. Since I don't remember having nearly so many admirers at Norah's age I figure it just took me a little longer to hit my stride. High five!
Remember my Facebook post about the bus stop kid on picture day who wore the fancy Axe perfume? Well, he has an equally adorable younger brother who also tells fabulous bus stop stories and happens to be in Norah's class. He came up to me and said, "I really want you to tell my dad that Norah should come to my house or maybe I can come to your house because I really, really want to have a playdate with Norah". Of course I told him he is welcome at my house any time. As he finished this, another boy chimed in, "yeah, I really want to have a playdate with Norah too. I'm kind of addicted to her". What?? That creeper kid is not coming over.
When I got into the classroom and Norah's teacher was reading names for the groups, I could see Bus Stop looking at me hopefully. When she read off his name for my group, he went "yesss!" and I felt pretty cool. In all, I was assigned four boys and two girls, including Norah, to keep track of. As we walked out of the building to the bus I felt a little hand in mine, and looked down to see a boy I'd never met grinning up at me. He fought another boy in the group to sit with me on the bus and proceeded to talk the whole 45-minute ride (which he insisted was no less than five hours long). He had the most gorgeous brown eyes and dark hair and had many interesting things to tell me, many of which were about Skylanders and all of which started with "did you know...". I did not know any of those things. I think I might have been more comfortable not knowing that Pastor Roy has a train set in his basement, but then again Pastor Roy is *probably* not a Trinity Killer.
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| Baby kittens are the best, but very scratchy. |
I ate lunch with Brown Eyes and Hat Kid (who generously shared his carrots with me). After lunch I got to hang out with the other girl in the group. She wanted me to watch her do everything she did, which was mostly climbing on and off saddled log horses. I think she was also a little nervous about going through the big corn tunnel so we tackled that together. She didn't talk much but I felt like we had a simpatico thing going on, although she insisted I run from place to place and I was really quite tired by then. Everything at the Busy Bee Adventure Farm seemed to be on a hill.
Finally it was time to get back on the bus. Suddenly the giant area that the kids had to explore became a serious inconvenience, since I was trying to round them up, find discarded jackets, and get them to stay with the group. It was one of those things where I had an eye on all of them until it was time to go, and then all of a sudden none of them were where they had been two minutes earlier. We made it back on to the bus, where Hat Kid won the battle to sit with me this time. He promptly curled up on my lap and fell asleep for the duration of the ride. I tried to snooze too, but the bus driver had some really regrettable driving tendencies when it came to taking corners without really, you know, braking. Maybe he was European.
Overall this was a very successful experience. I didn't hang out with Norah too much, since she was chilling with Bus Stop most of the day. I'm pretty sure he was only interested in being in my group to hang out with her, but since I had my own admirers I wasn't too jealous. The only kid in the group that was too cool for either of us was Neighbor Kid, who lives down the street and is over at our house all the time. I guess the magic of both Norah and I has worn off at this point, so I kept my eye on him but he was fine just having some bro time with the guys. They were doing some pretty manly stuff, like climbing on tall things and jumping off, and shoving each other into dirt. There was also talk of Skylanders. I really don't know what that even means.
And there you have it-- Another fabulous field trip. Bonus: Norah and Norah's mom, incredibly popular with seven-year-old boys. Since I don't remember having nearly so many admirers at Norah's age I figure it just took me a little longer to hit my stride. High five!
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