Another Field Trip

Am I crazy? Perhaps. I scheduled field trips back-to-back. But it was either that or not have one.

Miss Murphy and I took our classes to the Great Plains Nature Center today. It was awesome.

My trick...keep them fed and watered. So to accomplish that each student left the bus to go off wandering with a granola bar to eat. We split the students into 5 groups with an adult and sent them off with a map and instructions to be back at the pavilion in 75 minutes to have lunch.

My group had a great time, but seemed to be going in circles and didn't get too far. Other groups almost made it all around. Several of us thought of sending up flares so someone, anyone, would come and tell us how to get back to the pavilion. It was crazy fun.

We saw dragonflies, fish, ducks and loads of poison ivy (I think I have poison ivy, or maybe I'm just itchy because I think I have some).

Lunch was uneventful, except that I didn't pack my own son's lunch full enough. He was still hungry, so I gave him my granola bar that I hadn't eaten. He was still hungry. Oops.

Two wonderful ladies from the Center gave us tours in the afternoon. We learned more about the grounds and specifically about animal habitats. She even showed us some king snakes, a tarantula, a tiger salamander, and their mealworm colony (I did not need to get close to that).

I was sort of having a mini-moment while we were feeding some geese, turtles and ducks and one of my sweet boys came to me and gave me a side hug. He stayed there for just long enough and then went back to doing what he was earlier. Mini-moment over. Thank you special boy.

As each person got on the bus I gave them peanut butter crackers and they got their water bottle.

I kind of thought the bus ride back to school would be quiet, but they forgot to sleep, maybe they were extra loud in order to stay awake.

We were super excited to wear our class t-shirts on this trip. They arrived from Utah yesterday. Here we are in the shirts by our school just before we left. Each of us made a self-portrait and the ladies at Whitney Daniels Designs created these adorable shirts.

So tonight I am recovering. Gear up for two great days of playing together and bringing closure to our amazing year together.