L-R Clan: Field Trip!

Glen's best day of school ever (so far) took place last Tuesday. Not only was he "Captain" of his class (which equates to being line leader, and getting a special place during circle time), but he went on his very first field trip. And I got to accompany the class (along with several other moms).

Only in Small Town America could this field trip be possible. For instance:

The bus driver, Barbara (actually a neighbor and good friend of ours), owned the pumpkin patch. She played a hilarious trick on the substitute teacher, asking her if she knew where the pumpkin patch was (she didn't, but obviously the bus driver did). Many moms fell for it, and were offering their advice on various pumpkin patches they know of in the area.

The kids were allowed to pick one pumpkin each - the caveat being that they had to carry it back to the bus by themselves.

Here are Glen and Andrew P, searching for the perfect pumpkin (a.k.a. the biggest one farthest from the bus).

Glen quickly found one, and drug it up the hill. Where he dropped it. And, unsuccessfully prevented it from rolling all the way back down said hill. (I'm just glad that the pumpkin didn't knock out any of his classmates as it gained momentum on its way down the hill. It was a little like bowling. Funny, but only because no one got hurt.)

Glen finally picked another pumpkin, and it was back to the bus. It was truly amazing - every single boy in the class was covered head to foot in mud. Every single little girl (except one) was clean except for her boots.

After every muddy kindergartener had a muddy pumpkin on the bus, we went to Big Bear's Market for a snack. Big Bear and Judy had popcorn, apples and cookies for the kids. Then, with much fanfare, Big Bear brought out glow in the dark t-shirts for each kid.

Here's where you won't see this outside of Small Town America. Every kid put on his or her new t-shirt, then we all followed Big Bear into the feed room - basically a large, cold lean-two off his store where extra supplies were stored on pallets. After everyone was in, we counted down from three and Big Bear turned out the lights. The kids LOVED it - they ran around squealing about their new shirts.

Seriously, where else in America could you take 24 five-year-olds into a cold room covered in pallets with a big scary looking man and turn out the lights? I'm not saying it wasn't OK - quite to the contrary. The kids LOVED it. And, this is a community tradition - in fact, one of the moms that was helping out had the exact same field trip with her kindergarten class (and the substitute who we had was her full time kindergarten teacher at the time).