Olivia's Field Trip

There are a few occasions in life that are guaranteed to come around only once. Your youngest daughter's first grade field trip is one of them. That is why I was so ecstatic when Olivia asked me if I could go.  It was an offer I couldn't refuse.

They were going to the new Museum of Natural History, and Olivia told me I would have to dress nicely.  I certainly didn't want to embarrass her in front of her friends, so I made sure to wear my  nicest mom jeans, and my shoes without the paint splatters.    I think I did okay.  I seemed to blend in pretty well with most of the other  parents there.

As it turned out, there were eleven of us parent types there.  There are 22 kids in her class, which gave each of us a whopping group of TWO kids to chaperone, our own, and one other.  It was the easiest field trip gig I've ever been on.  Livvi and I teamed up with her friend Lauren, and after getting our explorer booklets and our maps, we were off to check it all out.

This was the only picture I took because I don't have a good camera.  Did I mention my camera got broken four months ago? 

The girls had the  best time digging for dinosaur bones.  I think they could have stayed there all day.  There are some cool exhibits there.  For sure enough to keep a group of first graders busy for several hours.  But there seemed to be an awful lot of open, empty space too.  Maybe they are still working on some displays.  It only opened a few months ago, so I should probably cut them some slack, but I was slightly underwhelmed with the place.

The kids had a ball though.  Lauren said it was the best day of her life. We got to see a tarantula and some other cool swimming thing that they called a living fossil.  Lots of dinosaur bones and native American stuff.  It was cool. I can see us making a trip back there someday.

About half way through our time there, we got word that we had to leave early, because "something" had happened, and we were to meet back outside by the buses.  Come to find out, some kid had broken something, and some museum uppity up had over-reacted, and wanted to close the place down.  Lucky for us, at some point, smarter heads prevailed and we were allowed to stay IF we promised to watch our kids closely and not let them touch the untouchable stuff.  I never did hear if it was one of our kids who broke something (there were A LOT of schools there that day) or what exactly it was that got broken. It's kind of funny though.  I hope it was something really old and irreplaceable.  That's what kids are for isn't it?