The twins first field trip

On Monday I was able to go on the twins' Kindergarten field trip with them. It was at the zoo. Why, oh why do I love that place so much? Seriously, even with a zoo membership and going there every month, I never get sick of it. Even with the train currently shut down and the playground closed, I still love spending the day at the zoo. I think there might be something wrong with me. Is it normal for an adult to love the zoo that much?
I had a mild case of anxiety leading up to this field trip (okay, I have it all the time but more so around the time of this field trip) because the memory of the last field trip I went on was still so fresh in my brain. But I should have known that my boys would make it fun. They were awesome! They are still young enough that they think their mom is the coolest and they don't get embarrassed by the things I say and do. Their teacher and all the mom helpers love them so it was fun for me to go and have everyone tell me how great my boys are and how much everyone enjoys having them around-I feel the same way about them. I dread the day when they grow up and stop liking me as much:(
 Our field trip group was comprised of my boys, Cecily and a girl named Kailana who didn't come to school that day. The teacher warned me ahead of time that my boys hand picked Cecily and Kailana to be in their group. Apparently no one else gave a hoot who was in their group but Jack and Myles put in a request a few weeks ago to have those girls. I got such a kick out of that. They are quite the little ladies men. Cecily's family met us up at the zoo and her mom told me how Cecily and her best friend had a falling out over Jack and Myles earlier this year. Remember Deliliah? That cute little Latin looking girl that was in love with the twins? Well it appears that she didn't appreciate the competition of Cecily wanting to play with the twins too so she real life defriended Cecily. Apparently it was a BIG deal and created weeks of drama at school over the winter, yetI never heard a thing about it until that day. I think Jack and Myles may be oblivious to the fact that they have that effect on the ladies...

On the bus Myles commented that he thought the inside of the bus would be yellow. I could tell he was bummed. The bus really never lives up to my kid's expectations.

 

Cecily and her little brother Ollie. He was so cute, I wanted to eat him up. He made me wish I could have another boy and name him Ollie, and then I remembered, I WILL have a little boy named Ollie! Tristian is due any day now and her baby's name will be Ollie.

I LOVED the boys shirts. Jack's said, "I can rit" meaning "write" and Myles said "I can rim" meaning rhyme. I don't know if you can tell from this picture but they both drew pictures of themselves with one girl. And they made sure to include their spikey hair!

This was the first time we got to see the bears be up and about! They were fun to watch.

Cecily, Myles, Jack and Avea. Poor Avea kept trying to join our group and Jack kept freaking out saying, "She needs to stay with her group! Her mom helper is going to get worried!"

This picture makes me laugh because Jack and Cecily look like they are little teeny boppers posing for a dance picture... I love how they are leaned into each other. Cecily kept making me laugh because she claims to be in love with Myles yet she kept getting the two boys confused so she spent most of the day clinging to Jack. My boys were more than happy to share her, I just felt bad that she couldn't figure it out.

We had such a good time. I am so grateful that my mom kept Easton for the day so that I could go on this field trip. I really love going on field trips with my kids! After the field trip we came home so I could eat something and then rushed back to the school to watch Tay and her friends dance in the 3rd Grade talent show...

A very enlightening field trip

I was able to help on Tay's class field trip last week. I was really looking forward to it. I fell in love with Tay's class while teaching Junior Achievement and I was excited to get to know her classmates better. I arranged to not have Dex that day, and asked my mom to see the boys off to school and stay with Easton so that I could be with Taylor all day.

When I got to the school Tay was in charge of writing down the names of everyone who would be in my group. She was goofing off and trying to be the center of attention (pretty normal behavior for her lately) and I just had a gut feeling that the day might not be as fun as I had planned.

I was right. My daughter is a drama queen. She seems to be pretty popular in her class and apparently she is involved in a little love triangle (her on again off again best school friend, Aubree is in love with a boy named Holland. Holland is in love with Taylor. And Taylor is in love with herself) that creates a lot of contention in her little group of friends.

I sat by myself both on the way to and on the way back from the Clark Planetarium, because apparently I was saying things that "embarrassed" my dear daughter;) Then, at the Planetarium, while all the other kids in my group seemed to really be diggin my jokes and were all about hanging out with me and having me take their picture and help them at the different exhibits, my own daughter wanted nothing to do with me. Ouch.

After the planetarium we headed to Liberty Park where Taylor proceeded to give me, Holland and Aubree the silent treatment because we called her out on something she did that we didn't find funny. If there is anything you should know about my dear angel child, it is that you don't call her out. She doesn't handle it well. After that she was the brattiest brat I have ever seen. I was embarrassed for her. My daughter seems to have quite a few people in her class wrapped around her finger and she knows just what to do to get there attention. It was like watching a miniature version of Big Brother. Alliances were being formed, bad mouthing was going on and cat fights were breaking out. When I pulled Taylor aside to confront her on her behavior she shut down. I WANTED to slap her in the middle of the playground and call a cab to take us home. Instead I held my tongue and prayed that I'd have the strength to not beat her in public.

Somewhere between the park and the walk back to the bus she made up with Aubree and Holland and their group of friends was back to getting along. It was so odd to watch. I don't remember being that way in the THIRD GRADE.

On the bus there was a group of like 10 kids that sat at the front with their teacher and talked quietly amongst themselves. Then there was me, the other mom who helped, and her daughter (her daughter actually wanted to sit with her) in the middle of the bus. Then there was a group of 14 kids on the back of the bus. They were loud and obnoxious and were playing jokes on each other and singing pop songs and making awkward attempts to flirt. Can you guess which group my daughter was in? I was beyond baffled by her behavior, which I must clarify, wasn't ALL bad, just different than how I ever was; I was always a front of the bus kid.

This field trip made me realize, my daughter is so different than me. She is having a completely different school experience than I ever had. She certainly has a lot of her dad's charisma and people skills. She is more popular than I ever was in school. Honestly, I don't know how to relate to her right now. She ended up grounded this weekend for the way she acted at the park and Kendrick made her write me and her teacher an apology letter.

Please, please, please someone tell me this behavior will end soon! My daughter is a knock out. And a brat. Those two make for a very unpleasant combination when it comes to parenting. And she's only 8. I can't even imagine the drama that will ensue when she is 18.

Dominic wearing LileAnna's elastic

Taylor, Aubree and Amanda

My group

LileAnna and Gloria

Taylor and Aubree

Tay's 3rd Grade Class (she was still giving the silent treatment to her friends but she jumped in the front of the picture and plastered a smile on her face that would have you believe she was as sweet as pie that whole day)

Some of the 3rd graders at Liberty Park

Taylor, Aubree, AJ and Holland (green shirt)

Aiden, Trey and David

If you take anything from this post I hope it isn't that my daughter is a brat. Or that I don't love her guts. Because I do, and she doesn't always act this way. Instead I hope you see that if nothing else, my blog is honest. It's not all sunshine and butterflies over here. If we do something that isn't fun, I'll tell ya is wasn't fun. If my kids are being charming, I'll make sure to brag about it. And if I'm frustrated, you'll read about it. Because to me, blogging is not about painting a pretty picture for all of my readers. It's about documenting my family's memories the way they happened and trying to capture those feelings the best I can. My hope is that we can look back on these memories and either learn from or bask in them.