Spring Fling a Go Go

We woke up to snow Friday morning so we feared we'd be flinging spring rather than having a spring fling with the first graders at Whitney's school. Enough already with the snow! Fortunately it melted in an hour, but it was still breezy and nippy, especially considering it was April 11th! (Notice the chairs are blown over and Landon's footprints across the grass from moments before when he'd left for school.)


All the moms (or aunts or grandmas) of the first graders reported to the classrooms at 10:15 and then "got" to sit in very small chairs (my butt didn't do very well, thank heaven I couldn't see myself from back there) as our kids read to us and showed us their notebooks, journals and miscellaneous desk stuff.


Then we had "centers" which involved making 3 art projects. For most of the parent/child combinations this meant some sort of collaboration, but for Whitney and I it meant me handing her the glue. She takes her art way too seriously to let me have a say in it. It made the hour of sitting in that little chair a bit hard to take except that she wrote both of our names on the back of all the projects, so that was cute.


We then had four rotations of activities. One involved dropping gummy worms into a cup placed on our child's forehead as they laid on the ground. The kids thought this was hilarious and a riotous good time. The moms were looking around at each other like "this is it?"


Station 2 involved each of us throwing a Frisbee back and forth with our child while standing in very close proximity with the other moms and kids. This was pandemonium. There were Frisbees flying everywhere, so people kept getting hit with them. It was pretty funny, but I don't think that was the point of that game. Lots of people got thunked pretty hard so they really weren't loving this game.


Station 3 involved the kids being blindfolded and then having to find their parent who was making an animal sound to call to them (the sound was agreed upon ahead of time). So all the kids were fumbling forward while the moms were making ridiculous sounds. I was yelling "cah-cah, cah-cah" like a demented bird. (I couldn't resist taking a blind-folded self portrait.)


Station 4 involved planting a flower in front of the school. This was easy and rather sweet.


Then it was time for a picnic lunch on the classroom floor. We had signed up to buy lunch for this day (what was I thinking?) but when my sack lunch of a turkey sandwich (um, I don't think so), a small green apple, 6 baby carrots and 2 pouches of Scooby snacks arrived I had some remorse. I drank my chocolate milk in one gulp, ate the apple and the Scooby snacks but couldn't bring myself to eat anything else.


Our last stop for the day was recess. Whitney demonstrated her jumping roping skills and then had me take a turn (sweet fancy Moses, it had been about 25 years since I last jumped rope). It was actually pretty fun until I saw the many photos (now deleted) that Whitney snapped of me while I was jumping. Why didn't anyone tell me I look 9 months pregnant? I thought I only looked 6 months pregnant! (I've been working out, what's going on?)


There was some photo taking with Whitney's friends and then some pushing on the swing until the recess bell finally sounded. I was so tired. Elementary school is exhausting, even when doing just a 3 hour stint.


The hall was decked out with pictures the kids had drawn of their moms, so I just had to take a self-portrait with Whitney's version of me. Her note says that she loves me because I help her with her homework (who knew?). This could have been very telling and gone horribly wrong, so I was relieved that she was kind. It was hilarious to look at some of the pictures though, there were some Picasso-esque versions of parents, and one boy drew his dad with brown skin, but his dad is very white in real life.

After this day and such a busy week I am ready to veg out during next week's spring break!

**Does your school do stuff like this?
Have you ever played a version
of death by Frisbee like this?
What animal sound would you have chosen?
When was the last time you jumped rope?**