Three tired boys and one tired mama

It was a beautiful day, and I was finally getting to go on a school field trip with my kindergartner son - one of the perks of freelancing and a flexible schedule. Ah, I was getting to put it to good use!

Yet, somehow, the day wasn't quite as relaxed and joyous as I had naively anticipated. In fact, my son probably hopes that his mommy won't want to accompany him on any field trips in the future!

It's not that we didn't have a good time. It's just that we weren't the only school who thought the 72-and-sunny weather yesterday would make the perfect day for a field trip to the Indianapolis Zoo. I'm not kidding when I say there were probably 100 school buses full of teachers, students and chaperones who had exactly the same idea.

The zoo was chaotic, and I was responsible for three 6-year-old boys with three times the energy that I had. Imagine getting three kindergarten-aged boys to hold hands in a mad rush of hundreds of people exiting the dolphin show, and you'll get a pretty good idea of how my day went. I'm just thankful no one got lost, although it was a close call with one of the boys at the end of the day.

I think the world of these three boys. (One, of course, is my own son.) But I think they came to the zoo with their ears turned off and with their voices turned all the way up - and their desire to listen to a grown-up on a day "off" from school non-existent. (They had to hear, "GUYS! I have told you six times already, now please..." at least a dozen times.)

Still, I can't complain. I was thankful to get a small group (only three, I thought, how easy is that?) and two boys I knew from my son's preschool and kindergarten classes. Like I said, they're good kids. And we did have a good time. I just might be thinking twice about chaperoning the next field trip! :-) I don't know how my mother-in-law survived raising three boys!

Here are some pictures to share.

My boy and me - on the way to the zoo. He's blissfully happy at this point.

But, as you can see, by the end of the day (the dolphin show right before we left the zoo), it was tough to even get smiles out of these guys.

They definitely were entertaining, though!

I was glad to have my neighbors (and one other set of neighbors, of whom I unfortunately didn't get a picture - sorry, Brooke!) there to share the laughs and drama!

By the way, it was very clear that there is a HUGE difference between 6-year-old boys and 6-year-old girls! On the bus on the way there, the girls were all in the front, and happy group performances of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" came floating to the back of the bus - where I was positioned smack-dab in the middle of the boys, who were punching each other, slamming each other's heads into the seats, stealing each other's jackets and calling each other names! :-) And that was just the beginning! :-)

Comments

[Michele]

I've always hated seeing the massive field trip groups at places like the zoo. You know it's going to be chaotic in there. But to actually be a PART of the craziness--props to you for surviving!