Roberts Family: First Field Trip

Ainsley has been going to school two days a week for a month now. I know little to nothing about what goes on behind those walls. This is very strange for me. I have babysitters come to my house. They write down what happens during the day, and I get a verbal report at the end of each day. I know everything about this girl's life.

Then she went to school and her days became a mystery to me. I didn't want to be THAT parent who emails the teacher every week for an update, so I've only emailed once. Once in a month isn't bad, right?

Anyway, October 4th was my big day to be parent helper. I was so excited to watch my sweet girl as she interacted with other students and her teacher. I was so excited to be able to see this first hand. I was excited that Ainsley would finally have her Mama with her for activities that other Mamas have done for a month. She probably sees the other kids getting dropped off by a parent, some parents staying, and kids getting picked up by parents.

Not her. She gets walked over by the daycare staff. She has to sit quietly waiting for the daycare staff to come fetch her afterwards.

NOT TODAY! Mama was coming!

Then I found out that my day was also Pumpkin Patch Field Trip Day. I was super bummed. This meant that other parents would be usurping my "parent helper" glory. Boo!

Whatever. I was going. I had taken the morning off work. Here we are getting ready to get into the car to head to her school.

Smile for the camera, dear!

Will you smile if I promise to get you a Timbit on the way to school?

We got to school, and Ainsley showed me where to put her coat and backpack. I immediately noticed a few other parents lurking in the room. I had read about my parent-helper responsibilities from the handout I was given at the beginning of the year. I knew my jobs, but I didn't know when or where to do them. I decided just to chill with Ainsley until I was given a direct order.

We played at the Lego table first. A little boy named Seth joined us. He seemed to know Ainsley. He was quite talkative. Ainsley was tight-lipped.

After a little while, Ainsley moved to the kitchen area. Seth followed. Seth declared that he was the dad and Ainsley was the mom. Ainsley ignored him. Seth was unfazed. The boy was persistent. After a while, the teacher called everyone to line up on a heart near the door.

Ainsley was the third child on a heart. Other kids ran to the front of the line.
She just wanted to be in the middle.

It was at this point that I noticed another parent seemed to be chummy with the teacher. She was helping the teacher with a lot of activities that seemed to be official "parent-helper" activities. I tried to blow it off, but was starting to get a little annoyed by usurper-mom. Deep breath. The kids all headed to the library.

After library books were chosen, everyone headed back to the room to discuss the month and day of the week. The teacher explained that they were looking at a pattern on the calendar. Leaf, pumpkin, leaf, pumpkin, leaf, pumpkin.

"What do you think comes next, children?"

They all answered, in unison, "OCTOBER!" As a teacher myself, this was my favorite part of the day.

Fast forward to the arrival of the school bus. After a lively speech about proper bus etiquette that was interrupted by at least 6 different, impromptu, stuttering, 3 year old stories about buses, we headed to the parking lot.

"Oh! It's so big!"

We waited patiently as the other class boarded the bus as well.

After a bumpy ride sitting snuggled together, we arrived at the pumpkin patch. After disembarking from the bus, one of the teachers yelled "go get em, kids!".

This was their response.

I couldn't keep up with the sprinting children. Wait. I probably could have kept up with them. I just don't run for any reason. By the time I sauntered up, Ainsley had chosen her pumpkin.

Yup. This is the one.

Now what do we do?

After I had taken a picture of her sweet face, I turned to notice Usurper Woman with a Sharpie labeling the pumpkins with names. She even offered to write Ainsley's name on hers. Seriously. This would probably be construed as a nice gesture by anyone else but me.

It has an A for Ainsley!

After the pumpkin-fetching was over, the kids were allowed to play on the playset. They were pretty pumped. Except Ainsley. She mostly just watched the other kids play. My little sassafras is apparently a quiet child?