May 10, 2010

Fielding Fun...

There is a reason why my blogging has slowed down over the past few days. We have been completely, utterly, and insanely busy since Thursday morning! Miss Sassy has had a string of exciting events, and now we can finally sit down and begin to process all the fun we've had!

Thursday morning, she had Field Day at school. Now, I may be the only crazy one, but should I remember Field Day from when I was young? No, really, should I? Because I don't. Not one bit. But, all of my friends around here do. So, I began to think it was just a Kansas thing... that is, until my Mom started raving about Field Day, and how my Dad would take a break from work to come to the school and watch...

Uh...

Yeah. Sure. OK.

Anyway, Field Day. Sassy. Yes. It was really cute! My Dad and I went over to the school with Little A, and claimed our spot along the fence. They started with each class running a lap around the track. No biggie. Unless you are 4. That track is B.I.G. I was shocked at how well Sassy did. She huffed her way around the track, and actually had quite nice running form. Go figure.



Each kid had a bingo card around their neck, and the middle school and high school kids were there to run the stations and mark their bingo cards with one of those little paint dabbers.

{Rewind to Wednesday evening}

We received a huge package in the mail. It dawned on me, when I saw it was from my aunt, that it was full of all the crap nice things I purchased when I went shopping during my Chicago trip for the baby shower. In February. Well, all the things I purchased that wouldn't fit in my suitcase. (She assumes a sheepish grin as she types)...

I remembered buying each of the girls a winter coat from the Gymboree outlet. As well as some hats, gloves, and scarves. Upon reexamination, I realized that I, in actuality, had purchased several things for the summer from The Gap that had completely slipped my mind. Oops.

Anyway, I bought Sassy 2 graphic tees- one with a squirrel and a cupcake and one with bananas. She immediately grabbed the banana shirt, hugged it, and exclaimed that it was PERFECT for Field Day tomorrow. OK. If you say so, Sassy! In the washing machine it went...

{Fast forward to Thursday morning: Field Day}

So, after Sassy's lap around the track, one of the older kids marked her bingo card. Considering it was the beginning of the day, and not having much practice with the dabbers, the girl accidentally used a bit too much force with the dabber, sending red paint streaming down Sassy's bingo card, spilling off the edge, and leaving several large spots of paint on her precious banana tee.

Normally, I would be the one freaking out over this. I HATE stains. I mean, I don't know too many folks who like stains, but I loathe stains. Ask my husband. Well, apparently, I have rubbed off on my unassuming daughter, because the moment she saw the paint on her brand new shirt, she freaked. Like, I heard her from across the field. Full-blown freak session.

I had to run out onto the field and assure her that is was OK. That she needed to have a great time with Field Day, and we would worry about her shirt later. This is what ensued:

Sassy: But it's paint on my new shirt!
Mommy: It's OK.
Sassy: It won't ever come out.
Mommy: We'll do our best to get it out, honey.
Sassy: But it won't. It will stay there forever and be ruined!
Mommy: It's just a shirt, sweetie. If we need to, we'll buy a new one.
Sassy: But, they won't have it anymore...
Mommy: (Thought Bubble: Crap... they probably won't have it anymore.)
Sassy: I'll never get to wear a banana shirt again.
Mommy: It's OK. We'll figure it out. Just relax.

...and so on, and so forth. She was very upset. She eventually did calm down enough to continue on, but you can see the damage done:



Since I was on the field, I decided to follow Sassy around to a few stations and take some pictures. Sassy, her friend K, and their helper played catch:



They played water tic-tac-toe:



They hula-hooped their hearts out:



They played and played. They were awarded stamp after stamp. It was very cute:



I decided it was right time to check up on Graycop and Little A. I had a moment where I had to control my instinct to throttle my Dad by the neck when he proceeded to tell me that he really had to use the rest room, so he decided to leave Little A in the care of some dude. Probably a very nice dude, but a stranger dude, nonetheless. Seriously?!? H-E-L-L-O. This isn't 1932, Dad. Geez...

Anyway, we decided to depart from the field, and return home to start on lunch before Sassy's day was over. Sassy's first Field Day- a success.

P.S.- as soon as Sassy came home, she gave her shirt to me, and I promptly began trying every stain stick and solution we owned to remove the stains. They weren't budging. I scrubbed. I scalded my hands. No luck. finally, I left the shirt to soak in the bathroom sink while we ate lunch, practically giving up hope. Low and behold, when I returned... nary a stain in sight!


As if Field Day weren't exciting enough, Friday morning brought even more excitement! Sassy had her first preschool field trip! And, her first ride on a school bus!

Mommy and Graycop were both field trip volunteers, so we helped Sassy's teachers up to the point where they loaded the kids on the bus, and we followed in the Jeep all the way to zoo. Mommy was a nervous wreck with Miss Sassy on the bus. I mean, really... who thinks it's a fine idea to have a bunch of teeny tiny kids... kids that still ride in car seats... on a giant bus unrestrained. So it goes...

It was unseasonably chilly and SUPER windy, but we managed to have a great time anyway.

We hit the children's farm and saw this donkey, which I though looked entirely like a stuffed animal. He was SO cute:



Sassy visited the goats, where she began to spout out the story about the time that she was a little baby and the goat ate her granilla bar (formerly known as gorilla bar)...



Sassy and LMB LOVED the reptile house... an area of the zoo we rarely visit on our own. Since LMB is in the afternoon class at preschool, the girls do not often get to do school things together, so this was a nice treat!



Next, we visited the jungle. It was hot, humid and crowded. I grew increasingly claustrophobic up until the point where I about lost it, having realized there were BATS flying freely overhead. EEEEEEEK!



Sassy asked me to take her picture in front of the waterfall. I was just ready to get the heck out of dodge, but I obliged:



We visited the rhinos, and Sassy had to take a picture to show Nana, because rhinos are Nana's favorite. At least according to Sassy, they are!



We enjoyed an extremely blustery picnic lunch, and set off to hit a few more stations before it was time to leave. We saw Graycop's favorite... the Grizzlies.



Sassy requested monkeys, so we hit the chimp habitat before we left. I think Sassy was more enamored with this guy than the real deal...



Mommy was able to breathe a sigh of relief as Sassy rode home, safe and sound in her car seat with us, rather than the death mobile school bus. We were pooped! But, not so fast... Mommy had to rush home, do 2 home visits, and run Grins & Squiggles: Mother's Day Edition before the sun went down.

Now you can see why I said we were busy bees... and this was just leading into a very busy weekend!

4 sweet tweets:

miranda said...

BATS EEEWWWWW! that would of totally freaked me out. U seriously dont remember field day....i loved field day, it was a blast. a whole day outside of school. how could u forget a thing like that. oh well, it looks like sassy had fun.

rduxler said...

I actually do remember Field Day too, but don't have such fond memories of it. They would make us do things like three-legged or potato sack races which I personally never found all that fun. I was always the kid in elementary school who had her face stuck in a book. If I ran, it was on my OWN. Actually, I hated relay racing during track too, and did cross-country i middle and high school. Hmmm... I'm starting to gain some insight into my lack of team spirit...

Anyway... all looks fun! The bingo marker spot makes me laugh because my compulsivity has apparently rubbed off on both my kids in more ways than one, and I feel kind of bad about it too!

Whitney said...

Y'all DID have such a busy few days! I do remember Field Day! I always remember being super hot and thirsty! I'm glad y'all got the stain out - I was just like Sassy when I was little!

Anonymous said...

I left both boys with my dad today for less than an hour. Before I left I said "now I have to tell you this story about Heather's dad as an example of what NOT to do..."