September 11, 2009

Today's was Ben's field trip, in a moment of madness I'd volunteered to be a driver/chaperone. I ended up with 5 very noisy boys in my car (and another Mom). The trip was to ride on CalTrain to Palo Alto, go to a park for lunch/play, then the train back to the station. The night before we did a search online to check where the station was located, I quickly glanced at the directions and was pretty sure where we had to go - big mistake. We ended up at the Santa Clara Station, when we should have been at San Jose. Ooooops. Turn the car around, head over to the right station, lots of parking spaces (good sign), where was the machine to pay for parking? I was told it was in the station - OK - no problem - every machine I tried was broken, panic is setting in, this is my first field trip, I can't miss it. I finally found a working machine, went outside to join the kids - no kids. I ran to a train, wrong train, it was going to Los Angeles. Then another Mom ran to me - quick Lucy - the train is leaving - follow me. Not a good start to the trip.

Once on the train you wouldn't believe the noise level, 2 classes of very excited 6 year-olds, already some of the parents looked frazzled.

Trying to take a photo of Ben was almost impossible, he thought when I put the camera to my eye it meant he had to hide, pull a goofy face - you name it, he did it. Out of the close to 100 photos I took, these are the only OK ones - and even those aren't great.





Once in Palo Alto we walked a couple of blocks to a beautiful park. There was a great climbing wall, which Ben (with help from a Dad) managed to climb up.





I was terrified one of my 5 kids would wander off, and I soon learned trying to watch them all was impossible. Time for lunch, we walked to the picnic area - the sound level decreased dramatically (even if it was only for about 5 minutes while the kids munched on lunch). Back to the play area for an hour. Then it was time to leave, but before we left we had to do a final bathroom break. You have no idea how much fun a public bathroom is - almost every boy came out soaked - washing hands meant throwing water at each other. Not to mention, herding the kids from the furthest area of the playground to the bathrooms meant they had to stop at each climbing frame/rocker/spinning bars - aaaggghhh.

Back at the station the teachers produce lollipops for all the kids - very smart - kept the little people busy for a few minutes. Of course, the train was running a little late and as one of the teacher's said, 5 minutes for a tired 6-year-old is like an hour. Oh, they did all find one area to entertain themselves. Between the 2 ticket machines each kid insisted on sniffing the disgusting smell where the homeless people pee.

Back at school, I didn't realize how tired I was until my kids were back with the teacher. I don't know how teachers do it.