When I found out about Dylan's first ever field trip I QUICKLY let the daycare parents know I would be closing daycare for it so I could go with him. As everyone knows I am a devoted scrapbooker - so as any other big event in his life I wanted to be there to capture it myself & spend some fun time doing something new together!
So this morning I excitedly (possibly more then Dylan) got ready for the day. I got up earlier then I have in months just to make sure I had EVERYTHING ready...little did I know - the day would not go as planned.
We get to the school while it is misting rain & I walk Dylan to class. The plan is to leave the school at 9:00 A.M. via school buses(for the kiddos, personal cars for parents with siblings). Dylan asked me to stay with him in his classroom until they got ready to go, so I did. As soon as they started lining up I decided to head out to the van where my Mom, Ryan & Aydan were waiting.
Dylan's class came walking out & loaded into bus 16. Soon we where off! It was a little bit of a drive into the next town. I was so excited! I couldn’t wait to hear all about Dylan’s very first bus ride! We were about 2 buses & 8-10 cars behind him. (He was in the first bus)
As we near the Pumpkin Patch 2 buses from another school hop in front of us as well as about 8-10 of there parents/families cars. At this time I begin to worry as we’ve never been to this place before. Luckily there are BIG signs so we made it just fine.
When we arrive there is a bit of a traffic jam & we get stuck behind a couple of buses & many car so I decide to get out with Ryan & walk to Dylans bus to meet him. At this point we are about 3 or so blocks away from him. We make it about 1 block on our trek to him when parents who are walking in front of us turn around & start back towards us saying our kids are loading back on buses because all the pumpkins near us are green & they are heading to another area where there are orange ones. So trying to make sure I make it to where they are going Ryan & I hurry back to the van to get ready to move.
We see the buses from the other school turning around so we turn too, then pull over to wait for our buses. At this time we worry with the traffic that maybe we should move to let other people get where they are going easier. By this time though the van is on E & the gas light is on. So we drive back to the entrance/owners house Ryan & I hop out to wait for info while Mom drives the van back into town to get some gas.
While she’s gone I heave that the owners had taken a trailer out to the field so the kiddos could get pumpkins. Though part of the kids were headed back to the front to get pumpkins there. The first bus came, from the other school….so we waited….some parents came along….from the other school….so we waited… Then along came some parents for our school, I asked if they knew what was going on. They let me know that the plan was bus 7 would come back to the entrance to get pumpkins there. Another of the buses were getting there pumpkins from the trailer, and the third bus -the one in the front- WAS STUCK IN THE MUD!!! & couldn’t get out!!! – Guess who was on that bus??? Yes, Dylan!! About that time the owner comes driving out of their barn with a green tractor – to pull them out. About 10 min after that my Mom makes it back with then van. Ryan & I hop back in and head back to the actual patch. We get down there as the last two of the other towns buses are loading up. We see the tractor heading back to the front-meaning they have made it out of the mud!!!
Now though we had to wait for all these youngsters to get out of the road so we can make it down to where Dylan is. As the last ones pass by us we get ready to move, but by this time Dylan class is all loaded up & head towards us so we wait. As they pass us we turn around, get RIGHT behind them, & follow them all the way back to school.
I hop out of the van as quickly as I can to greet him as soon as he steps off the bus! The first thing he says to me is “where did you go while we were at the Pumpkin Patch??” I have to admit, I had held it together until that point, but did tear up when he asked me that….
He was very quiet though & as soon as we got to the door he asked if he could go home to change his clothes because he was wet & muddy. I didn’t answer him right away because I wasn’t sure how wet he was.
They had gotten back a little late for lunch so the school had sack lunches ready for them to eat in their classroom. He got sat down to eat and I noticed he was still very quiet so I decided to investigate this wet clothes thing. Sure enough from his toes almost all the way to his tushie he was soaked!
Being sad we had missed getting to spend this time together already I may have been a little too eager to give into this going home thing myself…. So I checked him out of school, took him home to change (his poor little toes were COLD raisins!!) then we left to meet some friends for lunch. Feeling bad for Dylan still - we went to MD’s because he’s been wanting one of the toys they have. We spent about 2 or so hours there playing! It was so nice to get to finish the day with him. I had taken off work so we could enjoy doing something together – since try #1 didn’t work out, we went for #2 & had a blast!!! Though I still don’t have any pictures of him at the actual Pumpkin Patch to scrapbook with. Please enjoy the pictures I did get….
Moral of the story – pray that all the other parents take their cameras just incase something happens & you miss the events……
Getting Ready to leave school...
Ryan & I waiting at the enterance to find out what is going on...
The wonderful green tractor that pulled my Baby from the mud...
The bus on the way back to school......
