Safety Day/Tree planting

Emma and I met Gage's class at Sertoma Park today to chaperone a group for Safety day. I had no idea what I was getting myself (or us) into! His teacher was requesting volunteers to help chaperone and I signed up. Due to some listening problems, etc, Emma and I got out of the house a little later than I had wanted to leave for the park and I was panicked that we were going to be late and I figured Gage's teacher would think I bailed on them. When we got to the park, I nearly died because of all the kids! I'm thinking, "CRAP! There's no way I'm going to be able to find Gage's class!" There were probably over 200 kids in the park! We frantically searched and searched for Gage's group and could NOT find them! Well, we then discovered that they had not yet arrived. Apparently there was some bus mixup and there ended up being only one bus hauling kids (all of the 1st and 3rd graders) from Northridge so the bus had to drop a load of kids off, then go back to the school to get another load, and Gage's class was in the second load of kids to arrive from Northridge. Unfortunately that cut into their time in the park, but I was secretly glad of that! We went around the park attending different stations where they learned about all sorts of things from helmet safety, stranger danger, fire safety and the list goes on and on. Gage and his group wanted to attend the Karate booth to start off with.

At the Karate booth the kids were learning about stranger danger and what kind of information you DO NOT share with people you don't know.

Gage did very well at this and was only "floored" once or twice by the Karate instructor.

I didn't realize until after we had completed this booth what the kids were actually supposed to be doing. I did see some signs hanging around the table saying things like, "Don't give your phone number to strangers", "Don't get in a car with strangers", etc.

Most of the kids were only being taken down once or twice, and I couldn't figure out why Emma kept getting floored.

She was being very quiet and I couldn't really hear what the guy was saying to her, but when I heard him asking her what her phone number was, I saw her look at me. I thought they were checking to see if she knew her phone number, so I kind of nodded to her that it was okay, and she quickly recited our phone number to him.

Which resulted in this!! Finally, I figured it out. Every time the kids did or said something they weren't supposed to, the karate instructors were taking them down. Needless to say, I'm sure the instructor was UNIMPRESSED with my parenting as Emma answered every question he asked when she wasn't supposed to be. I'm sure he was praying that Emma is never approached by a stranger, because she would fail the test. Ooops!


This booth was about wearing helmets when riding bicycles. They had the lenses of the glasses obscured with tape, which was to resemble how someone who had a head injury might see. After putting on the glasses, they were to see if they could toss a bean bag into a goal.

Unfortunately most of the kids did quite well at it despite the alteration in their vision.

My group of kids got to go into the smoke house to learn what to do if there was ever a fire and their house was filled with smoke. I think we were the only kids from Northridge that got into the house because no one else was determined enough to stand in the long line that stood in front of it! We were pushing our luck, as we were supposed to meet back at the bus at 2:15. I think we got into the smoke house at 2:12!!! If I had known there was going to be another mixup with the buses, I wouldn't have panicked, because we ended up waiting AGAIN for a bus to take the kids back to school. Gage has been in the smoke house before when he attended Safety Village. Emma will be attending Safety Village this summer with her cousin Colton and they will get to go into the smoke house as well. Just before our group was finished in the smoke house, I saw Gage and Emma in front of the window. They were supposed to open the window to escape and I could see a total look of panic on Emma's face when she realized she was the one in front of the window and that she needed to open it! I felt so bad for her because I could tell she was scared to death, and when the fireman finally opened the window for her I tried reassuring her that everything was okay. I'm glad she had the opportunity and am glad she will have another chance to experience it this summer.

I was glad when the field trip was over when Emma and I were on our way home in the car, by ourselves!

This evening we attended a tree planting event for the Cub Scouts. I wish I had been a little more informed of the whole thing before we arrived. Scott had a conflict with work so he didn't arrive until it was nearly time to go. We had 3 boys from our den there, along with Emma, another Mom and myself. We did get one tree planted, as that was about all there was left for us by the time we got done eating our hot dogs and figuring out where we were supposed to go. I really don't like going into something not knowing what was supposed to be going on. We did only get one tree planted, but we got several others watered. Emma really took to this activity and on her own figured out how to tell whether the tree had already been watered or not by sticking her fingers into the mulch to see if it was wet. She was a great little helper and I think she is going to be a great outdoorswoman. If only the 5-gallon buckets of water didn't weigh more than she did! Unfortunately I left my camera in the van and didn't get any pictures myself. The other Mom in our group had hers and she said she would get a CD burned for me, so I will share those at a later time.

Emma was so exhausted tonight that she couldn't even get herself to sleep. It was almost 10 p.m. when I went down to her room for the last time to tell her to get to sleep. She is going to be very tired in the morning and I already dread trying to get her out of bed. Her Jr. Kindergarten graduation ceremony takes place at 8:45 a.m. and I'm sure she'll be in a wonderful mood to start off the day.