On Halloween, Samantha and Amelia had the most exciting adventure of their lives… a ride on a REAL school bus. Oh, and a field trip to Irvine Regional Park. But that was just an afterthought in the minds of the twins. Instead of going anywhere, we should have just driven around town on the school bus with all of the kids, and they would have been perfectly happy!

I helped chaperone the field trip, and was assigned to Samantha and Amelia. What a coincidence!

What? School buses have seat belts now? Not in my day.

When I was teaching, most of my fellow teachers (myself included) viewed field trips with a sense of dread. It’s fun to do something different, but there’s also a lot of organization and work involved to keep everyone together and safe. I was always stressed out planning field trips! It was nice to follow someone else’s direction for a change and the Irvine Regional Park people had an organized agenda for us, making our jobs easier. Still, rounding up 50+ preschoolers and herding them through the park was no easy task.

First up: the train. All the kids were shouting things like, “Look! A peacock!” and “Look! A squirrel!” Owen chimed in, “Look! A bathroom!”

Little skeletons.

We also took the kids through the haunted house, through the corn maze and let them run around and stick their heads through the spooky cutouts. Amelia and Samantha kept begging to go in the bounce house and play the carnival games (I swear, they are addicted), but since that wasn’t on the agenda, we had to skip it. They didn’t really understand the whole field trip concept and kept asking when we were going back to school and if we were ever going home! You’d think they would just be happy to be there, but Samantha and Amelia typically feel ill at ease unless they know exactly what’s going on.

I guess we should have waited to buy our pumpkins this year because they let the kids pick some out for free that day.

What kid isn’t excited to eat their sack lunch on a field trip?

After lunch, we unleashed the torrent of kids onto the playground and the parents joked that we should have just walked to the park across the street from school instead of paying to come here. They would have been just as happy; although, the bus ride definitely put it over the top!

Meanwhile, Meredith was enjoying Take Your Daughter to Work Day at the firm. Jake’s paralegals and the other attorneys had a great time with Meredith (and probably got absolutely nothing done that morning!)

Lots of love,