This has been a pretty big week for Ellie. Of course, that's fairly normal when one is a six-year-old and it's the final week of school. There's been plenty of excitement all around. Tuesday was First Grade Fun Day. On Wednesday, Ellie received the opportunity to be the Birthday Kid of the day even though her birthday isn't until the end of June. The biggest excitement of Ellie's week though had to have been on Monday when she took part in Field Day.
I, like many, have a lot of fond memories of Field Day as a kid. However, things have certainly changed somewhat since I was a kid. For one thing, rather than being a pure competition driven by ribbons and the quest to be the best, Field Day is now more about fun. For another, when I was younger, Field Day was basically a track-and-field competition. Now, there's a lot of silly/fun games instead. Don't get me wrong, that is not a bad thing at all. In fact, the reason I know it's not a bad thing because I experienced Field Day first hand. Actually, the entire Holt family got the opportunity to experience Field Day first hand.
Ellie and Bethany were the first members of our family to get to take part in Field Day. Ellie because she was a participant (obviously) and Bethany because she was volunteering at the snow cone station. This was actually her second year serving in this role so she's kind of becoming a professional by this point. As for Ethan and I, we had an appointment to get the car serviced on this morning. However, as soon as we were done, the little man and I headed to Fox Hill Elementary to see Field Day for ourselves.
Upon our arrival, we first wandered to the snow cone station where Bethany presented Ethan with a snow cone of his very own to enjoy. After that, we began wandering the grounds until we finally found Ellie getting ready for the sack race. One of the fun things about being a spectator at Field Day is that Ethan and I are recognized by quite a few members of Ellie's class and her teacher even took a few minutes to speak to Ethan and I while the sack race was ongoing. I was having a ball watching Ellie do her best but Ethan soon tired of watching and was ready to head home so that's exactly what we did.
Part of the reason I was so willing to head home before I was ready was because I knew I would be going back in the afternoon to volunteer. Specifically, I would be hopping into the dunk tank as a human sacrifice for Ellie's class. I assumed that I would be spending the entire afternoon in the dunk tank but I was actually somewhat excited to learn that I would be helping to run the Frisbee Toss event until Ellie's class was ready to do the dunk tank. While the Frisbee Toss was fun, I was a little bummed that I never got to see Ellie until it was time for me to head to the dunk tank.
Upon my arrival at the dunk tank, I was a little surprised to discover that I was one of five(!) adult volunteers for Ellie's class. Therefore, we all only had to do a short shift in the dunk tank. When the time came for me to take my place on the precarious dunk tank chair, Ellie swiftly made her way to the front of the line where she looked at me with a sly grin prior to throwing the ball at the target. While she missed the target, that didn't stop her from running up to the button and just pushing it with her hands which sent me plunging into the water. Following that, I climbed up out of the tank where five or six of her friends sentenced me to the exact same fate. Now, you may not know this, but it is relatively exhausting to be continuously dunked and have to pull one's wet body out of the water and back up onto the seat just for it to happen again.
While all of this was happening, Bethany and Ethan had made their way back to Fox Hill to watch some more Field Day activities after Ethan's nap. Ethan, of course, was feeling slightly sad that it looked like he was going to miss out on dunking me. Fortunately for him, once Ellie's class had moved onto the next station, there was a couple of minutes for me to climb back onto the dunk tank seat so that Ethan could have a chance to see me plunge into the drink. While his throw didn't connect with the target, his foot certainly did after a little help from another adult helping man the dunk tank. So, with that, my final plunge into the water was done for the day.
Overall, I'd have to say that I love helping volunteer for Field Day at Ellie's school. Not only is it fun but it gives me an opportunity to start building relationships with some of Ellie's classmates as well as teachers at the school. It's great too because I don't think Ellie's actually embarrassed by my presence yet either. We'll see when that changes though.
#DaddyWrite
No comments:
Post a Comment