Day 1,617 - First Field Trip (For Both of Us!)

I don’t know if you’ve looked at the weather but it’s raining today. In fact, it rained basically all of last night. According to the weather forecast, it’s going to rain some every day for the rest of the week. Not cool, right? The one solace that I can find with all of this rain in the forecast is that it hasn’t always been rainy. In fact, around this time last week, the weather was actually fairly decent. I know this because at that time, I was accompanying Ethan on his K-Prep field trip to the Red Barn Farm in Weston.

While I’ve clearly had a lot of different experiences as a stay-at-home parent, chaperoning a field trip was not among them. It’s not that I haven’t had interest in doing so. Quite the contrary. I’ve actually thought it would be fun to have that experience with my kids. Unfortunately, that whole pesky COVID thing in 2020 got in the way of Ellie even having field trips in preschool. As for kindergarten and first grade, the opportunity to chaperone a field trip just hasn’t been there. Therefore, I was more than excited to get to have that opportunity with Ethan.

As you can see, Ethan was unbelievably stoked about the experience.

As part of this field trip experience, Ethan and I were responsible for getting ourselves to Red Barn Farm by 9:00 am. In addition, we were told to pack a sack lunch for the two of us to enjoy in the picnic area. Neither thing was an issue; I’m just setting the stage for everyone. Upon our arrival, we joined a large mass of humanity made up of students from Northland Christian and their parents to wait for the tour to begin. After a few minutes, all of the boys from Ethan’s class were divided up into a group with their parents and we headed off to the barnyard, led by the knowledgeable Farmer Kelsie.

Our first stop was at the horse pen where we saw the horse (who I cannot remember the name of) who was apparently rather grumpy to be in his pen choosing instead to stand at the far edge of his enclosure and ignore the kids who were ready to see him. However, Ethan and his friends didn’t seem to mind at all. In fact, they were much more interested in interacting with each other rather than checking out the animals. No big deal though.

After seeing the horse, we made our way through the barnyard, meeting the llamas, pig, piglets, calf, chickens, goats, ducks, and donkeys along the way. After we had finished meeting the animals, it was time to take a hayride to the pumpkin patch where everyone (yes, parents and kids) got the opportunity to pick out a pumpkin to take home with them. The kids also got a short presentation from Farmer Kelsie about how pumpkins and other plants grow, which led us to our final stop, the Red Barn Farm’s beehive. I have to say that it was actually pretty fun to watch the bees wander about their home and learn all about the varying structures of a hive. The kids actually seemed really engaged by it as well; especially when they were given a honey stick to enjoy.

With that, our tour was concluded, and it was time to head to the picnic area for lunch. There was just one quick stop along the way: the bathroom. As there was only one other dad on the trip, the two of us drew the short straw of helping with bathroom duty which was about as chaotic and unenjoyable as one might guess. After that, we found our lunch and sat down with a group of Ethan’s friends and their parents to eat away.

Overall, I’d have to say that my first field trip experience as a chaperone was fairly enjoyable. I always enjoy getting chances to talk with other parents, even if I normally am in the minority. Better though was the opportunity to get to watch Ethan interact with his peers and put faces with the names that he talks about every Tuesday and Thursday after school. Hopefully this is the first of many field trips to come that I get to chaperone. We’ll have to wait and see though.

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Day 1,614 - The "Get Along" Shirt

**sigh**

Let me go ahead and do that again, only louder for people who may not have heard it the first time.

**SIGH**

That’s better. You know, sometimes a good sigh can help all that is ailing the soul. Many different things can bring about a sigh such as that. In my experience, it’s caused by some kind of frustration or exasperation otherwise known as Ellie and Ethan.

For the most part, I absolutely love my kids and enjoy spending time with them. However, there are definitely those times when I find myself looking for the nearest corner to hide in or door to run straight out of (probably while screaming). Those times generally happen when Bethany is busy or otherwise indisposed, much like this weekend. Don’t get me wrong; I’m actually stoked that she had the opportunity to get away for an awesome weekend in Branson at our church’s annual women’s retreat. It’s just that nearly four solid days as the only adult in the house can definitely lead one to **sigh**.

As far as Thursday and Friday went, those were fairly simple days. For one thing, Bethany didn’t leave until around noon on Thursday and Ellie spent most of both days at school. Couple those with several park visits and our traditional Thursday night LIFE Group and all was well. Saturday, though, is another story all together. For one thing, the lack of traditional structure means that it’s only a matter of time until the fighting begins.

In case you’re wondering just what time this morning my role as referee began, it was at some point between 6:15 and 6:30. I don’t have a firm window on that because my struggles in sleeping last night kind of resulted in me being slightly tired. I can probably thank Ethan for that since he came to visit several times last night.

Once I was finally able to drag my weary self out of bed and make breakfast, I’m happy to announce that the fighting ceased…briefly. Once the kids’ bellies were full, it was only fitting that they found something to start arguing over again. In this instance, it was the blanket fort that Ellie erected in our living room floor. I want it to be known that I have no issue with a well-made blanket fort. In fact, it’s not uncommon to see one in our house. My problem is when it results in fighting between Ellie and Ethan due to concerns of structural integrity. Namely, if Ethan’s unable to climb on top of it without it falling apart, then a fight will break out.

Despite my best efforts to break up said fight, I could not do so. Therefore, the only thing I could do was separate the combatants. Unfortunately, their separation and my peace did not last long and they were back to the battle at hand. In the past, I’ve been willing to issue spankings or time outs in these situations, I felt like the issue had moved past that. Therefore, I decided to take the punishment to another level.

I headed to my room and dug through some old clothes until I found exactly what I was looking for: an old gray tank top. With that, I called both kids to me and first slipped it over Ellie’s head and put her right arm through one of the arm holes. The entire time I was doing this, Ellie was saying over and over, “Dad, what are you doing? Why are you doing this?”. Then, it was Ethan’s turn for his head to go through the head hole and his left arm to go through the arm hole. With that, I stated, “This is the “Get Along” shirt. You are to wear this for the next 15 minutes. If you take it off, we’re going to have problems. Understand?”.

While the initial minutes were met with much screaming (mostly from Ellie), they eventually communicated enough to find an activity to keep them calm until my phone alarm ring. While I’d love to say that the “Get Along” shirt fixed everything, unfortunately, I’d be lying. That being said, it did help reset their little minds enough that they were able to talk through their issues in a calmer manner the rest of the day.

In fact, we even got to have some fun between carving a pumpkin and watching “The Peanuts Movie” on the projector. Oddly enough, the one thing I never expected to be fun for the kids apparently was as this afternoon, both kids asked to wear the “Get Along” shirt again. That time I said “No” though. After all, it’s a punishment, not a reward.

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Day 1,603 - Breakfasts Out and Baking About

I have mixed feelings about days that Ellie and Ethan are both off school. Yes, it’s really special to get to have fun with them outside of our normal routine. However, if we don’t have anything to do with our day, then it will inevitably turn into crying, yelling, complaining, and bellyaching. Oddly enough, even if I do have something planned, the aforementioned crying, yelling, complaining, and bellyaching will likely occur. In other words, there’s no way to avoid said crying, yelling, complaining, and bellyaching so I might as well just have fun in spite of that.

With Ellie being off school on Friday and next Monday due to parent-teacher conferences being held this week, it was only fitting that we do something fun and out of the ordinary. When I asked her what she would like to do with her days off, her initial request was to go to the zoo and see the new aquarium. While I’m always up for a zoo trip, the chilly temperatures and overcast conditions on Friday made that prospect seem like it wouldn’t be as much fun and that Monday might be a better choice. Therefore, I asked her if she had a backup option. After putting in a little thought, Ellie decided it was the perfect day to go eat breakfast at Kate’s Kitchen.

Once Bethany left for work on Friday, the kids and I waited around home until about 9:00 when we decided it was the perfect time to go eat breakfast. When we arrived at Kate’s, it took a few minutes for us to be ushered to our table which ironically, was the exact same booth we sat in the last time we went to Kate’s. My hope with this visit to Kate’s was that I might be able to order one meal for the kids to share off the adult menu. However, Ellie wasn’t having any part of that as she desperately wanted the Kids Waffle meal mostly due to the presence of the whipped cream and berries that adorns it. Since I’m a pushover, of course I gave in and let both Ellie and Ethan order their beloved waffles off the kids’ menu. No worries since we don’t eat out much anyway.

Once we finished our meal, it was time to head home where we would spend most of the day since we are currently having the exterior of our home painted. Of course, I did have one more activity planned to help the day go by quicker. Ellie and I used to have a weekly tradition in our house of “Baking Friday”. That’s largely gone to the wayside in the last year or so due to busyness and the kids being at school. However, during my last shopping trip, I had picked up the ingredients for one of the kids’ favorite desserts, “Beach Cake”. It’s basically dirt cake only with vanilla pudding and graham crackers but still tasty.

Proof that our house is indeed being painted.

The first step was to let the kids take turns chopping up graham crackers in the food processor. Then, I gave each kid a large mixing bowl, a whisk, a box of pudding, and two cups of milk and stood back and watched as they each mixed up their supply of pudding. Then, with that, we put the pudding in the refrigerator to harden for a few minutes before we could finish our dessert. Once the pudding was hardened, it was time to assemble. We first added a graham cracker base to our dish before dumping the first bowl of pudding over the top of it. Ethan then carefully spread the pudding out over the graham crackers before we added another layer of crackers, complete with stray gummy worms for added delight. Then, Ellie took a turn emptying her bowl of pudding over our dessert before we finally topped with the remainder of the graham cracker crumbs and put it in the refrigerator where it would sit until dinner time.

Even though “Beach Cake” isn’t one of the most difficult recipes to make, it certainly helped fill the day for us. Not only that but it reminded me of how much fun it can be to create things with the kids in the kitchen. Also, it most definitely provided us with a tasty treat for after dinner.

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