Curly Hill sounds like a fun place

My day began remarkably well. I stirred as a 50-pound mass of energy launched herself over my body only to snuggle under my arm. My hand automatically moved to brush blonde hair from blue eyes in a rhythmic dance. We dozed together until my radio alarm clock rudely interrupted our slumber.

I entered the shower as M asked her almost-daily question: Mom, can I have just ONE cheese? The answer is always yes because she asks before she gets.

Once I am out of the shower I hear K's requests from behind his bedroom door. Mama? Can you get me out? We've placed one of those child-resistant door-knob covers on the inside of his door in an attempt to keep him from wandering the house. He knows how to open the door, but is unlikely to put in the effort most mornings.

I opened his door and moved past him to turn off his nightlight and fan. Hi Mama! You look pretty! Have I mentioned how much I love my son?

Today Miss M is going to Quarry Hill for the first of 3 days with her class. (In fact, the entire school will be there for either the morning or the afternoon all three days.) She loved when we visited "Curly Hill" this summer.

It's not Curly Hill M, it's Quarry Hill.

I don't care Mommy, I want to call it Curly Hill.

I volunteered to chaperone. I was a little nervous driving there this afternoon. Anticipation always gets me, though I reminded myself that these were a bunch of 5-year-olds. If they started to get lippy I could always squish them.

I arrived a little earlier than the meeting time, and commiserated with some of the other volunteer Kindergarten parents. No other volunteers for my daughter's class, but there were 2 dads that I knew of M's friends in another class. One of the dads shared that his son had gotten a detention yesterday. I'm just going to say that this is a surprise to me...that it has taken this long.

Finally, the kids arrived and filed off the bus. M was excited to see me and refused to let go of my hand for the first 20 minutes we were there. The kids had a rules briefing, then were assigned a nature center teacher. Our class drew "Travis" or "Mr. Travis" if you want to be formal about it.

He was actually very good with the kids and even threw in a few jokes that us "grown-ups" would only appreciate.

The kids were given nets (some that float...for certain kids that Ms. G could determine who would benefit from such a feature...apparently all boys in the class. And some that don't, reserved for the more "mature" kindergartner.) They were instructed of proper dock "fishing" stances (belly or knees please!). One of the boys given the floater net showed the reason he was given that net specifically when I had to retrieve it for him among his exclamations it floats! See? Yeah, Nate, it sure does. How about we just use it to catch creatures now?

M caught several snails and a teeny-weenie fishie (but she was the only kid to catch a fish!) and some other bug that looks like a stick but it's not a walking stick.

Later, they had some time inside exploring their 5 senses, then back outside for some "turtle tag" and some other high-energy game that "Mr. Travis" made them play. During turtle tag, Luis approached Ms. G holding his hand over his mouth. They made a bee-line for the building, emerging 5 minutes later with the news that Luis had, indeed, barfed in the bathroom. His dad was called to retrieve him. No bus ride back to school for Luis.

Then Mr. Travis pulled the most lovely thing out of his backpack. A book. He read them a book and I had a chance to chat with Ms. G.

She told me that M had been so excited this morning and mentioned that she had been to Curly Hill before. Ms. G was so tickled by her terminology that she had to share with another kindergarten teacher. The teacher's response? Well Curly Hill sure sounds like a fun place!

It was so fun that I said I'd go help tomorrow too...since no other parents apparently volunteered.

I can't wait to hear what Maddie and Muhktar have to say tomorrow.