A week of field trips

Both London and Cannon came home with permission slips last week for field trips, and requests for chaperones.  So being the good mom, I signed up for both.  I was pretty confident I could handle the 3rd graders, but must admit I was a little nervous about the 8th graders.  Especially since it was mandatory to ride the bus with the 8th graders!  For an hour.  To Olympia.  Did I mention there were 50 8th graders on the bus?

Tuesday was London's trip to the zoo.  I was assigned to London and two other boys and then let loose in the zoo with my only instructions to make sure they all made it back to the Education Center by 11:15.  I quickly teamed up with another mom who only had two boys under her charge and we headed out to see the sharks.  I learned a lot about animals that day.  First, that boys are very different from girls.  And secondly, that London is a very well behaved animal.  :)  But I succeeded in being a good chaperone and guided the boys around the zoo.

The red wolf

The arctic fox.

The new baby tigers

London and the Gyrfalcon (he desperately wanted to see the birds of prey and this was the only one they had.)

My group and the sharks.

It was a fun day and I'm glad I got to share it with London.

On Thursday came Cannon's trip to the state capitol.  They've been learning about government and this was their chance to see it in action.  The Capitol building in Olympia is really beautiful and both Cannon and I were much more impressed with the architecture than the politics. 

It's built out of stone and the inside is mainly varying types of marble (Italian, Belgium, some from Alaska, etc.)  In fact it's the fourth highest masonry building in the world.  It also has  three Tiffany  chandeliers which are now valued in the millions of dollars each.  Maybe if they sold them they could put more money into education?  Just a thought.... Did you also know that Washington is the only state to have a green flag?  A bit of useless trivia for you.

Inside the rotunda with one of the Tiffany chandeliers (believe it or not, that's big enough to fit a VW bug inside it)

Listening to the senator in the reception room.

The green flag of today, with the US flag when Washington became a state mounted behind it above the fireplace.

The classes were able to meet with one of our State reps and a State senator as well as see the Lieutenant Governor.  I don't think the kids were impressed by that, but our tour guide was quite thrilled.

And I have to say, for all my trepidation, the 8th graders were much, much better than I had anticipated - although the bus ride home made me about deaf!