Recently, she and her class went on a field trip to cap off the end of their latest novel study, Alice In Wonderland. This included dressing up as a character from the book, going to a local park that is full of Alice In Wonderland character statues, have tea and tarts, play crochet, and complete a scavenger hunt. After that they headed to another park to eat and play.
I have to admit, at first I thought that this field trip was a lame attempt to squeeze in their mandatory two field trips for the year. I had never been to the Alice In Wonderland park, and was not informed of all of the activities that would be there. So, naturally I had envisioned something similar to the scene in National Lampoon's Vacation when the Griswold's visit the Grand Canyon. While the Griswold family takes in the wonder of the Canyon, Clark joins in, takes a deep breath while looking out, and then promptly tells everyone to get in the car after only looking at it for about two seconds.
Except this time it would have involved about 72 third graders, and a couple of school buses.
Despite the feeling of impending doom, I signed up to be a chaperon. I was thrilled to be informed that they had met the quota for chaperons, but if I wanted to follow behind in my own car and hang out with just my own child, I was welcome to.
Hmmmm. Yes and yes.
After arriving, I quickly realized that this trip was much more involved than just taking a look around. That there were several very well organized activities, and their was a ton of fun to be had by all. Parents included.
Here are some pics I took that day with my trusty iPhone.
Besides running around at themed parks, dressed as the Queen of Hearts, The Girl has also been participating in Battle of the Books. This is a program that our school district participates in along with the local libraries. Kids get to team up with their classmates and read 10 novels from October until February. At that point, they start competing. First within the school, and then against other schools, to see who knows more about the books they have read. As you can imagine, this is right up The Girl's alley. She devoured the books in no time at all and then went back to them again and again to memorize all sorts of different bits and pieces of information from each book.
She was an alternate for her school's team this year, and we were proud to make it all the way to finals. The Girl made it to each practice (both in and out of school), and was able to compete in the quarter finals for her school. Even though I was sad that she didn't get to compete in more competitions, The Girl set me straight by telling me she was, "So thankful that I got to compete and practice with the team when I did."
So proud of my humble girl.
Here she is at quarter-finals:
In a very serious huddle deciding on their final answer:
We can hardly wait to do it again next year!
Lastly, The Girl has been working very hard on her back flip on the bar at recess. Pretty much this entire year, all the third grade girls have made it their mission to be able to do a back flip around the bar at school. Slowly, in the last few weeks, all of them began accomplishing this goal. All but The Girl.
Many tears were had over this.
She was relentless, and even gave up some of her Run Club runs to practice. *Ahem*
Finally, yesterday was her day. At recess she achieved what all third grade girls, who are worth one's salt, need to achieve. The elusive back flip on the bar. I couldn't help but be elated for her. I had started getting pretty emotional about her being the last one to reach the pinnacle of third grade success.
Well, once you do something you've been trying to do for a long time, the next best thing is to do it over and over and over again. There was no way The Girl was going to somehow forget how to do what she'd been working on all year. That kind of perseverance comes with a price, folks:
She'll be taking a break from the bar for a while.
That's my girl. You gotta love her!
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