Field Trip!

Last Friday I got a call for some aunting duties; Danny had a "family day" field trip with his kindergarten class and his parents couldn't stay, and would I want to go "even though he's not your favorite" said my sister!
Am I that bad? No, I'm not. Of course I can't say no to a field trip; it's been years since I've been on a field trip!

They had a scavenger hunt, each kid with a large ziplock bag with a list of items to find. You mark things off the list with crayon as you find them and throw 'em in the bag, or "baaaaaig!" as Danny used to say it. I will always call it a "baig" forever.
The last thing on the list was "something special" and Danny wanted to find a four leaf clover for his "special thing" submission. "Kid, you are in luck" I told him, "I am the best four leaf clover finder around!" We sat in a clover patch, and I told him to start lookin'. When I found my first one, he was impressed. When I found four more right after he was in awe! I should have gotten a picture of the look on his face. And then he found one of his own, and thusly the scavenger hunt concluded in a victory.

After that it was play time and Danny is non-stop action packed the entire time. Here he is leaping off the tire swing, leaving the other two little boys in the dust. On to the next one!

Playground equipment is all nice and plastic and fancy, with clean mulch and weird outdoor nerf-tile-things. Frank Liske is a really nice park, by the way. Sure does make me miss the old splintery wood and rusty metal equipment from my day though! One of my favorites was the merry-go-round; a group of kids could really get those things going like a centrifuge, flinging a kid or two off sooner or later. It was either going fast & someone getting hurt, or if it was just wantonly turning, elementary schoolyard gossip would ensue...you remember. Also I miss the big, cast metal rideable characters, mounted from the ground by a huge steel spring. We had then at Church and at the swimming pool. One was a blue tuna with a little white sailor's cap, just like the Sunkist Tuna guy! I would love to make grown up sized versions of those and put them up in the back yard. It would be so fun!
Sad that Danny's generation mostly lacks these novelties at the safe playgrounds of today. However, he has gusto for every piece of equipment on the playground, and indulges by throwing caution to the wind!
He's also an excellent photography subject; self aware but not self conscious, photogenic without hamming it up, never get's annoyed (as I immediately would) by the camera.

In the end the classes all lined up to sing songs to their family, who were in attendance and a wrapt audience. Even though they were all on the same song, they weren't in the same time, but still it was pretty adorable.

Later, Brandi was putting him to bed and asking if he had fun with his aunt Dusti today. He answered "Yes, but..." but what Danny? "Well, I thought at first she was gonna be...well, you know..." mean-what he meant was mean! HAHhahahhaa, I love it.
Mean ol' Aunt Dusti, not so bad after all. Hey, I pick a mean four leaf clover!