A Fun Day Was Had By All

Every year at my son's school, the 4th grade is given a day of fun, at the end of the school year. It's the 4th grade celebration party. It is the kid's last year at the school, as they will be attending the middle school in September.

Two moms and I were the committee chairs. We have been working for months to plan the day. All of the parents were invited to attend the meetings to help out. The sad thing is, the biggest turn out at a meeting was 5 parents and there are 77 kids in the 4th grade class. Most meetings we were lucky to have 2 parents show up. So, most of the planning came from the 3 of us.

I'm a control freak, so that was just fine with me. Hee Hee

This is how the day went.

9:00 am: At school, the kids were each given a bag containing a t-shirt (that I designed), sunglasses, a bandanna (there were 8 different colors handed out which divided the kids into teams), and scented bubbles.

9:15 am: The teams were placed together and with a volunteer mom (thankfully moms missed meetings but came to help at the party) and their teachers they walked the few blocks to the local park, blowing bubbles as they went.

9:25-10 am: Everyone had bagels, munchkins, water and juice for breakfast. The kids then used face paint crayons and put their "War Paint" on. This pumped them up for the games.

10-12 pm: The teams were sent to compete in 4 different games. There were two teams at every game. Every half hour a whistle was blown and they changed stations. There was kickball (Mr. Schmitty was running that) and an obstacle course which included the kids dressing up as clowns to run it. We also had 2 water games to keep the kids cool. We had the overhead sponge pass. The kids lined up and the first person in line soaked a sponge in water and passed it overhead to the team member behind him. The sponge was passed all the way back to the last person who then squeezed the remaining water into a bucket and then ran to the front to begin again. The winning team was the first to fill the bucket. The second game, I ran, was Drip, Drip, SPLASH! Think of Duck, Duck, Goose with a sponge and water. You drip the sponge over heads and when you choose the person you want to chase you, you squeeze the water over their head, yell, "SPLASH", and take off around the circle. I demonstrated the game with one of the teams. I guess they didn't think this old mama would actually run. The kids were hysterical and you know what? I still got it, the boy never caught me! HA!

W.'s team was the last I had and when the game was over he and I grabbed the sponges and had a water fight. He and I were having a blast. This is what it is ALL about!

12 pm: Pizza, chips, and drinks. The kids had a little down time in the shade.

12:45 pm: Team and class pictures. While I secretly set them up for the next activity.

1 pm: We lined them up next to each other and the parents and teachers lined up a few feet behind them. We told them they could not turn around. We told them to count to 3 and then we all sprayed them with Silly String. It was priceless...they were taken by complete surprise. We then told them that if they wanted to get us back they had to run down the field where we had placed bags of Silly String for them. They took off like maniacs. They came at us all with a vengeance. They had the most fun, I think, getting the teachers!

1:30 pm: The Weaser Italian Ice truck came and handed out ices. We also had watermelon, cupcakes, brownies, and cookies.

2 pm: We gave each kid a gym bag with the town name on it, which they can use for school next year, a beach ball, a couple of coupons for local merchants (Free McDonald's fries!), a class of 2008 tattoo, a music cd (we had polled them on their favorite songs and I burned the cds. A class pic was on the cover), and a coupon for a slideshow with music cd that will be made from the pictures taken during the day (one of the dad's took 1000 pictures that I will make into the slideshow).

2:15 pm: The kids all thanked us with smiles on their faces as they began their walk back to school.

It was a fantastic day!!