I survived...

Yesterday was the long awaited 6th grade class trip to St. Louis to the Cardinals game!

A couple tidbits to put this into context:

• I am a night owl, not an early bird.
• Baseball is far to slow-paced to keep my attention.

So the plan was for the (charter) bus to pull out bright and early at 6:00. Yup, 6:00 AM. Remember, I am so not a morning person. But obviously, that didn't mean that I had to be at the school at 6:00, that's when the bus was pulling out. So my trusty alarms (my iPhone and iPad) were set for 4:30 and 4:45, respectively. Let me start out by saying, I'm a big time snoozer, so I set my iPhone for 4:30 so that I could get those precious snooze minutes that make me feel like I'm getting to sleep later. And because I'm incredibly paranoid that my dear technology will fail to wake me, I always have a backup alarm, just in case. 

Apparently I was so tired from running around making sure we had gotten everything that we needed to take on the trip, making work packets for the kids who wouldn't be joining us on the trip, buying a new outfit for the day (so I could be lazy and not do laundry), and finishing up sub plans for today (I hate writing sub plans!), that I completely slept through my first alarm. So, at 4:45 (in the morning!) I was awaken by music suddenly blaring from my iPad. 

Side note. If you have an alarm capable of playing music to wake you up, this is a lovely way to wake up. Very upbeat, which is good if you, like me, are not a morning person!

Both of us 6th grade teachers were at the school by 5:15 to load coolers, grab the list of chaperones and groups, donuts, and juice, movies for the ride there, and all that other good stuff. Me being the sunburn magnet that I am, made sure to remember the sunscreen. Truthfully, kind of a miracle that I actually remembered it. Sigh of relief there.

The view from our seats during the weather show

The kids had a great day at the park! Yesterday was a day set up for schools, so they had a show on the field before the game where the local weather station did a presentation about weather and they released a weather balloon for the kids to see. The best part of this little presentation was that only school groups were there (because it was 9:30 in the morning), so we were able to sit right next to the field.

After the pre-show, the kiddos had a couple hours to wander around the stadium with their chaperones and grab lunch. Since we went on the day for school groups, the kids got an amazing deal: the pre-show, a meal voucher for a hot dog, chips, and drink, and a ticket to the Cardinals-Pirates game. Oh, and did I mention that it was only $15 per student! 

Granted, since we got such a great deal, we were seated at the very top of the stadium--some of our kids were in the very last row. But, our seats were in the shade for the entire game and there was an amazing breeze blowing--doesn't get much better than that!

Seriously beautiful day!

Despite the Cardinals losing 3-6, and the game lasting from 12:45-4:20 (I really don't have the attention span for baseball-can someone please explain to me why, after 7 innings, the players suddenly needed to stop and play catch for a while?!?! This far into the game, I'm pretty sure you've warmed up enough.), we had a really great day with our kiddos! We had a little girl drama on the bus ride back, but I'm pretty much convinced that 6th grade girls can't survive a day without at least a little drama in their lives.

Even though I really hated the idea of leaving the kids with a sub today while I went to the doctor for the bajillionth time this year, I think I needed the day to recuperate. That 3 hour nap this afternoon certainly wasn't a bad thing! :)

In unrelated news, I'm working on color versions of my gum and snack passes that are posted on my Teachers Pay Teachers store. I'm also planning on making a new homework punchcard/pass for my class and a cute version of the metric conversion stair steps. I needed one to teach metric conversions last week, and I couldn't find a single one that was cute. Thus, I will provide the world with a cute version so that no students are forced to look at a boring conversion chart ever again. You're welcome, world.

Any requests or ideas that you'd like to see me add to my store? Summer is getting close and I'm going to need something to keep me busy!