Chapter Sixteen: Sports Day

This month instead of a regular field trip, we had "sports day," which was basically field day. We went to Children's Park and played outside. There were a few other schools there. Mostly we played relay races and it was a lot of fun because in kindergarten it doesn't really matter who wins and often no one knows who does. There was a play ground that they got to play on a bit. It was easier than I had expected to control the whole school at once. I was not thrilled, I wanted another Herb Hillz field trip, but I definitely did have a lot of fun. After the kids did the event, they always made the teachers do it too. It was great. There's one shot of me losing (miserably).

Above is them all in formation for a huuuge group stretching time. I'm getting pretty good at leading stretches now! I lead stretches for Mars, Jupiter, Venus, Pluto, and Uranus. Nicole does Mercury. But we let her do it yesterday. It went surprisingly well.

The first event was eating the Korean version of Funyons off of a string (exactly like the traditional Duckett Halloween donut game!).

It was hard to explain that they shouldn't use their hands.

So Kelly assisted.

Liam with the funyon on his eye! But Jenny's got the right idea.

Jully, trying so hard.

Elin just kept poking it with his tongue.

Rocco was a master at the no-hands.

This is the best shot ever. It looks like they're in some sort of "Just say no" video from the early nineties, doin' the anti-drug dance.

Fred, my man, what's the problem?

And here you an see me, losing terribly, behind Arthur and Nicole.

Now it's the bus drivers' turn!

In the next game, they had to fill up a paper "cup" (more like an envelope, these things drive me nuts!) with water, run down, pour it in the bottle, and run back to tag the next person in the relay. Here is Woody on his way back, though he has strayed a little.

Liam looked so pleased with himself.

Jully looks worried. She's planning her strategy.

...which was apparently to walk very, very slowly on the way there...

...and run like hell on the way back!

Anna and her little braids.

Chris is convinced he just won it for his team.

Sally is always doing that thing with her tongue, even when she runs! Extra credit if you can guess who her twin brother is (note: it's not Elin).

I loved Ariel's little bucket hat!

What a pose, Woody.

Now it's the adults' turn. I already had mine and Nicole got to leave gaurding the bottle to take her turn. Her first idea for cheating is to use TWO little cuppy things.

Quickly, she followed Arthur's lead and took the whole bucket.

But unlike Arthur, she had the foresight to declare herself winner and run back!

(all these next pictures with newspaper were taken by the talented Arthur)
The next game involved two people running with a ball in the newspaper, around a cone (aka Colleen and Chris) and then back. It was another relay race. I enjoyed being the cone and cheering on the red team, which I happened to be on the side of for all three games. Ariel and Jenny get ready.

Me, cheering them on.

Joel, the troublemaker, and Kane, the ever-distracted, did a good job.

Lina and Liam... I can't watch. I was expecting a catastrophe, and I do think they ripped the paper or dropped the ball.

Sharon on the blue team couldn't recover the ball because she was laughing too much.

We can do it!

Look at that stance! He's ready.

See how I cheer on my team every time they get near me!

And feel their agony when they lose the ball.

Yet Chris is the zen-master.

This is what Arthur called his "money shot" and I have to hand it to him, it's pretty amazing. Though, it's not terribly difficult to catch Eric making that face.

Again, me cheering them on and Zen Chris.

This thing was the coolest slide I've ever seen. I had been eying it since we first arrived. Some time later while they were all distracted, Arthur and I had a slide race. I won, by a lot! It was amazing. I could play on a playground forever, with or without little kids.
Getting them all into one gigantic circle to use their backpacks for the obstacle course. It took a solid ten minutes to get them into a circle.

Woody had to take some medicine then almost yacked. Sad face.

I certainly did not get them started on this "lift me up!" kick.. nope.. not me. Sorry Chris!

Jessie was just helping them down, then I turned it into a photo shoot!

Priceless Liam face!

This place was so cool! I don't know what all that stuff over there is, but give me some! I could play here all day! (Also, another school in their track suits.)

Proof that we are still very much in the city.

Being cute... or wait, is she pushing him? Can't tell.

I love this shot because it reminds me how little Mars really is! They aren't even old enough to really socialize. They kind of stand around and look at each other if they aren't given an activity to do. But it also looks to me like when teenagers hang out in a parking lot.
Arthur "assisting" with the rolling part of the obstacle course (our final event), or rather, hanging children upside down by their feet.
Woah, standing up is harder than the roll itself (I can attest to this, having done the course myself at the end).
The box in front of Chris is actually what we were in charge of. We had to hold open the boxes to make a tunnel. We may or may not have rigged this race so that red finally won an event by holding the red team's box open much wider.
Nicole was in charge of the hula hoops. They were suposed to stand in it and pull it up over their heads.
Victory! If memory serves, Liam didn't go through the hoop but instead threw it off to the side, but that may have been another kid.
You should click on this and enlarge it to see Arthur's amazing roll of Harry. He is completely flat!

Nicole helping Harry out. She didn't even bother trying to get him to pick it up either.

The end of an amazing day!