And then...there were 14

Recently, I was asked to chaperon a church outing to a water park. GASP :O Clearly my "mean" lady reputation has NOT proceeded me !!  I will have to work on that ~ Anyway, with a song in her voice
4th and 5th she says with a huge smile on her face.

Firstly, WHY oh WHY is she asking ME ~ 4th and 5th graders ~ nappy little crumb crunchers ~ WHY ?
Well apparently, my mouth was hung open like a fish on a mantle, but Amanda was undeterred " Me and Shawna will be going".  That was a low blow, she knows I love spending time with Shawna, "Oh, OK you really should have started with the positives first" I told her.

So yesterday I show up with my packed lunch, hair in pig-tail braids, and my beach bag. I am so ready for the little terrors, bring em' on.  I left my firearm in my trunk just in case my PMS flared up, but all and all I'm ready !!

Shawna drives in an happily trots over with a "travel goodie bag" for me and Amanda. Baked breads, Lolly-pops, candy, etc... I bet you are thinking "nobody can be that sweet", YES, she really is and her baking is to die for. So we are off with 14 children.  I am riding in the church van with Amanda and all the boys. Other than the occasional gas, the boys were...quite well behaved.  I especially liked when we would go over bridges, the game was they would all hold their breath. QUIET ~ I really liked that part. So if we would go over a part of the interstate that had guard rails and could possibly be confused as a bridge I would yell, "bridge coming up time to hold your breath". I almost had them convinced in holding their breath from one bridge to another but Amanda said they may pass out. Humph, like that was a bad thing.

Shockingly, there were a lot of yes mams, no mams, evidence of sharing, and random acts of kindness.
Well these kids are pretty good I thought. We settle into our chairs and begin chatting while the kids run off to play. Soon, we get suckered into going on some rides and wading in the lazyy river and to my surprise, it was really really fun. It was a good day all around.
When it is time to leave we can't find 2 boys. I say to Amanda, "we have 12 out of 14, that would be like a 90% success rate, an A really, that is a pretty darn good return on our initial total. Lets go, they'll turn up." Amanda just looked at me and said, "Ummm, no... It doesn't really work that way with people's children"  Whateverrrr ~ I still say we could have gotten away with it.  The little minions were finally herded up and we were on our way home.

I must say...It was a really good day all around ~ so the next time you are asked to serve ... SERVE !!

Side farm note: Annie is acting nervous and anxious today - hopefully tonight !!