We caught the magic

While we didn't intend to hit two of the areas bigger attractions this weekend, we did. Friday Sarah and I accompanied Rachel and her classmates on their first field trip to Rock City. I love that the teachers let younger siblings come along! We don't get credit towards our volunteer hours if we bring siblings, but we still get to go.

The kids are learning about Fairy Tales, so they toured Rock City with their 7th grade buddies and at the end, their buddies had to read them all the fairy tales in Mother Goose Village. When I was in elementary school, I traveled to Chattanooga with my cousin and grandparents for several years to attend a church camp at Covenant College. As part of our trip, we always visited Rock City. I especially remember the magic of Mother Goose Village, which now, with all its black lights and fairy tale vignettes, is actually a good bit freaky. You can read more about Rock City here. I will spare you the photos of gnomes in black light.

Sarah was a trooper during the long walk, although she knew I had her lunch box in my backpack, so she was hungry the whole time and let me (and most everyone else on the trip) know about it often. The girl can't stand to be in the company of an unopened lunch box. It doesn't matter if it's 8:15 AM and she just ate seven pancakes. If there's a lunch box about, she's hungry. Here she is taking a break along our walk. Sitting on, what would you expect at Rock City....rocks!

After the field trip we returned to the school and helped set up everything for the kids and their buddies to make gingerbread houses. Sarah was such a helper! She more than willingly helped open some of the over 40 cans of vanilla icing that we had to put out. She gladly helped distribute graham crackers and she very graciously taste tested some of the hard candies for Rachel's teacher. And while all those tasks have something that you might imagine lured Sarah to them, she also helped set the tables with spoons to spread the icing with, threw trash out and was just a great helper. Her reward was that she and some other younger siblings also got to make gingerbread houses. It is safe to say that a good time was had by all. I even overheard one 7th grade boy exclaim, "This is the most fun I've ever had at school!".

That was just the beginning of our weekend though, because on Saturday we surprised Jim by taking him to Lake Winne to celebrate his birthday. I had told the girls that we would take Daddy to a park, but did not elaborate, since Sarah had already told him at least three times in the previous week that we were giving him a camera for his birthday (which we were). Even when she gave him his gift she said something to the effect of "Open it, it's a camera!".

We had a great day at Lake Winne and the kids hit a lot of rides. They were more adventurous than I would have anticipated, but when I think about it, I shouldn't really be surprised. The park is the perfect size for our family right now and I thought of it as phase one in contemplating a trip to Disney. One of Sarah's favorite rides as this giant slide. She went down it no less than five times, I believe.

Rachel, apparently, loves to be swung in circles, really fast (this should come as no surprise to me), as she rode the Matterhorn two times back to back. Once with Jim and when he bowed out for a second trip, she did it by herself.

Here's a few more pictures from the day, ending with one tired little girl going around and around in a boat. Actually, that wasn't Sarah's last ride. Rachel wanted to end with a ride on the Ferris Wheel with her Dad and Sarah chose the bumble bees and asked me to ride along with her. I never gave a second thought to hopping on a kiddie ride with her, but unlike Rachel, apparently I am not meant to be swung around in any type of circle, whether it be going at top speed or a snails pace. Those darn bees made one circle and I knew I was in trouble. I had to spend the whole ride staring at the floor of the ride, careful not to catch a glimpse of anything moving past me. Thankfully that was how our day ended because I was done for after that. Pathetic, I know. You can see some addidtional pictures over on flickr as well.

The end.