Of God and Field Trips

I started my birthday off very early by showering and getting ready for the 3^rd grade field trip to the Witte (pronounced “witty”) Museum in San Antonio. Most school mornings I just throw on almost anything that isn't pajamas to take my daughter to school, then come home and get ready for my day. But God had been busy and once again made sure I was available to go on this field trip, so I had to get up early and be sure I was relatively presentable so as to not scare away the rest of the civilized world. He has done this every year since she started school, and I haven’t missed a long-distance field trip with my daughter since 1^st grade. Usually I’m not even signed up to go, but inevitably someone is unable to go, and I have always been available. The first time this happened was for a trip to the San Antonio Zoo. A few days before the trip I had an overwhelming sense that my daughter was going to have some kind of crisis while on this field trip and would need me. Nothing really major, mind you, but I just knew she was going to need me there. So as I started trying to figure out a way to go on this field trip, someone emailed me saying she was unable to go and could I could fill in. Of course I jumped at the chance, and the zoo was a great trip. And yes, my daughter did encounter a minor crisis and I was able to be there for her. God sure knows what He's doing. Okay, time for a slight pause.

Let me add here, in case I’ve never mentioned it, that we live in Austin, which is about an hour or so north of San Antonio. Both cities are full of history related to the Texas battle for independence, and San Antonio is a great place for all-day-away-from-school field trips. As for Austin, it's not only the state capitol, it’s a lovely place to live and a lot of fun. When I was at my reunion and my friends asked where I was living these days, I would tell them “Austin” and the reaction was exactly the same from person to person: a wistful look, a slight sigh, followed by “Oh man, don’t you just love it there?” Suffice to say that Austin is a pretty cool place to live, even if it is a bit weird. But that’s another post. Okay, back to our regularly scheduled program.

In 2^nd grade, the kids at my daughter's school study Texas history, and there were two field trips I was dying to take: the Alamo and the trip to Washington-on-the-Brazos State Park, which is where the Texas Declaration of Independence was signed. When signing up for class volunteer activities, I saw that these two trips were filled up. I planned on driving my car on both trips, simply because I just wanted to go. But once again, I ended up filling in for someone who had to drop out last minute on each trip and rode on the bus with my daughter for both trips. For the trip to the Witte Museum, a classmate’s mother mentioned to me how her son seems to think I make it to every single field trip. I think I can understand why!

So the Witte Museum turned out to be a great way to spend my birthday. It’s a good mix of interesting DNT exhibits (“DNT” means “do not touch”) as well as one whole building full of hands-on stuff. The kids enjoyed the HEB Science Treehouse the most, as they had just completed a study on simple machines. There was a sky cycle that many of the kids rode—strapped in by harnesses, over a net, riding on a very heavy wire. My daughter loved playing with the pulleys. I think the biggest hit was getting to be “on TV”. There was an exhibit that showed how meteorologists report the weather on TV. The kids would stand in front of a green screen but could see themselves across the room on TV with the weather information behind them. There was also some green fabric that answered my question as to how Harry Potter’s Invisibility Cloak was filmed. We saw a dinosaur exhibit--and what kid doesn't like dinosaurs?--and a real mummy. Ancient cultures are the history topics for 3rd grade, and I thought it neat when the classes mummified a chicken. The boys thought it was cool; the girls were grossed out. At any rate, this field trip was very applicable for the kids and covered things they had just studied so that these things became very real to them. It was really cool. One added bonus for me: I got to chat with one of the other parents during the trip and found out we grew up right across town from each other, even graduated the same year! We had much to talk about, and it was great fun.

Right before we left, my daughter wanted to get something from the museum gift shop. When she went after the Webkinz, I had to put my foot down. No way was she going to get yet another Webkinz at gift shop prices, even if it WAS her own money! So she bought some polished rocks, a key chain and a plastic ring. She was, for the most part, pretty happy about her purchases.

I would love to tell you more about my birthday, but this is longer than I thought it would be. So more next time on the rest of my birthday.