We finished off Spring Break with some skiing. For everyone keeping track at home, it was still snowing steadily in March, with a total accumulation at Squaw of 658 inches. We met up with school friends and skied about 10,000 feet each day, pushing the kids' total distance over 100,000 feet for the season.
Back home, longer days and less rain let us get out and about more. The kids like taking Roux up to Tank Hill to play and enjoy the view in spring, before the grass gets long and dries out and becomes a health hazard to dogs.
There's also bike trips around Golden Gate Park - Brennan isn't as enthusiastic about biking as Lucie, but luckily her buddy Lola is. Particularly if the bike trip ends at the newly re-opened Twirl and Dip truck near the Academy of Science.
Each kid's desire to stay at the after-school program is constantly in flux, although an offer of a walk to the Ice Cream Bar will usually win out over anything school is offering. This spring, Brennan generally wanted to stay, and as it's his last semester Grattan, I didn't make too many after school appointments or plans. Lucie, on the other hand, requested early pick up almost every day I had off work, which sometimes resulted in being put to work:
The main event in April was the Marin Headlands trip, where the entire 5th grade goes for not one, but TWO, nights to NatureBridge at Fort Cronkhite (the collection of buildings far off in the distance)in the Golden Gate National Recreation area. The kids spend two and a half days hiking, learning about native plants and animals, competing to produce the least amount of food waste, and - gasp - going without screens or candy.
Since space and budget is limited, only one parent per classroom is selected to chaperone. Which means I thought there was no real chance I'd be going when Brennan asked me if I'd sign up.
I was wrong.
While the letter came home with the message that parent names were randomly selected from a hat, I don't think it's a huge stretch to imagine the teacher meeting where this "drawing" took place: crazy, crazy, too loud, disappeared to buy beer on the Sacramento trip, really crazy..." and I was just the first not-too-objectionable name to come up.
While it's billed as the "Marin Camping Trip", we actually stayed in dorms. Which was marginally cleaner and warmer than actual camping, and allowed for showering, after all the kids go to bed. In case you've ever wondered what living in converted army barracks with 62 fifth graders is like, here you go:
The NatureBridge program believes kids get more out of it if they are NOT with a parent, so all parent chaperones get assigned groups without their own child. So pitch out those what a wonderful bonding opportunity ideas. Here's my group, violating at least one safety and three common sense rules, trying to touch the rock and race back before the waves return.
The hikes were the real deal - my group did about 5 miles up and down the Headlands. I heard another group did almost 7 miles. It's an entire day of making some kids slow down, some kids speed up, doubling back to the last bathroom, telling Vivienne for the 6th time to put her (damn) shoes back on, etc. At the end of the longest hike, I turned to Jeremiah, the other parent chaperone in the group, and said, "Now I know why they don't assign us to our kids' group. It's that they don't want to make us hate our own children the way I hate all these kids right now."
Although for the record, Christina, Bren's chaperone (and provider of some photos) reported to me that he was very sweet. But she was just as exhausted as I was, so her judgment is probably questionable.
The kids do get a little free time to just play, although they aren't allowed in the dorms without a chaperone. They can play soccer or volleyball, pester an adult to take them to walk on the beach, just hang out on picnic tables and read, or join the future engineers and architects crew and build a fort.
When he wasn't with his hiking group, Brennan was pretty busy with his friends, but I did manage to pin him down after dinner to take a photo to send to his little sister, who was feeling very sad and left out. And our two groups joined up for the night hike, up to a windy ridge for some stargazing. There was no fog at all, so we had a clear view across the bay and could see Sutro Tower, lights blinking away on the hill above our neighborhood. Returning to the dorm, he slunk in next to me and confessed that seeing the tower made him feel a little homesick, and that he kind of wished he was home. "I do too, if that makes you feel any better," I told him, he said that it did, and then he galloped off to catch up with his buddies.
I had to work on Easter Sunday, so the egg hunt was early morning and indoors, as challenging as it is to get the kids up before 7:30 on a weekend. It's also challenging to recall the whereabouts of eggs that were hidden Saturday night after episodes of Killing Eve, Veep, and an undisclosed amount of pinot gris. There's a chance there may be fun surprise next time I decide to vacuum behind the couch.
I did next to no volunteering at Grattan this year, so apparently decided to make up for it and pack it all in during the last 8 weeks of school. I followed my Marin chaperone gig with helping out at the Fun Run:
I finally found a Fun Run job that makes me feel like I'm actually useful: the water station! Although my success rate at getting kids to just drink the water and not pour it on their heads was lower than I would have liked.
Both kids ran lots of laps, although the exact mileage is open to interpretation of squiggly Sharpy marks on the arms.
Next up - the 2nd grade trip to City Hall! I actually missed this one when Brennan did it 3 years ago, so I was excited to get the chance to join the tour. While I've wandered through City Hall a few times over the years, I don't normally get to go into the Mayor's office, or the Board of Supervisor's chamber.
The kids were all pretty well-behaved and attentive, even when the docent was nattering on about which state a particular section of marble came from. And it was a challenge getting a group photo without any brides or grooms in the background, but we finally did it!
And then I capped off the semester with the 2nd grade Presidio Camping Trip, which there was no way I was getting out of, given my history of going with Brennan in 2nd AND 3rd grade, and the recent Marin trip. Her teacher even wore me down and made me the parent lead, which basically meant I had to boss all the other parents around and keep them on task. See above, re: pitch out those what a wonderful bonding opportunity ideas. On the plus side, I did get to load my car with camping gear and get out of riding public transportation with a batch of hyped up 8 year olds.
It was a gorgeous afternoon when we arrived, and great for kite flying:
The kids had a lot of fun setting up their tents, and were super excited to sleep in little friend groups.
Another advantage to being Parent Lead meant I got to farm out s'mores duty, which I was somehow saddled with two years in a row with Brennan's class, and now know is hands-down the most terrifying job of the trip.
I bunked with a couple of other moms, in a tent that was spacious and clean, so I was pretty pleased with my luck, not noticing that the rain fly did not extend to the ground. This would become important overnight, when the fog rolled in. I woke up at 2 am, put on every article of clothing I had, and realized the sleeping bag I borrowed from Brennan was likely rated for living room sleepovers rather than actual outdoor conditions. After shivering fruitlessly for awhile, I gave up and went to my car, which is when I remembered the mylar blankets I keep with the first aid kit. I got one out, then paused and thought, But these are for emergencies. And then thought, I'm too cold to sleep, so maybe this is one? Stuffed inside my sleeping bag, it warmed me up enough to get back to sleep, but it did sound like someone opening a bag of chips every time I moved.
Lucie had a great time, and only had a little marshmallow stuck in her hair. Two hot showers later, we were as good as new, and ready for the last little bit of school.
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