Something old, something new...

Field trips, field trips, field trips! Between the five kids I've been on a million of them. I've been to museums, pumpkin patches, nature centers, bakeries, libraries, post offices, Kennedy Center, Jamestown, Richmond, and Philadelphia...you name it and I've probably been there as a chaperone!!

Up until this year, Ellie has just been an assistant chaperone (aka "tag along") at all of her sibling's field trips, but now that she's in preschool, she gets her own fun! So after learning about community helpers and safety last week, we decided to take a visit to our local fire station!

We started off the field trip by making these cute little fire truck kits from Home Depot. It was a great beginning and the kids thought that wielding a hammer was about the coolest thing ever (as noted by the plethora of bent nails and hammer marks)!


Then it was off to the fire station where they got to try on some real deal fire fighter gear, like this hat that weighed about as much as Ellie does! (I love this picture of Ellie!)


I'm pretty hard to impress on a field trip, so imagine my surprise when out of the dozen or so fire station field trips I've been to over the years, the kids actually got to try something new...spraying the hoses. Some of the kids were petrified of touching them, but Ellie and several others (mostly boys) were completely in heaven at the opportunity.

I was also impressed at the demonstrations they did for us, including climbing a ladder in full gear, breaking down a pretend door, and dragging a "body" out of a fire. All in all, a fun field trip for the kids and still informative for us adults. I guess I'm not too old to learn a few new things after all.