Visiting their respective schools

I meant to post this on the last post, and I will have to update right away again before I forget about this past week, but to keep things in somewhat chronological order, I wanted to post about visiting the schools.

Because Gwen was at childcare on Wednesdays, that made my lunchtime available. I had never eaten lunch with Trevor and as luck would have it, they were having Grilled cheese sandwiches...something that I knew I could stomach. So I told Trevor I was going to visit him at school for lunch. He was excited and I think it usually scores the kid some cool points when a parent comes to visit.

So I went to visit and the kids were getting their outdoor gear on when I arrived. They eat with snowpants on and their jackets on their seats. We walked around to get in line for lunch. Trevor was also having hot lunch that day, so I was able to watch him and his friends get their lunch and watch the lunch ladies as well. I can safely say not much has changed since the 25 years or so when I was in elementary school. They do have more fruits or vegetable offerings than when I went to school, but the whole procedure is much the same. I was also reminded at how while it isn't quite the age range where they have popular/unpopular groups, they already did have their groups. I don't know for sure if it was a result of me being there or not, and it probably did have something to do with it, but I was happy to see that it wasn't split boys and girls sitting at different sides of the lunchroom in Trevor's class. The boys were discussing what they were going to do when they got outside, some of the kids asked if I could help them open some of the packaged food that they got, and the girls were giggling and talking about what they had going on yesterday, today or tomorrow. I'll have to make it a point to keep going to lunch throughout the kids elementary school years. I'm pretty sure it will become uncool at some point. But until then, and as long as they serve decent lunches, I'll have to come and take part from time to time.

So the very next day I volunteered to be a chaperon for Gwen's trip to see a performance of If You Give a Moose a Muffin. It was her first time riding a school bus and I could tell that most of the kids were way more excited about that than anything. It was a good 15 minute ride to the show so they did get a good ride. I was also given one of Gwen's classmates to keep in our group so that was really interesting to gauge how Gwen interacted with her during the events of the day. Neither girl was all that interested during the entire show, but they both behaved very well. I think in general, the boys are a little harder to keep still and quiet. During the last few minutes of the show, both girls wanted to sit on my lap. Unfortunately, I don't have much of a lap to begin with, but I did my best and both girls were still able to fit in the seat with me.

I feel as though I did my part as being an active parent in both of their schools. Pat on the back for me!