Blue and Gold - Day 2

On to the 1st graders blue and gold day. It threatened to rain all day, but that actually turned out to be a good thing. The overcast clouds kept the temperature at a lovely 72 degrees. We had a nice breeze keeping us cool all morning, which felt much better than the sunburn I got yesterday.

This age group has a different set of activities than the older kids, like the ever popular parachute. They also play a game that I'm going to call "fetch". I don't know what it's actually called, but that's what it looks like. They start by throwing a tennis ball. Then they run, pick up the ball, and the first one back to the line wins. The reason that this game only works for the younger kids is because they eventually figure out that if you lightly toss the ball you don't have to go as far to get it, thus getting back faster. At this age though they all throw the ball as far as they can. So it pays to throw like a girl. This game has all of the parents laughing on the sidelines as we watch our children play fetch with a tennis ball, which they drop multiple times on the way back to the finish line. I watched one girl turn around in a complete circle three times before she caught the bouncing ball. If you think it's wrong to laugh at children, you aren't a parent. Children are a wonderful source of comedy. I'm thinking of setting this game up in the backyard this summer. Free entertainment for them, and me.

My sweet 1st grader is not the super competitive athlete that her brother is. She throws like a girl, which does pay off for her in the aforementioned game, but not so much with everything else. In fact at one point I had to pull her aside because she stopped mid-field to have a complete meltdown. One of her classmates yelled at her for being a "slow-poke". Words deeply wound this super sensitive child of mine. So having a classmate yell at her caused a volcano of tears to erupt in front of everyone. A few deep breathes later, she was ready to get back in the game, with her sister by her side. Sicily is very tall for her age so she was able to sneak in and help her sister out. Shhh, I won't tell if you don't. Alright, so I wouldn't actually let my children cheat. The PE teacher encouraged Sicily and some of the other siblings to join in on the fun. Having a friendly face helped Analiese to play with a lighter heart and have more fun.

At the end of the day, everyone was happy and sticky faced from ice cream. Another wonderful day as we count down the days until summer.