Field Trip!

On Friday Mike and I went with Nicholas' class on a school field trip to the Denver Children's Museum. We had him get up early so he could take a motion sickness pill and eat breakfast. Nicholas was so excited to ride on the bus so we wanted to make sure he wouldn't get sick. There were already enough chaperone's so Mike and I drove our car behind the bus. Each time the bus would brake we were afraid it was because Nicholas was getting sick...but it turned out he was fine the entire ride! :o) His teacher sat next to him and we had prepared her with numerous bags and paper towels and wet wipes. Thankfully none were needed.

The Children's Museum had a special room set up for classes and after getting instructions the kids put on hard-hats and became "Bob the Builders"! They were split into teams of 10 and had to use blueprints to construct a house. And it wasn't just a little Lego house - it was a proper play house made of wood wall panels and a door and wood roof trusses! It was quite the project and certainly stressed teamwork. The team that Mike and I were helping was made up of 9 boys and one girl. I must say that the boys had a hard time getting a grasp on the concept of teamwork!! Each little boy would start bolting together a wall panel and they would be at opposite ends of the house and they would not assign anyone to hold the wall as it was being bolted. I can't count the number of times we caught a falling wall before it fell on a little one's head!!

The team that happened to be made of 10 girls actually constructed and tore down their house faster than the team of boys (girl power!! :o) ). The girls seemed to get the teamwork idea better.

Nicholas was so confused about what was happening as obviously he could not understand the instructions the museum instructor gave and he could not read the blueprints. But when he saw the boys carrying the walls or roof trusses he would join in helping to carry them. Mike taught Nicholas how to use the socket wrench to to tighten the nuts. When the house was built all 10 kids went inside the house and they didn't have long to play before it had to be torn down.

Nicholas had a lot of fun - but I think his most favorite thing of the day was riding the school bus! :o) Once he gets a few more words of English down then we will stop driving him to school and will let him ride the school bus each day.

After deconstructing the house the kids had a few minutes to tour the museum. We only got to see one area as the 3 boys we were watching wanted to build things and spent the entire time with a piece of wood and a saw and a hand drill. Mike and I will certainly be taking Nicholas back as this museum was way cool!

That socket wrench training is going to come in handy today. The bed frame we had ordered from Target finally arrived. Poor Nicholas has been sleeping on a mattress on the floor! (We didn't get a bed frame before we left for Ukraine as we weren't sure if we'd come home with one or two kids - and if they were both boys then we planned to get bunk beds).

Prayer request.... Please say a prayer for Susan - she is the sister of my dear friend, Sharon. A tumor has been found on her brain and she is having surgery this coming Thursday. Please pray for a successful surgery and recovery for Susan. The operation is a very scary one. Our love to you Susan and family!!