Field Day = Fun Day!

Last Thursday was a great day.

The last couple of years the kids had field day come and go and they would come home and tell me about. I thought it sounded like a lot of fun but never experienced it myself. This year, the heavens smiled down on me and not only were all my kids up at the school participating (no babies at home), but my back was better enough to be up and about! I decided to spend the morning up at the school and was very glad I did.

Bethany was ready to go! This was her third field day!

James was on his second round and dominated the hoola hoop station!

Now, it may have been Ben's first year but he was bringing his best game!

The kids rotated between stations with their classes and I spent a couple of hours jogging around the playground trying to catch each of them at each station!

Here, Ben is busy learning the magic of the parachute! He is on the right in the green.

In he goes!

Team player!

James lucked out and got the otter pop station right at first!

As you can see, he is enjoying his!

As is our friend, Tyler.

Here's Bethany playing catch with a friend!

And James, having a blast with some sort of rolling relay.

I don't know any of the right words for elementary school P.E. things.

Ben raced it up too.

Raced himself into a thirsty frenzy.

This was such a cute one. Wheelbarrow races and 3-legged races!

Bethany and friend Haley.

Visiting with the competition...

And back to racing!

James took the races so seriously, he even raced in between stations!

He loved every minute of it all.

Ben in a water race!

James loved the giant ball relay!

Bethany was eager to get picked to be 'it' in some form of tag.

They have all kinds of tag these days!

"It" she was! And away she went!

Caught this gem of her crashing into her good buddy, Alec. 

Ben and friends goofing off, waiting for their turns!

Because he always came over to hug me in between stations, Ben always ended up being the last in line haha...but he didn't mind!

And it was James' turn with catch

And there goes Ben with the ball!

He did great!

This one was the best. Good old fashioned tire race! 

Catch time for Ben!

James and his good friend, Aiden, tied up for the 3-legged race!

They laughed the whole way. I loved it.

Tug of war was a huge hit!

Bethany and her friends had the girls' team strong and secure.

All the while, James mastered the tire race.

Ben enjoyed tag. He liked to run around the perimeter and stay away from anyone who might tag him. Good strategy.

Bethany and friends ready for another game involving a giant ball!

Bethany had the most fun at the station made just for dancing!

Girls just wanna have fun!

James is amazing at tag!

Ben discovered that he could, indeed, push a giant tire.

Well, giant to him.

And James, still hard at work in tag, discovered...

That he actually can get caught sometimes.

In this game, when you get caught, you kneel down and wait for someone to bring you a rubber chicken.

Naturally.

Then it was on to Tug of War.

Which...should really be called War of Tugs.

Is it just me?

Either way, they did awesome.

Meanwhile, Bethany hippity hopped.

Like a boss.

James' class was still at the tugging.

And Ben moved on to the chicken tag game.

As you can see, he has a chicken.

More tugging for James.

Not kidding, they stayed at this station forever.

But soon after, it was Ben's class's turn!

They prepped their strategy....

And gave it their all!

Well...Ben gave it his all.

The other guys look slightly distracted.

There we go!

Fist pump for victory.

Bethany finally got to try her hand at the hoola hoop.

Which, of course, made her parched.

Ben's turn at the giant flying ball game.

I think this one was a little scary for the kindergartners!

But Bethany's 2nd grade class was right at home with the parachute!

I love this picture!

Did you know they do a thing called "Jello" with the parachute? Not to mention about ten other one-word catch-phrases that someone calls out and they all know exactly how to make this particular parachute activity happen? Yeah, it's pretty amazing. Of all the things elementary school teaches, this is right up there.

But anyway, for Jello, they bring the parachute down, then up, then behind their bodies, then they sit down on the edge of it. 

Then they kick the middle with their feet.

It makes it look like a jello mold.

It is disturbing.

And awesome.

And I just talked way more about this than any other thing.

It wasn't even my favorite part. I just felt it needed to be talked about.

She would agree.

James finished up field day with the hippity hop.

Another picture that I love.

Aaaand, Ben rounded out his first field day experience at the dance station.

His friends tried to get him to join in the dancing.

He resisted.

(Until I put him on my back and danced him around. What choice did he have then?)

It was seriously so much fun to be down at the kids' school, out in the fresh air and sunshine watching them have a blast! I was very grateful for the chance to be there.
Can't wait for next year!!!