Field Trip!

Today S's class went on their end of the year field trip to a provincial park and I went with her to help out. The park is on the edge of the Murray River, which looks like this:

Pretty, isn't it?

The kids traveled to the park on the school buses while parents traveled in cars. I rode with the mom of one of S's friends. We started out later than the kids but still arrived at the same time - school buses travel slower than cars I guess. :-) The first thing I noticed when we got out of the car was the mosquitoes. The park was thick with them! We all loaded up with bug spray, including the kids. We then headed down the path to the play area.

On the way we passed some large statues of storybook characters like the Goose that Laid the Golden Egg, Peter Rabbit, The Three Little Pigs, The Three Bears, and the characters from the Wizard of Oz. I meant to take pictures of them but they were in the woods and the mosquitoes were really thick in there. They weren't as bad in open areas where the wind was blowing so we tried to stay in those areas.

One thing that surprised me was the fact that the park had an old fashioned, fly-off into the air, break a bone merry-go-round. These things are hard to find these days. I remember one at the playground near where I grew up and it was fun and dangerous. We would get that thing going so fast and if you didn't hold on you'd go flying off and tumble through the grass. I actually managed to get a picture of this one without any kids on it since they were eating lunch at the time.

You spin me round!

This park was a strange mix of old equipment and new. I didn't take any pictures of the new stuff because it looks like playground stuff you can find anywhere these days. But I did take some pictures of the old things because you don't see stuff like this often.

The Fort at the Playground

The Old School Metal Slide

The Jack-o-lantern. It scared me a bit.

The kids had a blast running loose all over the park. It's surrounded by trees (thus the mosquitoes) which created a natural fence for the kids. There was also a dairy bar which sold really good ice cream. All the kids were able to get an ice cream as a treat before heading home.

The field trip was a lot of fun but I was tired when I got home. I had gone on a hike through the woods with S and her friends and some of the other parents yesterday, didn't sleep well last night, and was on my feet pretty much the whole time we were at the field trip. I am ready for bedtime already!

Shellac update: It was last Wednesday that I got my nails done with the shellac. They are still holding up better than I expected:

If you look at them from a normal distance they still look nice. But I have noticed the shine is starting to fade and if you look closely at them you can see cracks starting in the polish near the tips of my fingers. Nothing has started to chip off yet, so I'll be interested to see what happens over the next few days. My appointment to get the polish removed/new shellac applied is a week from today. We'll see if I make it to then without any chipping.