Riley's First Field Trip

4 out of the 7 Brookland Kindergarten classes went on a very special field trip to help a child in need this Christmas. Each class chose a child from the Angel Tree to adopt for Christmas. The lucky child for Riley's class was a 6 year old little girl named Faith. Faith wanted a new bike for Christmas so Riley made it his goal to raise enough money to buy her that bike. He did really well collecting $40.00 on his own. He insisted on giving all the money in his piggy bank to his class so we took his full jar of change to Walmart to the coin changer and he then donated his $11.00 to the collection for Faith.
Let's just say that I admire the bravery of the Brookland Kindergarten teachers for taking on such a LARGE task. 3 bus load of 80 screaming Kindergarteners headed to Paragould Walmart to spend the money they had collected for their adopted kids. It all went a lot smoother than most had expected and they were able to get everything the children needed with the $1,000.00 collected between the classes.
Riley's teacher was impressed with his determination on getting a bike for Faith so she let him and 4 other students go with me to pick one out along with a helmet and knee/elbow pads. The kids were so proud of what they had accomplished.
Next we headed to the theatre to see "Bolt". Our group was so large that we jam packed a theatre. The movie really held their attention and they all behaved remarkably well. Riley and I ended up having to move to another seat because 3 girls were throwing a fit to sit by him but other than that it was a great experience.
After the movie it was off to McDonald's. OK, I was one the first 5 to pull into the parking lot and there were NO parking spots available! OH NO, there were 100 some odd people coming in behind me and NO parking spots. I managed to get one after someone was leaving but I don't know where everyone else parked. What were they thinking bringing 3 bus loads of kids and their parents to McDonald's at NOON! The buses ended up having to park in the cemetary across the street! As you can imagine - this part of the trip was total CHAOS - LOUD, LOUD, CHAOS! We stayed way too long and I ended up developing a really bad headache and checked out sooner than most. There were no seats so most of us had to eat standing up - that was not too much fun but the kids had a blast!