Two Tales of One Day

Tuesday I took the day off work to chaperone Lindsey's class to the Bakken Museum, a museum about electricity. Guess which version is the actual one?

Version 1:

Since Lindsey's school doesn't actually start until 9:30, I decided to take the two girls out to breakfast before the field trip. We all got dressed and everyone was super excited to go. We traipsed to the local bagel shop for some breakfast bagels and a cup of Caribou coffee for me. The girls ate well and we dropped Marissa off at KinderCare, then I dropped Lindsey off at school. She showed me her guppies and baby snails in her classroom before I left with a cooler of kids' lunches. Since the bus was full, I drove to the museum with the lunch bags in tow.

The field trip was an absolute blast. The kids were really well behaved and had lots of fun learning about electricity and magnets. When the tour guide said that it would be time to leave for the buses soon, there was a collective groan from the class.

I got home and enjoyed a little peace and quiet, then ran a few errands without kids tagging along. I then went to Marissa's class to read her class Marissa's favorite book, "The Monster at the End of the Book." All the kids were into it and helped me turn the pages after Grover pretended to nail them down.

I then left with Marissa and went to Lindsey's school to pick her up. When we got home, the girls played nicely while I made dinner, a dinner that we typically can't have during the workweek because it takes an hour and a half to cook. We enjoyed a nice dinner, got the girls ready for bed and they went straight to sleep.

Version 2:

Since Lindsey's school doesn't actually start until 9:30, I decided to take the two girls out to breakfast before the field trip. Marissa took an hour to pick out what to wear, then needed me to fix the "bumps" in her tights (meaning the seams at her toes). She then decided she didn't want to go to the bagel store, she wanted to go someplace else for breakfast. In the meantime Lindsey, who was frustrated by all the delays caused by Marissa, burst into tears and said, "She's ruining everything! I hate her!" at which point Marissa burst into tears saying, "Lindsey hates me!" We had a cry fest for about 10 minutes before everybody calmed down, then out the door we went, slightly behind schedule.

We went to the bagel store for breakfast. Marissa licked off all the cream cheese from her bagel and then ate half the egg from mine, but didn't actually touch the bagel. Why does she want to go to the bagel store again? She also asked for a hot chocolate from the coffee shop but then only took two sips -- each sip cost $1.25. She got really sad and cried when I told her it was time to go to KinderCare, and was only happy when I told her I would read her class a story when I came to pick her up.

I dropped Lindsey off at school and found out one of the other chaperones wasn't able to make it as she had to stay home with a sick kid. So even though I wasn't expecting to do it, I had to lug a massive cooler of lunches to my little Civic in the pouring rain and meet the class at the museum.

The field trip was an absolute blast. The kids were really well behaved and had lots of fun learning about electricity and magnets. When the tour guide said that it would be time to leave for the buses soon, there was a collective groan from the class.


I got home and busted my ass to run some errands before I had to go read to Marissa's class. I was hoping to have more time to myself, thought I might even squeeze a pedicure in as my wintery toes really need it, but oh well, I promised Marissa I'd pick her up early, so I left to read to her class. I got settled in to start reading, Marissa sitting by my side with the rest of the class seated on the rug in front of me. Marissa wanted to hold and turn the pages for me, but because her chair was so low the class wouldn't have been able to see and I wouldn't have been able to read it. I told her that wasn't an option at which point she burst into tears and cried through the entire reading of the book. At least she cried quietly so the rest of the class could enjoy the story.

When it was time to go she sobbed and said, "But I didn't even get to hear the story!" That's right, you didn't.

I picked up Lindsey and the two of them began squabbling in the car, they were both so excited to talk about their days. When we got home I had to make them play on separate floors of the house so they wouldn't fight. Lindsey was happy as could be to play in her room by herself, and Marissa played on the porch.

I made a nice dinner which Marissa and Lindsey refused to eat. I don't remember what they ate, but they had to get it themselves. I think some grape tomatoes and peaches were involved.

It was time for bed, which was met with many stall tactics. By the time we got the girls into bed it was 8:30, and they were popping up every 15 minutes between the two of them for the next hour. They finally fell asleep and I was shortly behind.

So -- which story is true?

Both of them.

All of the above happened. But if you asked me how was my day off for my daughter's field trip, I would tell you "Fantastic." It's such a rare thing that I take time off for events like this, I enjoyed every minute that I could and decided to downsize the frustrating parts.

Outlook is everything.