It is our duty as parents to embarass our kids just a bit, not? All in good fun.
On Thursday and Friday of last week, I accompanied Emma and her 6th grade TAG class to Chicago for a 48 hour whilrwind tour of the Windy City. We were joined by a group from nearby St. Henry as well. It was so much fun spending time with these kids and their parents, all of us taking a break from everyday life to catch a glimpse of life in the Windy City. Our tour included stops at the Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium, The Federal Reserve Bank, Frank Lloyd Wright's home and studio, Millenium Park, Medieval Feast, The Willis (formerly Sears) Tower and Skydeck, an architectural boat tour through rivers downtown, a tour of the Robie House (designed by F.L. Wright), even a stop for deep dish pizza at Giordano's Pizza.
Amazing. Exhausting. Fun.
In talking with some of the other moms on the trip, I recognized pretty quickly that all of us had heartstrings pulling us back home, but we also recognized a need to step away, and enjoy this brief time with our kids who've worked hard all school year studying and researching and preparing for this trip. Lifechanging? Probably not. But certainly a wonderful opportunity for the kids and parents alike.
For me...it was a lot of work getting ahead on things like laundry, and meal planning and grocery shopping for John and the kids at home. And hard work for John who was thrown into my job for a couple days with nothing more than a notepad full of chicken scratch about who had games & practices, and what times preschool and kindergarden kids get dropped off. And then the catching up on laundry, and cleaning when we got home. All worth it in the end for a brief change in scenery, and special moments shared with one of my oldest daughters.
