Doesn't this picture look inspiring? Like just the thing you want to be doing on a brilliant Saturday afternoon with a bunch of well-behaved, care-free children? Well, I can vouch for the fact that achieving this is not as easy as it looks!
Saturday, I went with Kaitlyn and Joe to Cabrini Green to pick up some of the kids they tutor on Wednesdays and help take them to Mayor Daley's Kids and Kites Festival. Bless Kaits heart she put so much work into making this event awesome for the children. She packed them a lunch and got kite decorating supplies together and recruited volunteers. What a great gal that Kaits!
After waiting awhile for some kids to show up, we boarded a bright yellow school bus and headed to the park near Montrose Bay. The children informed me on the way that they saw a movie where there were sharks in the lake (not the Ocean, the Lake). One girl said, "There was this woman who cut her arm and then got into the water and was like 'Come to Momma'!!" So needless to say we avoided the water. :)
Our group of 17 (3 of which were 2 year olds, plus adults) were single handedly responsible for the littering crisis in this city. Every plastic bag the kites came in and other misc. parts that came with the kite were scattered across the lawn, steadily being blown closer and closer to the Shark's Lair (ie- Lake Michigan). The kids did pretty great decorating them, it was getting them up in the air that was a problem... mostly they just ended up dragging them around the littered lawn. hahahaaha! Well, we tried. There were some other activities for them- face painting and story bus, etc. so they were overall pretty happy with the trip.
Love the blog as usual. Your depiction of the day is so much better than mine :). You have such a gift of bringing stories alive, or at least dramatized :).
ReplyDeleteYou're the best!