Fire station trip

The Wake County special needs pre-K classes have one day per month that they designate as Family School Partnership days. These are days when the kids are out of school and the teachers arrange for something fun to do, typically outside of the classroom.

Unfortunately for us, because we have two kids in two separate programs, we're usually unable to do all the FSP days with both Luke and Will. The closest I came was this past Friday. Will's class was set to go horseback riding again and Luke's class was scheduled to visit the Wake Forest Fire Department. The way the timing worked out, I was going to take Luke horseback riding with Will's class and then go to the fire station with Luke over Nate's lunch break (Will was still early in his B6 rebirth at this time, so we weren't sure how he would do at the fire station).

But it rained, and the horseback riding trip was cancelled. I was so disappointed! I thought it was going to be so awesome to have Luke and Will riding together. Luke was sad too, he was really looking forward to finally meeting a horse (his words). We can't wait for the riding trip to be rescheduled.

So we putzed around for a while, and Nate was able to meet Will at home for lunch. Luke and I headed off to the fire station. He seemed a little bit nervous, but settled in quickly and had a lot of questions for a friendly fire fighter about his trucks. As the rest of his class arrived, they handed out plastic fire fighter hats to all the kids. Luke wouldn't let his go.

Before they got started, they asked the kids to sit on a yellow line on the floor. The fire fighers explained what their job was, the importance of 911, and what to do in case the kids see a fire. When you have a room full of three to five year olds and a lot of excitement, those kids aren't paying too much attention. But not my Luke... he was so awed by the fire fighters and their trucks and uniforms, that when they asked the group a question, he was the only one to raise his hand.

The fire fighters showed the kids all about their protective gear. Luke was a little interested, but didn't really care too much until they told him that the fire fighters helmet had a flashlight on it. And they would let him touch it. On, off, on, off, on... they had no idea what they had done!

Luke liked those fire fighters so much that he even stopped and agreed to let me take a photo. I'm telling you - true fire fighter love. Note the hand still on the plastic fire fighter helmet.

The kids were allowed to climb up in the cab of the ladder truck. It was hard to get a good angle to snap photos, but I was able to get this one... a little out of focus, but you can see from the blurry smile on Luke's face that he's having an absolutely phenomenal time. Hand still on helmet.

Now when we drive by the fire station, Luke seems a lot more interested. He told me that he wants to go back and take them cookies. I think we can probably manage that. In Luke's eyes, they might need to reciprocate though... I'll let you have my mom's cookies if you let me ride in your truck and flash your flashlight again. Seems fair to me.