We are not officially part of a "homeschool co-op", but sometimes we leech onto one for their fun field trips. This time we headed to Minooka's firestation for a lesson in kitchen safety and a tour of their new facility. Their first safety lesson was "always work in the kitchen WITH an adult". Oh, boy, if they only knew... I'm not even out of bed when the kids start cooking. Although, in my defense, we have an electric stovetop with no open flames (the main concern for "fire"fighters, right?).
After a *free* pizza lunch (yay!) and our kitchen safety lesson, we were divided up into groups, each led by a firefighter, and given a tour of the new station. They divided us by table sections and our family got its own firefighter guide, Matt. We were introduced to him and, with astonishment in his voice, he said the typical, "Are they all yours?". "Yep", I replied. Then you could see his head physically bounce from kid to kid while doing the math, and came up with "Seven?" "Yep", I said (with a big smile, of course). He came back with, "My grandma had 13... I don't know how she did it." It's funny how many people relate our family to one they know that has alot of kids. I guess in their mind, it brings us a bit closer to reality? (OR they're just letting me know that we're not alone in the world, I'm not sure...)
At first, Firefighter Matt was a bit cautious, not knowing what these little homeschoolers were going to put him through, saying several times, "I don't know how you do it." I have to admit that at the point of taking the tour, I did look like I had "my hands full". I didn't know how extensive the tour was going to be, so I came unprepared... no stroller, no carrier... I had Selah in my arms which made it difficult to guide Nathan (who desperately needed his nap at this time!). I reassured Firefighter Matt that it was much easier at home than at a firestation.
After seeing that the kids weren't going to harm him in anyway, and realizing that they really were pretty well-behaved kids (aside from little Nathan who wanted to touch and climb on EVERYTHING), he started to enjoy himself. He had fun showing the kids the equipment and hoisting the kids up into the trucks (I had my hands full, literally, remember?). The kids had a great time too. I think we saw every nook and cranny in the entire station. Ellie and Grace were interested in finding out what lay behind every closed door. Along with the fire engines and ambulances, we saw the offices, the men's and women's locker rooms, the utility rooms, the dorm rooms, and just about every storage closet they had. We even went into their loft to see more old, stored supplies. The girls (and Nathan) would walk into a closet and just look around (many were empty because of the newness of the place). I'd have to say, "OK, come on out, let's keep moving."
We all had a lot of fun and learned a bunch. We now know the difference between a "firetruck" and a "fire engine", and that they no longer have those cool firepoles that you see in the movies for sliding down when the alarm goes off. As a peace offering for firefighter Matt, we went home and the Seth made a cute "Thank you" poster which everyone signed to take back to our tour guide. Hopefully, he won't soon forget this family... with nine people, chances are pretty good we may need his services at some point in the future...
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