Firehouse Field Trip

Today, we went on a field trip with Moments (mom's group) to a firehouse.  One of the dads gave the tour.

Matthew and Jack remembered that we had toys galore in our van and were excited to hang out in there while all the moms assembled our kiddos together.

Katie (Matthew and Jack's mom) and Jonathan

Hannah and Naomi :)

Beginning the tour and presentation . . .

This is Anne's husband, Kurt, who gave an amazing presentation to the kids.  He was great at relating to each of the kids on their levels of comprehension and made it fun, yet still full of important information to keep them safe in the event of a fire.

Philip, who is usually really shy, was answering questions on his own, out loud, correctly!!!  Big day for this little guy!  I was surely beaming with pride.  I still am.

Firefighter Kevin tried on the suit in front of the kids so that they could watch the transformation from nice man to scary-looking astronaut guy.  Then, Firefighter Kurt had him wave so that the kids could see that he was really still friendly.  He explained that if they were ever in a house on fire that they should never run away from this funny-looking Firefighter Kevin, but should call out to him and crawl to him.  I never thought to tell the kids about that--and honestly, I don't think it is something they would understand well without seeing this kind of presentation. 

Philip was completely and totally mesmerized and in awe throughout the entire presentation.

 Oh, My Sweet Philip

 They even let the kids try spraying the water hose!

 At one time, Philip became overwhelmed by the noise and Samuel just stepped in like Jess would have if he had been there.  He said, "Mommy, I'll take Sophia."  He took her by the hand and led her through the rest of the tour.  (My friend, Katie, kept watch over them for me.)  I was so grateful for both Katie stepping in to help me and for Samuel behaving so kindly toward me.   It was a true step of growing up for him.  He was such a blessing to me.  It fills my heart with pride as I think of it.

 Afterward, we all headed to a part and brought our own picnic lunches.  From there, the Lehman crew headed for dessert at McDonalds before embarking on an expedition of errands!