Disney Trip = awesome!

Some of you may have been wondering "Did she get eaten by an alligator in Louisiana?" 

It really has been an atrocious amount of time since my last post. I plead Disney! On March 6th I boarded Bus #4 in the 5-bus caravan carrying 250 maroon-clad band kids and chaperones to Orlando to march in a Disney parade.

On March 5th I sat in the mandatory chaperones meeting at the high school and listened to how the trip would work and what our duties would be. I leaned over to another parent (Vanessa, later nicknamed "Giggles" in our chaperone gang because of her infectious laughing as she rode Space Mountain) and said "I'm a little frightened" to which Giggles replied "I'm petrified!"

But we had no reason to be. The marching band is comprised of the most awesome kids on the planet. These kids were responsible, respectful, talented, sweet and full of fun. On Saturday, March 9, they marched through Disneyworld playing a series of Texas-themed songs to a huge crowd of cheering tourists and parents.

The rest of the days were spent exploring the theme parks. We hit Universal Studios, Epcot, Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom.

We stayed at the Port Orleans Riverside Disney resort, pretty much filling two buildings:

One of our duties as chaperones was to take one 3-hour shift (mine was 3 am to 6 am Friday night) to patrol the buildings and make sure kids did not leave their rooms. Once all four kids were in each room, the chaperones would tape the doors closed with blue painters tape so it would be evident to the patrols if a door had been opened. 

So it came to pass that at 3:30 am I was staring at a broken piece of tape lamenting that I was going to be the one chaperone who had to pound on a door and perform a "bust". I went in search of the other parent on duty, Rick, and together we pounded on the door and woke up the sleepy students inside.

The door was opened by a groggy girl. 

ME: Is everyone in there? Your tape has been broken.

GIRL: Yes, we're all here.

ME: I must come in and verify.

So I went in, counted three sleeping girls plus the groggy one at the door.

ME: OK. You're all here. Why was your tape broken?

GIRL: I think it was from when Alicia came back from the hospital.

ME: (confused) Oh. OK. Well I'm taping you back in. Good night.

Rick and I discussed how we were unaware of a kid going to the hospital. I snapped a picture of the room number so I could look up which chaperone was in charge of the room from my master list.

The next morning, as I was telling the story to my roommate, Leigh Ann, and consulting my master list, I couldn't find the room number on our master list. Even stranger, I couldn't find any girls named Alicia on the list either.

ME: Leigh Ann, will you find this room number on the list? I can't find it. And do you know any students named Alicia?

LA: No.... hey....are you sure it was our band?

And that's when it hit us. Obviously there was another school trip with kids in the same building and that school was using, coincidentally, blue painters tape on their doors!

Oops.

I chaperoned another school's room!

We laughed and laughed and laughed about that one. 

I didn't spend much time with Emma, actually. She was hanging out with her friend Erin and I was not on her bus nor her chaperone. Still, I would occasionally run into her and she was all smiles!

Here she is marching in the Parade. (Pssst - check out the pants! She was not the only student who had grown significantly taller between marching season and concert season!)

Here is a shot of the chaperones, directors and our school principal, who made the trip to support the band. How cool is that?!

I made such great friends on this trip. What a fabulous group of parents!

We arrived back in Katy, exhausted, on Tuesday morning. Unfortunately by Tuesday night I was ravaged with a terrible cold. I spent Wednesday on the couch moaning. By Thursday I could tell that it was probably a sinus infection and went to the Dr. for some antibiotics. Despite the antibiotics I am slow to recover, although I do think I am on the road, finally.

In any case, the kids are back in school and it's time to get crafty!

Comments

[Caz]

Oh Karen I literally LOL at the picture of you banging on the wrong door! sounds like fun, what a good Mom you are x
Cazx

[gscrapbooks (Gretchen)]

That is absolutely classic about chaperoning another schools room! I love it! I'm glad it was such a great trip for everyone. :-)

[LisaMarie Mendoza]

Hilarious. But what a frighten feeling that one of your students maybe gone. Im glad everyone was ok. And that you had a BLAST! you totally deserved it.

[Donna Gibson]

Sounds like a great trip in spite of your getting sick upon returning home. I'm glad you're feeling better now. I missed seeing the marching band by one week since I was just at Epcot last Friday!