The Circle of Life....Whatever!!!!

Since I do not have to get my newsletter and plans together tonight (spring break),
I thought I would share a little story from this past week.

Put your feet up, get comfy, and grab a tissue....yep, it's a sad story....

Our story begins on a BEEaUUUtiful Day!
There was no rain in the morning and there wasn't any forecast  for it either, so we were going to get to go to the playground!!!!!
It has been forever awhile since we have consistently been able to go out there and enjoy ourselves.

We have spent so much time inside that I can't get them to leave my side when we go outside!
My girls want to hang around while I am monitoring. They act like i haven't seen them in weeks!
"Did you know...?"
(Probably)

"Guess what...?"
(Chicken Butt)

{and then the inevitable questions}

"How much longer are we going to stay out here?"
(til I squeeze the squistle)

"Will you push me on the swing?"
(nope, against the rules)

"If I get on the monkey bars and get scared will you come get me down?"
(If there really is a chance you will get stuck, please don't get on it.)

"Do you want to watch me climb to the top of the web?"
(Do you want me to be honest?)

"How much longer til lunch?"
(When I say" Time for lunch!")

"Can we play with our toys when we get inside?"
(I'm going to need you to step away from the Squirrel now).

Before they can even think of planting their tiny little size elevens in my shadow- I tell them that I am off limits for the day at recess. That it is a mandatory fun break!

Each time one of them came to me (unless they had tears) I did the Austin Powers hand movement for SHHHHH and they would scatter in a few directions.

It was halfway through recess when I had a very persistent little pack. They were testing me. They would get close enough to have had a conversation with me, but after watching me "shoo" others away, they would hang back.

I was starting to feel like a wildebeest calf on the Serengeti, the one the hyenas gang up on and  taunt and torture until it has to give up and then they attack it! (Do those two animals even live in the same habitat?)

Now I didn't think they were really going to "attack" me,I had no real fear of being eaten, but I knew that the silence in my little recess bubble was about to *POP*!

I should have been a fortune teller.....because one of my sweeties just couldn't stand it any longer and he  came up to me and says in THE sweetest little firstie voice ever,

"I know you told everyone to leave you alone" (for the record, I DID NOT say that- I told them to PLAY)
 "but there's something dead over there and the other kids are touching it."

What!?!?

"There's something dead over there." is WAAAYYYYY different than "When is lunch?"

So I rush over there, it was a hard trek, because I wore heels....yes, the WMDs...but I made it over there. And nothing draws a crowd like a teacher running in heels...

Now remember, we haven't been able to be out there that often because of rain and mud, so whatever this was that I was going to go look at may have been there for awhile.

I was expecting to see goo and guts. I knew it was not going to be pretty.

It wasn't.

It was awful.

I know what you are thinking...and you're right-

It was a SQUIRREL!!!!!!!

I know, of all the dead animals  on all the playgrounds and he had to croak on mine!!!
I know we have the whole "Circle of Life" thing going on- but they would have been less traumatized had it been a bird of some kind, but a squirrel??? {No offense, birds- but we have something special going with the squirrels}  I threw that in just in case I have any followers who are birds- you can't be too careful these days.

So first I have to find out who touched it and with what. It was starting to decay and didn't have much fur- but he (yes, he)
did still have most of his tail and the parts that attach to it.

I sent the town crier into the building to let the office know he was out there.

We stlll have like 15 minutes left...

I am trying to calm my girls who have by now started crying. I am trying to hush my boys who are trying to play CSI and figure out what did him in. I am trying to let the other teachers on the playground know without causing more panic.

While I am trying to do all of this, one of my sweetie girls says, "Miss Squirrels, can we bury him?"

uh....duh...well....um.....{can you imagine the dinner table chatter when your child tells you there was a funeral for a squirrel today:}...

"Well. sweetheart, we are going to let the office take care of him. It's almost time for us to go in."

Before she can respond, a staff member comes out the door that we usually go in with gloves and  a CLEAR plastic bag!!! 

So now, all who have NOT seen it, are GOING to see it as it is paraded past all of the equipment to be taken to the TRASH!!!!

SQUISTLE! SQUISTLE! SQUISTLE!

It didn't matter that we made it to the gate before the staff member and Squishy the Squirrel Frisbee did, it was all they could talk about- all the way up to lunch and then "I-want-to-have-services-girl" wrote about him in her journal!!! 



Ok, now dry 'em up and get back to your regularly scheduled blogging:)