Breakfast with Stephen

This morning I went to school with Stephen for a “George Washington Birthday Breakfast.” This was a Dad-only event and used to be called “Donuts With Dad.” I don’t know the reason for the name change, and I am sad to see the donut focus lost, but I decided against a boycott, especially since today’s event involved spending more time with one of my boys and getting to hear him sing.

Part of the joy of school events is getting to see walls full of stuff made by kids. Today was no exception, as there were two main exhibitions on display: My Dad for President and If I Were President.

The My Dad for President series was on the wall by the coffee & juice (no Coke) and therefore received first viewing. The kids had drawn a picture of their Dad and written a sentence about him below the picture. There was the one to fulfill every dad’s dream (My dad is funny and strong and can fix anything) as well as the opposite end of the spectrum (My dad is big). I was glad to be somewhere in the middle of the continuum with “My dad goes to church.” The next one over said “My dad is smart and is a good plumber.” This is good to know, because this kid’s dad has done plumbing work in our house, and it’s nice to have inside confirmation of his abilities.

The If I Were President showing was down by Stephen’s classroom. Each piece was a larger picture drawn by him and his classmates along with a sentence or two about what they would do if they were president. Part of me expected some crap about making war illegal or global minimum wage, but then I realized that this wasn’t high school.

Ah, Kindergarten. “I would travel around the world,” and “I would have cake every day” were pretty representative. Traveling was a popular theme, and drawn globes were common. Stephen’s said, “I would travel the world, protect the penguins, and go bowling.” They must have done this recently, since we went bowling a week or so ago and just watched March of the Penguins this past weekend.

I got to see Stephen’s classroom, including the month-cakes on the wall showing the birthdays of everyone in the class. He pointed out August so I could see his name (we are Birthday Buddies, both in August, and he likes to remind me of that fact whenever birthdays are mentioned). Then the dads went and ate breakfast until the kindergarten classes walked in, singing songs about George Washington; good stuff. After singing, the kids and dads sat together, eating and chatting until one of the teachers, dressed up as Martha Washington, came in and read us a story about George’s teeth.

Note to future story-pickers: tales of rotten teeth falling out are not suitable for mealtime reading.

After the story, the kids lined up to go back to class. So out loped all the dads, some reaching for cell phones, others checking pagers, still others shaking hands with new friends. Me, I was halfway to the car when I realized I had forgotten to take my camera.

Sorry Mom.