1st Grade Bat Field Trip

There are 3 sets of twins in our first grade class.  2 are English speaking and 1 is Spanish speaking.

The Tidwell twins and the Swensen twins have become fast friends.  I decided I could take all 4 on the field trip. (Parents had to accompany the children.  The teachers were not chaperone's) How hard can 4 six year olds be?  We drove about 35 minutes to Old Tunnel 9.  It is an old railroad tunnel that connected San Antonio to Frederickburg.  It ran for about 30 years.  It made the trip between the  cities a day trip instead of a week trip.  When the train quit then the bats moved in.

This is where we waited with the park ranger and 60 kids for the bats to come out.  The park ranger told us all about the bats and area.  I found it very interesting.  The presentation was a little old of 1st graders.  There are millions of bats that live in this cave/tunnel.  They actually show up on the weather radars as they are coming out in the evening.

It is blurry as they came out of the cave.  I was amazed at how the bats come out.  I had a hard time focusing my camera. 

 Hawks and other predators wait outside the cave for the bats.  A hawk will swoop in and grab one.  Go land on a tree to eat.  Then repeat the process until he is full.

So I asked how hard 4 six year olds could be.  The children were not hard at all.  It was on the way home when I hit a deer and then had 4 six year olds and me in the dark with no cell phone coverage.  (Didn't take a picture of that.)  Robert was really the only one who noticed.  He said "Hey the car just went bump, bump"  I said yep.  My heart was pounding and I was just hoping my car was not too damaged and the deer was dead.  Then Robert asked if the bump, bump was a deer.  I said yep and kept driving.  I was afraid to pull over in the dark out in the middle of nowhere.  I just prayed the rest of the way home that my car would make it.  It did.  There was very little damage to the front grill. 

We had fun on the field trip.  I love being a mom and going on these learning adventures with my kids.  And as a bonus, I get to learn too.