Calaway Park with Jamie’s Preschool

We have been trying to get to Calaway Park with Jamie’s Preschool since June 3rd, but have been rescheduled several times due to weather or other circumstances.  Finally on Monday we got an e-mail saying we are going Tuesday instead of Wednesday as the forecast on Wednesday wasn’t very good.  We quickly made some arrangements to switch vacation days and change days off and were ready to go.
 
Grandma joined us and we were out there at 10am.  There we a fair number of alumni there as well as 3 of the current 4 students.  Some of the older alumni was there to help out with the younger kids.  It is incredible to think that Jamie’s has been around for 26 years and Mrs. Mackie has been the teacher for 19 of those years!

Once everyone was there we went into the park and met “Awesome Austin” who would be taking us around to the rides.  It was strange being in the part with 20 or 30 other people and no one else.  Everything was closed until we got to the ride and then Austin turned it on, we went and he locked it up again.  We went on the cars the kids pretend to drive, the carts that go up and around, the little ship, the bouncy cars, the train and then the carousel.

After that there were enough helpers to look after the kids while all the parents got to go on the rollercoaster.  It was nice for all the parents to get to go on a ride too.

We went on a couple more rides and then headed over to the BBQ they had prepared for us.  They had some of the biggest hot dogs we had ever seen, veggie burgers, chips, juice, salads and ice cream for dessert.

When we were done eating we participated in Noah’s rebirthday ceremony.  June 3rd (our original Calaway Park day) was the anniversary of the day he received his new heart from an anonymous donor.  They release balloons with message of thanks to their donor and this year they invited everyone to take part.  We all wrote messages of thanks or of hope or just drew a picture and tied them to the balloons.  We then released all the balloons as a group and it was a very special ceremony.

We need to say a huge thank you to Calaway Park and Jamie’s Preschool for a fun filled day and an experience that the kids will not soon forget!