Our Trip to Court

What a great time we had. I am so glad that we went on this field trip. It was a nice way to ease ourselves into the world of field trips.

We got to the courthouse a little early. Don't think, by the way, that this some grand courthouse in a large city. Tavares is the county seat, but it is large by no means. It is about 15-20 minutes from our house and is across the street from our church. We were listening to Geronimo Stilton on CD to pass the time and went in at about a quarter after 1.

As a side note: What a great series of books. Geronimo Stilton is a mouse. He has written this series of books about his life. He is the editor of a local newspaper and finds himself in all sorts of trouble. We laugh out loud when we listen to them. Edward Hermann is the narrator and what a fantastic job he does. I couldn't stand Herman Munster, but I love most of the things he's done since. What a phenomenal actor he is. He is a big reason we started listening to these books. If you have kids, these are great stories to read or listen to together. Sorry, back to topic.

We all had to go through the metal detector. Even in small town America, podunk Florida has to have things like that. What a shame. I got to put my stuff in a little bowl and watch it get xrayed. I left my purse in the car because I didn't want to deal with that nightmare. I herded the group through the security and we found our group.

The bailiff let us in and the judge was waiting for us. He was a very personable man. He welcomed us into his courtroom and we almost filled it up. The boy sat in front of me with a friend of his and the girls sat beside me. A few times, I had to just put my hand on the boy. He started to get a little loud talking to his friend.

The judge talked to us about how to be a judge, how long it can take to get through law school, and about the way our judicial system works. Then he answered questions from the kids, and some of the parents. He even asked our kids a bunch of questions, and they got most of them right. He even told us about some of the cases he had tried, no names, no specifics.

I was really proud of how most of the kids acted. There was one little girl that is quite a handful. It was her mom that arranged the field trip. She had started to irritate the boy, but he did what I always tell him to do. He removed himself from the situation. He got up, walked around the girl, and came and sat with me. She couldn't get to him, and he wasn't being aggravated. I am so proud of him. The rest of the kids were very polite and respectful. They raised their hands, and were polite, and didn't jump around like monkeys. Yea!

We didn't get to see the judges's chambers. I was a little bummed about that. But he spent over an hour with us and never once looked like he wanted to be somewhere else.

It was a good time. And I'm glad that our first field trip was successful. The kids had a great time and so did Mama. And the boy minded his manners and his mouth.

Have a great day!