Focus Day in Olympia

Happy Birthday today to Martin Luther King Jr! Thanks to him, all kids are off school today and can do what they want ;)
For me, that meant work the whole day and not just that, I stood up at 5!!!! Me and the kids were going with PTA ( a organisation in school ) to a focus day in Olympia (the capital of Washington state) A focus day of the government and their work for the schools. We all went there to make the legislators not forget about the education and try to affect them to put more money in the schools.
The bus that was gonna take us there, left at 7 that's why I stood up at 5 cause I had to make sandwiches for us and get my self a breakfast and get ready. Then I woke up the kids and they were faster up than I thought so we had wait a while downstairs and still we were a bit early. But rather that then late ;)
There were two buses and a lot of people that went together. We didn't knew anyone and it was mostly older kids and parents. Our bus driver was Everett (like the city ;)) and he looked like a bus driver does. Older, a bit big and nice.
It took us maybe 1,5 hour to get to Olympia and the county area with the beautiful Legislative building that looks like the white house or the St Peters church.
When we came, the weather was bad but we went inside so it was OK. We all were pushed in to a room where a lot of other people already were seated. Apparently we were over 800 people there today, who all was gonna share the space...hmmm. It was really crowded and warm. There were some small activities for the kids like face painting, coloring and making of "Noise makers" Otherwise there were just people who talked about how important it is that the education and school don't get forgotten when it comes to the budget and that there can't be any cuts cause there is already not enough money for the schools.
This was a bit boring, both for me and the kids and together with all people and the heat it was not a very pleasant start of the long day.
After a while we were let out of the room and we all marched outside around the area and yelled: "Save our school!" "Cuts hurt kids" etc Well, Filip yelled: "More video game to Filip!" He really got the concept of this ;)
We ended up on a giant stair in front of the building and below different legislators, parents, students and other important people begun to talk. This was very long and I'm really proud of both Filip and Sofia cause they have been so good today. After some goofy pictures and some games (and when the speakers were done ;)) we went inside and had lunch.
Then there were some more activities and we went on a scavenger hunt which was nice cause then we could be outside.
At 1 o'clock the bus started to get back home and now we all were tired after being awake so long. Sofia found a very strange position to sleep in the bus. Her legs were on the floor and her upper body on the seat that u usually sits on ;) But she slept really heavy so either it was comfortable or she was really exhausted.
When we got home we went to Lotta's job to pick up some money cause we had to go and buy sth for Filip's collection of stones. He needed some kind of drawer, similar to those U can put screws and other small pieces in. We went to Home Depot and found one like that. It had a lot of different sized drawers and it was perfect. Sofia bought some rope and hooks cause she wanted to make leashes for her kittens (stuffed animals ;)) And she really needs that cause in Olympia, she lost them a several times!
I helped her with the leashes and then she played school with all her other animals. Filip organized his stones and I helped him to try to search for the names. We compared with pictures and guessed some. He has a lot of them and it's cool look at them.
The evening has been really calm and I think I'll go to ed early now, cause I feel quite worn out after being awake since 5 ;)

Miss U all!
Love Sandra