Firestation

Playgroup this week consisted of a tour of the local fire station. It was a big hit—the firefighters were great with the kids, and it was really interesting to learn about all of the extra training firefighters in this area receive. (I mean, where else do you have wildfire training and hazmat training and top-secret clearance required all together?) I also really liked how they had one of them suit up in all his gear and then let the kids come up and give him a hug so that they could see what a firefighter coming to help them in a fire would look like and that he wasn't scary.

"Driving" the fire truck was Miss Lu's favorite part. She was so funny talking to the fireman while she was up there—asking him what the computer was for (they store schematics and emergency plans for all the lab and county buildings so while they're en route the chief can pull up the already-in-place plan), why they had a big book on the dashboard (maps), why one of the lights was red (to use at night), and then suddenly exclaiming "I know why you have fans in here—because it gets hot!" 

They also got to tour the deluxe ambulance and crawl all around in the back. And then they ran the lights on both the fire truck and the ambulance. Lucy was literally jumping up and down at that one.

As we pulled into the driveway, she put her fireman's hat back on (they gave all the kids a hat and goody bag) and said "Hey Mom, can we put all my dolls out by the couch and pretend the couch is the truck and I'm driving and coming to rescue them?" Sure :)