"Escaping the Heck Out of Here"

Early on, we declared it "Backwards Day," and began to have "the most terrible day." We went outside first thing, where most of the Turtles traded names (including Carol and Tamara). 

Then, many of the Turtles decided to work on "escaping the heck out of here." They gathered magical items and climbed up and around and under, to locate a secret escape route.

After a silly snack outside (where milk was water and bananas were crackers), we went inside. There, we had Nightime Meeting, which we began, appropriately, with a Moment of Noise.

Then it was Maggie's turn for the Treasure Box, and she happily shared her items with friends and answered their questions.

Then, the Elephant returned to see about this consensus business. The Turtles took turns saying why they had chosen a particular character for the book ("Because they are cute," "Because they are pink," "I like them because they are stinky!"). After everyone had their say, the Turtles were asked if any of them wanted to change their minds, and quite a few did! 

However, we still had a few too many characters. Then, Tamara had an idea - what if we found a way to make our characters a blend of the things we liked best. The Turtles thought this was a great idea - so the Guinea Pig became the The Guinea Pig wearing Stinky Shoes, and the Dolphin became the Pink Dolphin and the Aardvark is now a Talking Aardvark who always has a Rainbow Parrot riding on his back! This was followed by a gleeful "Consensus Dance!" I think you'll agree that the process left us with far more colorful characters than we had at the beginning.

Then since the Turtles (or the Snakes, as we called them today), were so eager to escape, we decided to go with it. Slyly sneaking out the back door (which only opened with a magic word), we took off for sites unknown. The kids led the way and we discovered some new secret hideaways, a great rolling down hill and an abandoned soccer ball.

When we returned inside, Backward Day continued with the Turtles taking turns reading to the teachers. Soon, it was time to sing a song with no words, say hello to our half-day friends, and gather for breakfast. It was a very sad day ; )