How on earth does time fly by so quickly????? Here we are, getting close to the end of the school year, that means fun activities are thrown into the mix!!! Bobby and his special needs buddies were off to the Stepping Stones Arts Festival.
The one great thing about yearly activities.....you can really notice the growth from the previous year.
My friend Shelly and I like to volunteer for this event and we especially like to be in charge of the bouncy house!! Do Bobby and friends get to jump a little longer because of this perk??? Possibly!!It is fun for us to be there, we can experience some of the fun with our boys, but they also get out with some independence from mom. They go off and do activities with their teachers and come over to visit with us when it is time to JUMP!!
When Bobby and his teacher first made their way over to the bouncy house to say HI, Ms. Kim said that Bobby had led a horse around and that the horse was wearing shoes. Well, later when I saw pictures of the horse, these were definitely not the shoes that I was expecting!!
How cute is this little girl with amazing pink shoes??!!! I would love to know what Bobby thought about this.....after all, the last horses that he saw in person where the wild horses on the beaches of the Outer Banks of NC, and they definitely weren't wearing shoes!!!!!!
The boys, Bobby and Sonny, with their autism teacher from grades Kindergarten through fifth grade, Ms. Kim. I'm not sure who is sadder that this is their last year together before the boys move on to middle school next year. Oh Ms. Kim, don't you want to move on to middle school with them??!!!
Next up, the boys got in line to jump in the bouncy house. I, of course, wanted to get some group pictures. If you know much about autism, you know that getting a good picture of 5 children on the spectrum is virtually impossible. They are not all going to look at the camera or appear to be paying attention at all. LOL!!! This is as good as it gets!!
There was a dance troupe doing a number behind us and they had just finished....Bobby started clapping, which cracked all of the adults up!! Good job dancers!! Now, raise your hand if you want to jump.........
Yes, the finally got to go in and jump!! They had a blast. Watching Bobby and Sonny together was particularly enjoyable. The look on Bobby's face shows that he is indeed having fun.
Having fun!!
After they jumped, the boys went off to do some art activities with Ms. Kim while Shelly and I stayed and ran the bouncy house. Every once in a while I would catch a glimpse of Bobby across the building and I was just so happy to notice that Kim didn't have to keep a death grip on Bobby as was the norm in the past. She could have her back to Bobby while she was helping another child. Bobby stayed close by and did some people watching. PROGRESS!!
I looked up and noticed the West Virginia University mascot, the Mountaineer. I told Shelly that I was going to go get our boys and get their picture. The Mountaineer was very generous and patient while the boys got in position. Bobby's grabbing the gun, Sonny's getting a hug...pictures success!
Bobby was getting a little restless a little later and I offered to bring him back over to the bouncy house area with me so that Ms. Kim and Sonny could do another art activity before lunch. We had plenty of chairs for the kids to sit and take off/put on their shoes so Bobby sat for a while, jumped, and went over to another active area and jumped on the trampoline.
The rest of his crew came over to wait until their time to go to lunch. Here he is with one of our favorites....Ms. Deb, one of the autism aides. Yes, leaving these ladies next year is..........ugh!!
Fun, Cooper the mascot of the West Virginia Black Bears baseball team. Yes, we have to go get a picture!!! Sonny and Bobby.......
Still had 10 minutes or so until lunch time (the different schools had scheduled times due to limited tables). Shelly and I were having our lunch break and the high school volunteers who were working with us took over so that we could hang out with our boys. We sat down for a music activity. There were different instruments in the middle, so we grabbed one and gave them to the boys.
Finally, time to go to lunch. On the way to the tables, we ran into another one of our favorite people, Coach Lorri, their adaptive PE teacher. Thankfully, Coach will also work with the boys in middle school.
Cooper was back and the Stepping Stones staff wanted a picture, so the boys obliged and took another one for us!!
The boys went off to lunch and Shelly and I went back to our station. Later on, the came back for one more jump before they left for the day.
I witnessed a couple of younger boys having meltdowns, which seems to occur most in the bouncy house line.....waiting for something you really, really want to do in autism land is so difficult. It breaks my heart to witness it, but it also shows me just how far Bobby has come. He waits now, he doesn't like it, but complies much better than I had ever dreamed when he was younger.
