Brant & I go to Biz Town!!!

Shelley & I went to Biz Town, as chaperons,with our fifth graders this Weds. We had to go through a 90 min. training session b/f the kids arrived, which meant we had to leave at 6:30am (ok Shelley...6:50 :) ) to get there on time. It was the absolute FUNNEST field trip that I've ever been on!! The kids and teachers had a TON of prep stuff that they worked on for weeks in advanced! Stuff like, kids running for Mayor, voting for Mayor, interviewing for jobs, learning to write out a deposit slip & checks, learn to balance their check books...as I said, a TON of stuff!! Biz Town was set up totally like a town! It was so awesome!! I'll just explain as I go:
Brant was a Teller at Wells Fargo! It was fun to see that his customer at the time when peeked in on him was Emily Chou! Brant probably had one of the busiest jobs in the whole town b/c all of the businesses had deposits they had to make and every civilian got two pay checks during our time there...which means, of coarse, that they were wanting to deposit those and take out a little cash!! Every time I stopped by, the line was wrapped around out the Wells Fargo door and down the hall!!All of the businesses had real, working computers with their individual programs on them! It was fun to watch the kids working so hard and doing such a great job!The CFO's of each company had to put each employee in on their computers and print out everyone's paychecks and then would pass them out during the scheduled staff meetings!
Because Brant was so busy at work, I used my checks (yes, volunteers got 'fake checks' too!!) and went to a few places and bought him some goods before all the stores were sold out of all the good stuff(Yo--yo word! Mama's got your back!). I wanted to get him a Diamond back hat, but those were the first things kids bought, so I left the DB Stadium and ran across the 'street' (yes, they even had street signs!) to Best Buy. Here I got him a 'Geek Squad' Hat. If you look behind us to the left, is Blue Cross Blue Shield, where I purchased not only a water bottle, but also two matching wrist bands (one for each of us to wear to remember our fun times here) (...go ahead and start playing the 'oh how sweet' music!)!...to the right is the Airport.
I peeked in through the window at City Hall to see what Tyler was up to and it seems that he was hard at work to be sure the town was running just as it should! The desk in the far back, middle, is the Mayor's desk...Mayor Tony!
And over at Papa John's Emily was working hard to keep employees motivated and customers happy!...she was the CEO, ya know! I bought some pretzels there and they were yummy!!
Going on a business trip or just need to get out of town? There's Brant enjoying a short show while flying! Brant entered a drawing that the Airline was doing and won a "Fly as many times as you want for free' pass!! The others had to pay to fly. Needless to say, he only made it on twice b/c he there were just too many other stores to visit on his breaks! His friend, Hayden, made a fabulous stewardess!!
So here's the Dback Stadium...well, this is the flat screen tv! I don't know why I didn't get a shot of the other side...it had stadium seating. The kids could pay to sit in the stadium and watch a show.
Cox Cable. The kids that were the Newscasters would do their interviews here. There were tv's set up all through the town so we could all watch them. Many kids would pay to go and drum up business for companies. One of the first things that the CEO's had to do was to fill out their loan application and take it to the bank to get approved. This would give them the money they needed to run their business. Their goal was then to pay off their business loan, so that's why the Advertising & Sales Manager's would try to drum up as much business as they could. I supervised The Print Shop. We sold cute picture frames, stampers, charms and the Design artist made custom business cards for clients. A lot of the teachers came and bought the business cards. The computer programs were so kid friendly and the kids did such a great job with it!!Another way they could drum up business was to go buy air time at the Radio Station.
Tyler is conducting some important business!! He did come visit me a couple of times. First b/c he needed my signature on an important document, the second time b/c he needed me to come to City Hall with him and take a survey on his computer and the third time was to award me with a "Thanks for Volunteering" Certificate! He shook my hand and all!...I wonder if Shelly got an award???...I think he just has his favorites!!
Emily & Shelly after a hard days work!! Shelly worked at the Newspaper...place. They had a photographer who went around and took pictures and I think a writer, editor, the whole bit! By the end of the work day they printed off an awesome Town Newspaper!!Where would the town be without the good ol paper?...I'm sure many of us wouldn't spend so much time on the can, that's for sure!And of, coarse, what kind of town would it be w/o Papa John's?!
At the beginning of the day, Brant said, "Mom, I'll come get you and take you out to lunch, ok?!" So here we are at lunch!! I love this kid!! Brant wanted me to go ssooo bad and was SSoooo excited that I went! He and I have both talked about it all week and he has even given me a couple of Thank You cards for going! I love you Brant and had such an unforgettable time with you!! It meant a lot to me, too, to experience that with you!! I love you stinker!


***Thanks a TON to Autumn & Jeni with helping get kids to school and keeping Rissa for me so that I could go on this cool trip with Brant!!This is Jeni's post about how her day keeping Rissa was:

Marissa? Is that you?
So, I watched Marissa for Tiffany today.....imagine my surprise when I picked up the always perfectly put together Marissa.......needless to say, I think Marty was in charge this morning. :)

Parker and Marissa had a GREAT time playing together. They are pretty dang cute. :) (Yes, I changed her clothes and fixed her hair. :) )