This month was the annual “Take Our Children to Work Day” at IBM. Simon was not eligible to attend quite yet, but I think next year he’ll be able to. Our kids look forward to this event far in advance and this year we had a pre-event IBM visit while Jeana was in Colorado.
Jeana dropped the girls off at my office at 10am (yes I actually went into the office for once) and we raced to the first events on the schedule. Jeana had them prepared with backpacks of books to read and to color/write in, toys to play with, and food to eat. Of course, I had the backup plan of two DVDs in my backpack just in case of an emergency. The exciting part is that we went from 10am to 4pm non-stop and then they hung out and played for an hour while I wrapped up some work. We left the office around 5:15pm and they didn’t even fall asleep on the way home. I think they have built up the stamina to make it through a full work day now.
Here are some highlights from our day.
The first thing we wanted to do was go to the cookie walk. They must have walked in circles at least 10 times before Audrey’s cookie was called out. She stood at the cookie reward table trying to decide what to get for quite a while. Finally, she chose a bag of three brownies so that she could share – how sweet. Kate’s cookie was never called out, so we decided to leave.
Downstairs in the old library there were displays of countries around the world. They played instruments from Guatemala, declined spicy gum from Mexico, experienced boredom at the USA table, spoke Portuguese at the Brazil table, and met my friend at the Africa table.
What kids event would be complete without a visit from a fire engine? We got to the engine right before they had to leave, but we still got to climb inside and sit in their chairs. One of the nice firefighters (you could tell he either had kids or has been around them lots) showed Audrey and Kate a “magic door” on the back of the engine where the ladders were stored.
We had lunch in my office – you can see Kate’s spread of food above – and then watched a spelling bee for second, third, and fourth grade kids. Audrey was sad she wasn’t old enough yet to participate, but next year she’ll be ready. When the host would call out the word, I would hurry and have Audrey spell it in my ear. She did alright, but she’ll be better off waiting a year to compete with kids older than her.
Professor Sparky gave us a presentation about volts, microvolts and megavolts. He showed us a theremin and let us try it out! Theremins are the devices used in old scary movies to make UFO or alien sounds.
The day ended with a performance by a local musician / story-teller, Staci Gray. Staci was great with the kids and involved them by having them stand up and move around during the songs. She concluded her show by turning on a bubble machine which invoked a sort of kids mosh-pit up front. Audrey and Kate begged me to let them go up. I hesitated to let them, but gave in and let them go. Here is a clip of the hokey pokey to open the show.
Thanks IBM for a wonderful event again, and for helping me spend fun quality time with my kids. We’re looking forward to next year!
