Sunbeams: A Series of Unfortunate Events

Last week at church I taught the sunbeams while their teacher, Alli, was out of town. The lesson was on honoring our mothers and fathers and there was a little activity to complete a short family tree. There are normally about 5 or 6 kids in there so I felt safe to print out 8 pictures. Of course, once we got to class and sat down, I realized that there were in fact, 10 kids. I stupidly turned down help from the primary president and regretted it 5 minutes into class. After the prayer and a short intro, we began talking about things we can do to show honor and respect to our moms and dads (or guardians, as there are a few in our ward who don't have "parents"). I was using a ball to toss to the kids, one at a time, who would in turn answer a way that we can help our moms and dads. Since there were 10 of them, I only threw the ball to the few who were sitting quietly for the sake of time. I told the others that they would also have the chance later in the lesson to catch the ball. This was a mistake because one of the little boys, who is quite emotional, decided to go and pout in the back of the class. Conveniently placed in the back of the classroom is a folded up ping pong table. He thought it would be fun to go behind it and try to push it over. I tried to resume teaching the lesson and at the same time console this little boy as well as prohibit him from pushing the ping pong table over on the other kids.

Destroy decided that right then was the perfect moment to announce that he needed to go to the bathroom. Before I could stop him, he bolted out the door and ran to the bathroom. I knew that he needed help because he was wearing a belt and couldn't get it off by himself. So, I quickly started distributing the family trees to color, which I had planned on saving until the end. Now I could go and help Destroy while kids had something to do. It wasn't until then that I realized that I didn't have enough pictures. So, with only 7 of the kids with pictures, I took one to go make copies and to help Destroy with his belt. The kids left without pictures were quite upset but I assured them that I would make copies, help Destroy, and be back in a flash. I dashed to the bathroom and realized that Destroy had not gone into women's, but into the men's room. Great, I thought. Nothing I could do. Next I went to the library to make copies, but just my luck, it was closed. During church. So, I went back to the classroom and entered to find three of the boys sword-fighting with their rolled up family trees. Thank goodness for little girls, they were crouched over their drawings as they were supposed to. After calming the class, I sat down to wait for Destroy to get back. I broke the bad news of the locked library to the kids without family trees but suggested that I could draw them each a tree by hand that they could color. The first kid I gave it to crumpled it up and threw it at me. They wanted the real thing. Then enters Destroy with Emily, the 2nd counselor in tow. As she ushered him in, she was obviously trying to suppress some giggling. I guess I was wrong in thinking that Destroy wouldn't be able to get his pants down by himself. I wasn't wrong, however, in thinking that he could get them back up by himself. Emily had found him wandering the halls with his pants and underwear around his ankles.

By then it was the end of class. And what had we accomplished? Half the kids had finished their family trees (half of those had turned their family trees into swords), I had discovered that the library randomly closes while church it still in session, the ping pong table was on the verge of falling over, only a few kids got to answer questions with the ball, and belts are harder to bring back up than down while still buckled.

On top of all that, Destroy managed to get himself lost after church as we went to get Search out of nursery. Being smaller and more excusable, Destroy was able to dodge below everyone while I was busy trying to follow him, excusing myself for wedging between people, ducking under conversations, and apologizing for stepping on toes, I still managed to lose him. Destroy was not in the nursery when I got there and was not visible down either hallway. Finally after 15 minutes, finding recruits to help me, and numerous trips out to the parking lot, I finally found him in the lobby held down by my friend Carol. When we got home, the boys took naps. And so did I.