A Fire Drill Never Forgotten

Pumpkin Day has been hyped all week in my room. Literally... it has been motivation for a lot of things and today it was finally here. I made such a big deal about it so I invited our friends that are not normally with us for math to join us just for today. We split into 3 groups (yes, I'm lucky and have great help) to rotate stations. I had 5 stations: sink or float, measure it (height, weight, ribs, circumference), describe it (adjectives), design it (draw a pumpkin & make it look like your favorite character from a book), and LAST but not least.... COUNT IT (dig in and count the seeds aka MESSY as all get out). Well, stations 1-4 ran like a piece of cake. I saved time at the end for the kids to dig into the pumpkin and feel all that gooey stuff. Literally right in the middle of children diving into the pumpkin, I hear a noise that is one you don't want to hear at that moment in that situation. THE FIRE BELL. I'm thinking to myself, REALLY? Of course this would happen. I remember looking up and every child's eyes were on me as their hands were shoved inside the pumpkins. It's almost like they were thinking "What do we do? We are covered in pumpkin." I said, "Line Up!" The kids quickly lined up and we took care of our friends needs. Talk about nerve racking... Not to mention, I had friends with me that I didn't normally have so I was worried about my numbers on the way out. So we get outside and the person in charge of me asks "Ms. Wexler, what are your numbers?" I don't answer because I am thinking to myself... "Okay, really, is everyone here?" Thank goodness for my great math skills, I realized I had everyone I was supposed to have. After I replied that I did, I looked down at not only my hands, but ALL of the hands of my students... they were COVERED in pumpkin slime. I know you aren't supposed to talk/laugh in a fire drill, but it was HILARIOUS after the fact. One kid held up his hands with pumpkin goo just DRIPPING from his hands. It was simply comical!!! As crazy as the moment was... looking back it is definitely a fire drill I 100% will never forget :)