oh sweet zoo

Yesterday was our field trip to the zoo. It was the most beautiful day for a field trip outside. The kids were sun screened up and ready for their zoo adventure... or maybe it was the bus ride... either way they could not contain their excitement.

Let me first tell you that I love field trips! I would do one once a month if I could...maybe even weekly if my kids wouldn't go crazy. I love doing things out of the ordinary.

This was our third field trip of the year. In the fall, we went to Tom's Farm where we picked pumpkins, went on a hayride, played on their playground, swung from a rope swing... we had ball. Then this February, we went to the Children's Museum which allowed our kids to freely explore which they loved. And of course yesterday we visited the zoo.

You have to expect with 4 and 5 year olds that there is going to be some drama, potty breaks, runny noses, and of course melt downs. Yesterday was no exception.

Like I explained yesterday, Mrs. Parham and I were childless so we walked around with Mrs. Holland and Z. Z is a character. We love him so much and will greatly miss him next year. He speaks his own Z language which we are all proficient in now. He keeps us laughing. So it was 3 teachers and Z. People must have thought "that child must be crazy if he needs 3 adults with him." I assure you he's quite good....most of the time.

We let him lead us around as our tour guide...with his map, hat, and all. Thankfully we were able to spot most of our kids throughout the day so we were able to take pictures, give hugs, and even watch the sea lion show with them.


One thing you should know about our tour guide, Z, is that a schedule is huge for him. He knows that after lunch it's nap time. Keep that in mind....

He was ready to eat lunch at 10:45 so we found the gorgeous picnic area by Teton Trek. After lunch, we made our way to the elephants. We realized we needed something cold to keep us cool. Z ended up with an ice cream cone bigger than him.

It mights as well have been this big!

As we watched the sad, dry, wrinkly elephants we noticed Z's ice cream quickly melting....then leaning... knowing that if the ice cream fell on the ground he'd be done for because remember he has eaten lunch and he is ready for nap time....so I took my hand and squished the ice cream down so it was almost flat. This worked well... for awhile.... then the flattened ice cream began melting even more so I decided to take part of the ice cream off. We then realized that the cone was broken so taking the ice cream off made the remaining ice cream fall to the ground.


You can pretty much guess what happened then... first sniffles and a pout then when we wouldn't buy him a popsicle the mouth flew open and the head went back. Then we walked past the merry-go-round... yep, you guessed it. He wanted to ride it and we didn't have time so our remaining 15 minutes consisted of us dragging our very tired Z through the monkey area.

This is not Z but basically sums it up.

Once we finally met the rest of our group at the front fountain, I realized the kids leaning over in it elbow deep were in fact most of mine. (At least they weren't stealing the money this year!) Although, this time the game of choice was to take the pennies out and see who could throw them the furthest. I'm sorry to the nice people who were hit by the many pennies that didn't make it into the fountain.... I assure you this game ended quickly. I promise my kids aren't as crazy as they seem.

So........

Dear Zoo,

Thank you for providing a fun day out for my kids. It was a break that we all needed. And penny fountain, thank you for tempting my kids with your refreshing goodness. Most came back to school lightly soaked because of you.

Sincerely,
A thankful K4 Teacher