It's hard to believe that it is already time to head back to school. Yesterday we went to back to school night for the kids. They don't want to admit it but they are all so excited to go back to school.
Taking the kids to back to school night always brings back those memories of going to school. It was always exciting to find your name on those long class lists. You would search and search until you found your name and then search to see who was going to be in class with you. After that you would either groan or celebrate depending on who you got as a teacher. Then you checked out your classroom, got your supply list and then got to go school shopping! Nothing like the thrill of a new lunchbox and backpack!
It is strange to think that we have a fifth grader this year. To this day my most vivid memories of school start at around the fifth grade. It may be because that is the first school year that I only attended one school, I'm not sure. Erik says that he remembers fourth and fifth grade clearly too so I think that it is just that at about that time you are old enough to be able to carry those memories even many years after they happen. Alek is really excited to start band this year. The first week of school they get to go in and try out the instruments and decide if they want to join. I have mixed feeling about school starting. I am of course looking forward to having a quieter house during the day and hopefully getting things done but I am not looking forward to the homework, early bedtimes, packing three lunches every morning and most of all 7am school bus! Yuck!
Friday, July 31, 2009
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Our friends the goats
Funny how the highlight of a trip can often be the simplest parts. The kids LOVED the petting zoo. They had a calf and a miniature sabu and of course goats. The kids could brush and pet the goats as much as they wanted. Each goat had on a collar, like a dog collar, that had its name on it. We all like finding out the name of each goat.
Even Eleanore got in some goat riding action.
Andrews Birds
We first discovered Andrews dislike of birds when we first got to the zoo and went to the aviary section. He jumped at every bird that he saw from the pigeons on the ground eating crumbs to the birds in their cages. Most of the birds are of course totally enclosed in their cages but some cages you can enter and look at them flying around. Seems a little dangerous to me...mostly because of the obvious repercussions of standing under flying birds but it makes for a fun experience. You go in the gate and are standing in a cage of sorts then you go through another gate and into the cage. Like at the dog park to keep the animals from getting out. Well, we went in one that had some owls in them. You had to really look to see the owls but one was hiding the corner right above the exit gate. When Andrew saw it he tore out of that cage as fast as he could and stood in the little cage between the two gates. He looked like a shark diver! He was okay to look at them from afar until we stood in front of the Condor cage and that huge Condor opened its wings...I knew little boys had high pitched screams but wow!
By this time the poor kid had had enough of birds. Unless he was looking at large animals he didn't want to leave the zoo cart that we had rented. We stopped at the savanna exhibit to look at the giraffes and gazelle roaming around. Like most zoos these two peacocks where strolling around freely. Andrew didn't notice them at first, he was happy to watch the giraffes. The female peacock walked up to him and stood next to his cart. Andrew looked over and saw this huge bird standing within hands reach of him. He jumped from the cart and bolted scaring the peacock. The peacock started to run, Andrew started to run, both bird and boy thought they where being chased! They ran back and forth along the sidewalk each scaring the life out of each other! I was trying to grab Andrew, he was screaming and trying to get away from the bird, the bird was squawking and running from Andrew, people are taking pictures....it was crazy but funny in the end!
By this time the poor kid had had enough of birds. Unless he was looking at large animals he didn't want to leave the zoo cart that we had rented. We stopped at the savanna exhibit to look at the giraffes and gazelle roaming around. Like most zoos these two peacocks where strolling around freely. Andrew didn't notice them at first, he was happy to watch the giraffes. The female peacock walked up to him and stood next to his cart. Andrew looked over and saw this huge bird standing within hands reach of him. He jumped from the cart and bolted scaring the peacock. The peacock started to run, Andrew started to run, both bird and boy thought they where being chased! They ran back and forth along the sidewalk each scaring the life out of each other! I was trying to grab Andrew, he was screaming and trying to get away from the bird, the bird was squawking and running from Andrew, people are taking pictures....it was crazy but funny in the end!
Zoo Adventures
The Phoenix zoo is running a special for the summer...kids under twelve get in free before 5:00. Leah and I decided that it would be a fun way to spend the day while she was here so we packed up the kids and all of their stuff and headed off to the zoo. We had no idea that we would have such an adventure. Ethan who is our resident animal guru wanted to see it all...every animal, every bird, every reptile! We learned that Ethan likes to read all the signs, Alek is a map fanatic, Andrew is afraid of birds, and Emily whined for 45 minutes about seeing camels! By the time we had made it half way through the temperature was over 100. The kids played in the spray park for a while then we headed to petting zoo. After that we saw a few more animals and decided it was time to go. We had been there for several hours and still had not seen the entire zoo. Ethan was sad about that but we promised to come back again. I am going to post our zoo fun in a couple of posts so that this one is not so long.
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