Zoo!

I guess these pics are 3 weeks old now, but I'm trying to catch up before I blog our spring break trip! :)

The weather has been so beautiful that we have been trying to spend as much time outside, before it gets just miserably hot!  Annie took her first train ride, and she wasn't quite sure what to think of it. She's not the biggest fan of air blowing in her face, and that little train actually picks up quite a bit of speed!  I love Annie in the headband!  Christy got it for her for Christmas, but her head was shockingly too small to wear it till now.  As soon as Noah saw her in it he declared she looked like a cute alien!  I agree, and also see quite a resemblance to Shrek.  :)

We usually go to the zoo in the morning, but this time we arrived about lunch time and actually stayed until they closed.  It was officially the longest we have ever spent at the zoo.  But the boys were just so well behaved and everyone was having so much fun we didn't want to stop.  We officially went to see the adorable red panda, because it was part of our China unit.  They were also excited that they had a photo of the great wall displayed near the animals.  We're going to try and visit the zoo as many times as we can for each of the countries that we study.  This week we are studying South Korea, and sadly our zoo does not have the animals that were included in our unit.

We hadn't been since they opened up the new Africa section, and the kids were happy to see some new stuff.  I liked how it was all laid out, but was a bit disappointed with the quantity of animals.  I just thought there would be so many more!

We did really like seeing the chimps, and they were really close, so the kids got to see all the details they have missed in the past. I love the picture of Wyatt looking at the one up by the window.  You can tell how mesmerized by him he was!  They also had this neat little snack station set up where they could use a stick to fish for a treat - the kids loved watching this.

At the end of the exhibit we arrived at the new giraffe house just in time for the opportunity to feed the giraffes.  Noah didn't want to do it, but Wyatt did so we shelled out the five bucks.  They let the whole family go to the feeding station, so Noah finally decided to give it a shot.  He was so nervous about it he stuff really far away, and the giraffe has to REALLY stretch to get the lettuce.  Everyone there laughed, and well, you know how Noah does not like to be laughed at.  He was FURIOUS.  No more feeding animals for him!

We stopped for snacks late in the afternoon, and the kids had their first taste of Dippin' Dots.  Quite a bit of excitement for Wyatt!

The boys played for nearly 2 hours in the Children's zoo, and Annie was entertained by her Daddy.  She is so tickled by him!

And of course the day ended with Annie freaking herself out.  That's always a sure sign its time to go home!  We never buy stuff at the zoo store, but we decided to splurge for this wonderful day, so before we headed out the gate we stopped off to pick out something for each kid.  I have to write these details down cause I know I'll never remember it, and I was so tickled by Wyatt's choice of souvenirs.   In typical Noah fashion, he couldn't decide what to get cause he just wanted SO MANY things.  He finally settled on a tube of plastic ocean animals (like we don't have enough of those). The only stuff Wyatt wants in stores like this is the $2 junk section.  You know, pens with animals on the top, bracelets, pencils and stuff.  Out of the ENTIRE store, the only thing he wanted was this little pressed penny collector book.  You know, so he could store his collection of pressed pennies.  This boy is truly obsessed with storing groups of items!  I'm gonna have to take a picture of his collection of junk in his step stool.  So worried this boy is going to be a hoarder! ha! :)  He was so happy on our spring break trip he got a few more pennies to include.  Now we are on the search for more pressed penny machines!