Zoo Field Trip

Still catching up on all the festivities that have been going on for the last 3 weeks!  It has been crazy around here!  In talking to other moms, everyone is in the same boat with end of school parties, award ceremonies, recitals, etc.  I promise to get back to the funny, goofy mom stuff that is generally the norm.

So the kindergarten got to take a field trip to the zoo.  Can you say exhausting?  I think all of us parents were done about an hour before the kids ever loaded the bus.  It didn't help that I started some medication the night before that decided to make me almost pass out or throw up after spending the day at the zoo with 100 kindergarteners.  I guess the medication combined with the sun and all the walking didn't go so well.  And I tell you what - as much as I think I'm sick of the stroller, I sure wished I'd had it that day.  Hauling all that stuff around and nothing to rest my weary body on.  I didn't realize how much I'd grown dependent on it!

But onto the girls.  Since they are in separate classes I learned last time that in order to chaperone them both, one of them had to go with the other's class and myself for the day.  Mackenzie didn't seem too bothered by it last fall, though Kaitlyn really wanted to stick with her buddy she had had on the bus.  I told them this time we were going to switch.  Well, you would have thought I was purposely seeking to make Kaitlyn's life miserable.  The attitude can sure start early.  She kept giving me dirty looks as the kindergarten waited to load the buses.  I guess next year I won't chaperone them together so they don't have to leave their friends.  I don't completely blame them.  But heaven forbid their twin sister be their friend!

Oh, and this is the other thing.  The cooler.  The room mom had sent an email about people contributing for snacks, etc and asked if anyone could loan a cooler.  So I agreed.  I show up with the cooler and suddenly it became MY baby.  Not only did I all of a sudden have to go fill that sucker up with ice and pack all the kids lunches in it, then I was told I had to be in charge of it!  No way was I going to pull that thing all around the zoo!  Helloooooo.....can you say low blood sugar? 

Thankfully another mom joined me in my plight and then one of the dads knew it had to become dad-duty.  We ended up leaving it in the car until lunch time.  Wouldn't you know it - they chose to eat lunch at a pavilion in the very BACK of the zoo.  He and I had to go all the way to the car in Timbuktoo and back to give everyone their cold lunch.  (By the way, all the other classes made each kid carry their lunch in their backpack.  Sounds like a great plan to me!)  Then on the way back into the zoo, the picture people stop me and this other dad and make us take a photo together!  Can you say awkward?

He was really great though.  He pulled the empty cooler the rest of the day and my kids thought it would be really fun to make his life a living hell by continuously trying to ride on it.  He would nicely smile and say "okay....come on...this isn't a bus...." and they would laugh hysterically until I would come do the mom arm-jerk thing and tell them it wasn't so funny afterall.  I only had to do that about 5 times.  They listened really well.

Aside from that, the kids had fun.  It was a really hot day.  Kaitlyn wore her semi-new tennis shoes and kept telling me that her shoes were dumb.  I guess now that she's almost a 1st grader she's allowed to call her things "dumb."  I asked why they were dumb and she said because they kept making her trip.  She also had no interest in very many of the animals.  She told me the zoo was boring and that she'd seen all those things before.  So lovely, don't you think?  At least the dirty looks had stopped.  She was constantly bringing up the rear of Mackenzie's class because she was off collecting rocks and then trying to break them open so she could find jewels inside and get rich.  Here she is on her own excursion.

Mackenzie enjoyed her day.  She had a great attitude and was a happy camper.  Her favorite animal of the day was the cheetah.  And both girls enjoyed the snakes.  We had to spend some time in the reptile house so we could get some A/C.

All the kids had a blast in this tunnel we found that went through an aquarium.  It was cute except the whole kindergarten eventually ended up in there and nearly trampled a few other smaller children whose parents foolishly let them enter the middle of it all.  I'm not saying our kids shouldn't have been more careful but any experienced parent knows not to send a 1-year-old in the middle of a million kindergarteners.

So that was the zoo.  In short, it was fun, and it killed me.  But at least I get to stay at home and be involved.  That's what I always envisioned about being a mom.  (It was not being a constant source of nourishment...I never knew I would devote so much time to feeding these four little creatures!)  Being the suburban soccer mom and all that running around is much more my style!