The Zoo and Skating!

Yesterday was busy! Rob was ancy to get out and do something with the kids. The weather was cool, not too hot, but definitely not cold. Jacket weather, but sunny. So we decided to head for the zoo. We left fairly early in the morning, because we had to get back for the kids school skate party at 5:00.

Highlights of the day:

Jacob making ghosts sounds anytime we went into one of the dark rooms in the zoo.

The chimps getting into a fight over the baby chimp.

The chimps running up and smacking the glass right in front of different people.

Jacob coming up to me at the chimp exhibit and saying "Mom, I never want to leave here."

The chimp that ran around the exhibit screaming at the top of his lungs. Very random.

The lioness standing up, eyeing one particular person and then pouncing at him. She was more than half way up the wall of the enclosure before she went back down. She then paced, while maintaining eye contact with her intended victim. She definitely won the dominant species award in that contest. I wouldn't want to run into a lion alone in a dark alley.

The animals were all very active at the zoo yesterday. Probably our best trip ever. Also we walked the entire zoo. Something I swore I would never do again after the first time we went. It's a different experience when you don't have a baby in sling and you're pushing a stroller with two kids up the hill to the see the animals, and it's not 100 degrees out. It was pleasant and relaxing. The joys of having kids that can finally walk the five miles (Rob said we only walked three, but the zoo guide said the trails were five. Either way it wasn't bad and all three kids did it without being carried!)


Skating

Each year the kids' school hosts a skating party. I usually go by myself with Beth or Beth and Caleb and Rob manages to avoid it. not this year. We drove straight from the zoo to the skating rink. The kids were worried they were going to miss it, and we were only five minutes late.

Highlights:

Watching Caleb go from a non-skater to skating by the end of the night. He kept falling down at the beginning of the night. Like every ten feet. He did some amazing splits, but he would get up and keep going. I took him skating about a year ago, and he was out of his skates in about ten minutes. This year he didn't give up. He's got a really big bruise on his elbow to show how hard he worked.

Seeing Beth really take off and have fun with her friends. She came home with a bruised tailbone and is complaining that it is hard to walk since she did something to her ankle, but she had fun overall.

Jacob skated for about two minutes, took off his skates and played arcade games with me the rest of the night. He was super patient and we danced the hokie pokie and the duck dance together. it's nice to know that I still have somone that's willing to be silly with me in public.

Rob in roller skates. That was fun. He was really shaky at first, but he was fine by the time he took them off. His comment: I stopped skating when my feet hurt so bad I couldn't stand up anymore. He said he could feel the bolts in the skates poking him in his feet.

The rest of the week went by pretty quickly. I've been so busy lately that it's hard to keep up with the housework and everything else. But we are getting by. I'm planning on moving furniture around this week and I get a new book on Tuesday to read. I'm excited about that. I actually found a four leaf clover after looking for one for as long as I could remember. There is this totally awesome patch of clover next to the bus stop and I spend my time in the afternoons sitting on some stranger's lawn and digging though the clover looking for one. It's not quite as bad as it sounds, but I was super excited when I found it.

Caleb wrote a book this week. It's pretty awesome. I'd transcribe it, but I'm feeling lazy right now. It involved a cat, a fox, some dynamite, and eating of other animals. There were some fights and a monster. The best part is the phonetic spelling he did through the whole thing. Actually I think the book is at school right now. He did it on his own at home, not as homework or a school assignment, but he was so proud of it, he took it to school.

Random Quotes from Kids

Beth to Caleb:

I'm not actually jumping on you, just kicking you, so it shouldn't hurt.

Jacob:

I am your grandma. I am your grandma. (Randomly at the zoo in the bathroom, to the tune on this YouTube video I've never seen, but it does disturb me http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfY1lfFu8j8)


I hope you all have a great week! And somehow survive the time change.