Emily's 6th Grade Zoo Trip

At the end of September, Emily's class took a weeklong field trip to the zoo!  I signed up to help on Monday and Tuesday*.  It was very chilly, especially being outside the entire time, but after a trip to my car for a blanket, I felt better.

Emily was much better prepared, as she followed the list of recommended items to the letter.

I think Emily had a really nice time and learned some cool animal facts.  They got to go behind the scenes in several animal habitats, and spend time each day studying individual animals.

Emily might add some extra details here, so I'm leaving this as a marker for her.  But if she doesn't it can just stay.

I'm super thankful for our local zoo, and what a wonderful resource it is for our whole community!

later days

*On Tuesday morning, I woke up throwing up.  I felt awful.  I was going to power through, because I felt so bad cancelling my offer of help the second day, but I couldn't do it.  I managed to drop of the kids at school, then came home and slept for 3 hours.  I still didn't feel great, but I felt better. Sadly, I already had plans in place for the remainder of the week, so I was unable to offer another day of my time.

Edit: posted closer to the date of the event, for the sake of continuity.

Potter Park Zoo, at Alice's Request

One day, while William was travelling, we were going on an adventure, much to our surprise, Alice wanted to come, and not only that, but she also wanted to go to the zoo!

Avia treated us to McDonald's before we drove over to the zoo.

I still have the old pictures pop up from when even Emily and William were shorter than the sign*, but it is fun to see the sign as a kind of growth chart. = )

The otters were very active right before we left!

Aside from Alice's full and happy participation, the trip was mostly unremarkable, but very pleasant.

We stayed longer than anticipated, so that we could watch the penguin feeding!

I love our little local zoo!

later days

*circa 2018

Spring Break

We stayed put for spring break this year, after moving it 2 weeks, so that it could follow a crazy week, instead of being just before a crazy week.

We tried lots of new recipes.  Alice made some garlic bread from some homemade baguettes that I made.  We ate it with spaghetti that night.

At the same time, Emily and Juliet were making dumplings from the ingredients that Emily and I collected from various grocery stores around Lansing.

The recipe made dozens of them, so we froze a third of them for us, froze some for Sarah & Avia, and then set some aside to bring for snack on enrichment day.

We had a few leftover dumpling wrappers, so Emily found a desert dumpling using strawberries and chocolate.  I overcooked the sauce, but it was a strange combination anyhow, so I don't know that we would have used it even had it turned out.

The following night we tired our creations, some pan fried and some boiled.  They were a big hit.  We are looking forward to eating our next round.

The only group outing we made was to the zoo.  It was a chilly day, but not rainy, and we had the place almost to ourselves.

The otters were very playful.

The red panda sign was an even bigger hit than previous visits thanks to Turning Red.

Once upon a time they all fit on the turtle at the same time.  No longer. = (

The lion's roar was so loud it was startling.  We read that it could be heard up to five miles away!  We could hear it again as we were almost to the exit, that is quite a loud sound!

I took some zoomed in images of hard to spot animals in the reptile house to show those who couldn't spy them.

The tarantula was difficult to spot even with the zoom!

The spiderweb is a new installation (at least for us) and the kids sure enjoyed it, even in the cold!

We could only convince Alice to stay for a single hour, luckily, we were cold and hustling, and finished the whole circuit in that time. 

Later that afternoon, Emily had a (make-up) dentist appointment, since she'd been ill the previous week when she and Alice both had appointments.  Grace tagged along, and we went to Five Below and Target to do a little birthday shopping beforehand.

On Thursday, Juliet lost her front tooth, so now she and Grace are mirror images of one another. = )

Not doing much was really relaxing and it was a needed break for sure.  Now we are in the homestretch of the school year and looking forward to warmer weather.

later days

Adventures at Potter Park Zoo

We've kept our zoo membership, despite using it less than pre-pandemic, and this summer we enjoyed a couple of events!

The first was the family night.  They fed us hotdogs, drinks, chips and cookies.  

The birdhouse was a favorite, as usual.  Poor Billy didn't get to feed them though, as they only had one stick avialable per child, and none for sale. = (

They also had activities like coloring and a hula-hoop "dance party." 

This might well be the final year that they will all fit on this turtle!

Since Billy met us there, he and the big girls were able to leave, while the 3 little ones and I stayed to see things that we missed the first walk through.

My favorite part was getting to go inside buildings and see areas that are normally not accessible to members! We got to go inside the veterinary clinic and see all the medical items they use to care for the animals.  We also got a tour of the rhino house, it was very cool to see too!  Everything is so big in there.

The next week, Billy and I returned to the zoo for a brew at the zoo event.  It was much smaller than our previous visit, but enjoyable right up until the mosquitoes joined us. 

We used uber for the first time, and after the zoo headed to old town to check out the evening scene there.  It was a bit of a staycation, in the sense that we booked a hotel only a few miles from our house, but it was enough of a get away for me!

I was worried that the evening wouldn't happen between Billy flying for work (a day trip) and getting in late, and my mom being needed by my Grandma and Uncle in Oklahoma, but it all worked out in the end.

We renewed our membership for another year, hopefully we'll be able to visit a few times this year, maybe even plan a school day there!

later days

Edit: this post was written in September, but I've added it to August for chronological consistency.