A Lovely Day for the Zoo

Wildman brought his friend, VG, along with us to the zoo on Sunday.  I had heard that the cheetah exhibit would be opening in February.  Unfortunately, we were a week early for the cheetahs.  It did not stop us from having fun though!  And it gives us a reason to go back to the zoo next weekend.  Cheetahs!

Our family zoo pass expires at the end of this month so I’m all for getting as many trips in as we can.

VG’s preschool class has a stuffed pet snake named, Fast, who gets to go home with the weekly line leader for the weekend.  VG was the line leader last week so Fast got to join us on our zoo trip.  Fast has a diary of his weekend adventures with the children.  I made sure to take plenty of photos of him for VG’s mom to paste into the diary.

We spent a lot of time in the Paws On section of the zoo.  The boys built a fort with J.

I pretended to be a sea turtle and they rescued me…

They drove the mini fishing boat several times.

Eventually, we ventured out to see some animals but not before making some plaster molds of animal footprints.  Wildman wanted a deer hoof and VG chose a small bear print.  Cutie Pie wanted nothing to do with it.

We checked out the vultures.  Outside of the vulture cage is a scale that tells you how long it will take for vultures to devour your carcass.  Nice visual, no?  It’s fun trying to explain that to preschoolers too…

We spent a solid 4 hours at the zoo.  We did almost everything there was to do: animals, Paws On, zoo train, animal detective area, even a picnic lunch.  On the way out we hit the Wendy’s for a round of junior frosties.  The boys were exhausted and content as they inhaled their yummy treats.

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This is Why I Have Collapsed into a Boneless Heap

This was my day:

7:00 AM- wake up

7:00-8:30 AM- wash face, brush teeth, get dressed, make breakfast, pour juice, make coffee, surf the net for a bit, make the bed, clean up breakfast dishes, do make up, get kids dressed, locate shoes and get into the car

8:30-8:45 AM- drive to vacation bible school and drop Wildman off

9:00 AM- Pick up my mom

9:00- 9:45 AM- go to gas station, drive back to my house, unload Zumba stuff from trunk, pack snacks/drinks/games/DVDs for drive to Orlando, locate and load stroller, show mom the tiles we picked out for the pool, find the check I need to cash, endorse check, grab E-pass, locate cell phone and put into car

9:30-10:00 AM- drive to mom’s bank so she can make a transaction then drive to my bank so I can cash check

10:00- 10:30 AM- go to Starbucks for some liquid energy and chat with mom about closing on her new townhouse (yeah!)

10:30 – 11:00 AM- let Cutie Pie roam a neighborhood toy store.

11:00 – 11:05 AM- change Cutie Pie’s major blow out…  realize I need to pack more diapers…

11:05 – 11:15 AM- drive home and cram diapers into diaper bag.  Pick up a meal to share with my mom

11:15- 11:25 AM- drive to mom’s house and drop off meal

11:25- 11:30 AM- shoot over to the church for VBS end-of-the-week program

11:30- Noon- watch VBS program.  Soooo cute!

Noon- 12:30PM- make way to Wildman’s classroom to pick him up then make way back to car

12:30- 12:45 PM- drive by Wendy’s drive-thru for a quick lunch

12:45- 2:00 PM- Eat lunch in the car while driving to IKEA in Orlando

2:00- 4:00 PM- Wander IKEA, find a bunch of great things for my mom’s townhouse (she’s decided to go with a very contemporary look), buy a bunch of fun things for me and a table and rug for her

4:00- 4:37 PM- Sit in grid lock traffic on 528.  Curse the unending road work.

4:37- 5:30 PM- Drive back to my house to drop kids off with J so I can go teach Zumba.  Realize that J is no where to be found.  Find note on door reading “Sewer Problems!  DO NOT USE WATER OR FLUSH TOILETS!!!!”   (the sewer is an entirely different post…).  Try to call J on his cell phone to see if he’ll be home in time to watch kids so I can go teach Zumba.  His cell phone rings on the kitchen counter.  CRAP!!!!  Luckily mom volunteers to watch kids for me.

5:30- 5:45 PM- Unload my IKEA purchases, change clothes, realized our house AC is out (!), put on workout shoes, load Zumba gear back into my trunk, load up kids

5:45- 5:57 PM- Drive to my mom’s house, drop off kids, unload her new table and rug and get back in the car

5:57-6: 25 PM- Drive over to yoga studio

6:30- 6:45 PM- turn on AC, get fans set up, get playlist ready on iPod, greet students…

6:45- 7:50 PM- teach Zumba

7:50- 8:30 PM- say good-bye to students, clean up yoga studio, turn off AC, divide up earnings, turn off lights, lock doors, chat with Steph about weekend plans, call mom to see where my kids are and make way to car

8:30- 8:45 PM- Drive over to mom’s house to pick up my very tired boys

8:45- 9:00 PM- Chat with mom.  Call J to check on status of sewer problem and AC outage.  Everything was fixed.  Yeah!

9:00- 9:15 PM- Drive to McDonald’s for my second fast food meal of the day

9:15- 9:30 PM- Drive home

9:30- 9:45 PM- Hand kids off to J, slump down into a chair to consume my dinner, chat with J about our weekend plans then head to the shower

9:45- 10:00 PM- Shower and think how thankful I am that J did the bedtime routine with the kids

10:00 PM- Kiss Wildman goodnight.  Cutie Pie was already asleep by the time I got out of the shower.

Ugh!  I’m exhausted.  I’m going to bed!