Today started out like every other morning…when the kids wake up they climb out of bed and start playing in the playroom. Sometime after the toddler wakes, I struggle to get myself out of bed and make breakfast. I am so looking forward to when the toddler sleeps the night through, so I can actually wake up before the kids. But right now, as it has been for six years, I desperately try to cling to sleep each morning. We have, however, reached a new milestone in this household: as M is one month shy of turning six, she is staying in her bed all-night-long!  No more climbing into the family bed for her, hooray!

I was just starting to get everyone ready for running errands this morning (we have some birthday presents to buy and valentines to mail) when I got a text from a friend seeing if we would be interested in going to the zoo. Today was a relatively good air day, so I had planned to take advantage and get outside, and the zoo just seemed sooo much more fun than running errands. It was just what I (and the girls) needed. We have been sticking around home (except for classes and errands) way too much in the last few months. And it was so good to chat with a dear friend that I never get to see enough of.

At the zoo, we were blessed to see a training session for the Amur Leopard, so cool! We were warned that the leopard might not participate at all, because, being a cat and all, the leopard does only what it wants to do. My smart friend likened that to children; if only most parents realized this instead of trying to force children to do things! The leopard did do some training exercises, opening his mouth for dental checks, lifting paws for health checks, rolling on the floor (for fun), all for the yummy meatball treats (and not your normal meatball; these included all the body parts, intestines, bones, etc just as a leopard would eat in the wild). It was definitely the highlight of our short zoo trek. (Well, I think the toddler’s highlight was clucking at the chickens walking around the zoo grounds.)

Amur Tiger training

Today we also did some quick science play, dropping colored vinegar in bowls of baking soda. I talked a lot about the double displacement reaction, but really, the girls were just focused on watching the bubbles and trying to mix the colors. Great, great fun! Some say it occupies their kids for hours, but my eldest lasted about 15 minutes, and C probably 30 minutes.

Vinegar-Baking Soda Fun

One of the reasons my eldest didn’t spend much time on the experiment is because she was excited to get back to a project she had started. She had been asking me if we could buy another sticker dolly book, but since I said we could not right now, she decided to make her own sticker book. We stapled a book together, and she started drawing in pictures (she even is making 3 characters, modeled after the sicker dolly books, though her characters are her and her sisters). Oh my goodness, I just realized that she put our dog in her book too. My heart! C started working on hers too, drawing a butterfly. When they are done drawing in pictures, they will then add stickers that M has already cut out in bowls for them. (Will I not have to buy any more of these books?)

Homemade Sticker Books

It was a great day, topped off with fresh-from-the-oven Banana Honey Oatmeal Bread. Mmmmm!