Zoo

Today we went to the zoo with the Lifelearners. The zoo here is a pitiful little one, where it is really painful to see some of the animals in their tiny "habitats". We had been before with the group last year and now that my kids have seen it twice, I think we are done with that place. However, the girls and I did have some good conversations about how a zoo should be, if you're going to have one. Some highlights, despite the sorry nature of the zoo itself: There are all kinds of birds running around free, like peacocks and chickens and pigeons, and they have birdfeed to feed them with. I got the girls a cup of feed and they had fun feeding the birds. One of the peacocks was so bold as to peck some food right out of the cup as E held it out for him. They have a petting area where you can go inside and see some goats up close and personal. The goats were very friendly, and very fat! Probably because you could feed them as well. At one point the girls were off with another mom and I was sitting with some of the moms. E came running for me and said I had to come see. I followed her to a spot where the cages were empty of "zoo" animals, but the place was crowed with chickens, with tiny little puffball chicks. The girls said they saw one of the hens sitting on what they assumed was eggs and when she got up, there were all the baby chicks under her! They spent some time watching a little runt of chick get stomped on by the hens and roosters. They were very concerned about it and we tried to tell them that nature was cruel sometimes.

After a couple hours, we were done with the zoo but not done with each other so we decided to go to a nearby park for a change of scenery. It was a nice park with huge old trees and we had a lovely rest of the afternoon. I was worn out from the long day yesterday, so I was glad when things wrapped up at 3:30, unlike our track record of leave-when-the-sun-sets. I forgot to mention that A had gotten her Weird and Wild Creatures kit in the mail yesterday. She spent a lot of time this evening looking at all the cards and having me read some of them to her. She asked me to play the games that you can play with the trading cards tomorrow, so we plan to do that.