A Zoo Day!

Last Wednesday I got to take off work and chaperone Kylie’s field trip to the zoo.

Last week and this week the whole first grade is in Camp Skeeter. They have camp shirts (each class is a different color), brought in their sleeping bags, have camp fires in the classroom, sing camp songs and tell ghost stories. For the two weeks they are in “camp,” they learn about nature, insects, animals and anything else that you might encounter at camp. So a field trip to the zoo fit in perfectly with the camp theme.

When the form came in, Kylie begged and begged me to chaperone. I had no desire to do this…why? Because 1.) I really don’t like the zoo because I really don’t like animals, and 2.) because if I’m going to take a day off work, I’d rather take a day off to play with all my kids and not have to be responsible for other kids. But she worked her magic and I finally caved and sent in my form and ticket money.

The field trip date happened to be the date before John and I were leaving for Charlotte, so I only had to work two days last week which was a nice break! So that morning I got to sleep in and leisurely get ready and get some stuff done around the house before the kids started waking up. I got Ryan dressed and fed and Joshie dressed and fed. We all walked Kylie over to school, and then when we came home the baby-sitter was there for the boys and I left to meet the bus at the school.

I went in to Kylie’s classroom and saw my group. I already knew ahead of time that I had Kylie, her best friend, and her other good friend in my group, so I knew we were going to have a ton of fun! I gathered all of their lunches and put them in my bag and they headed out to get on the buses. Kylie was super excited because since she walks to school, these field trips are the only time she ever gets to ride the bus.

We are lucky because the zoo, which I’ve heard is one of the top zoos in the country, is 2 minutes down the road from us. So I go in and park and wait for the bus to unload. They have a really great system of getting the kids off the buses, which is good because there are a ton of schools there! We then all go and wait in line and finally they let us into the zoo around 10:15.

The kids had each done a research project on a specific animal just a couple of weeks before, so the teacher wanted us to make sure we got to see each animal they researched, so we headed off to find them. Around 10:45 the girls were starving, which is appropriate since that’s when they normally eat lunch. We stopped at a nice picnic spot and ate our lunch, and while we were there, their teacher joined us, which the girls just thought was the best thing (it’s so funny how they act like their teacher is some kind of celebrity!). So she joined us as we headed out to see some more animals. Despite me not liking animals or the zoo, I was really having a lot of fun with these girls! And I loved the time that I got with Kylie.

After a while the girls were getting tired so we stopped and got some Dippin’ Dots and rested. I honestly think that was the best part of the whole day for them :) After that we saw a few more animals and then headed back around 1:15 to catch the bus. The girls just collapsed in the chairs when we got there – they were so exhausted! When someone asked the teacher what they would be doing in class the rest of the day, she said that when they got back it would be time for recess and they all groaned! I’ve never heard kids groan about recess, but they were all so tired! Kylie said they actually ended up just watching a movie because they were so beat.

After I helped get them back on the bus I took off and headed home. I was able to spend some time with Josh and Ryan before we had to go and pick Kylie up. It was such a fun day and I’m really glad that Kylie talked me into going :)