Love in the Library: And this zoo trip makes 5

Every year LSA's pre-k 3, pre-k 4, and Kinder class make the ZOO field trip. Since 2008, I've tagged along with each kid. With 3 kids only 1 grade apart, there is never a respite and this year, another overlap. Both Lydia AND Lanie got to go so both Kenny and I decided to go with them. Poor Elijah, he was the only Ward at school.

Lydia got her daddy and Lanie got me.

     For Lydia, this was old hat, but how exciting for Lanie who got to go on her first school bus ever. The wonder and curiosity is gone. She now knows the joy of sitting in a high-backed plastic seat side-by-side with a friend squished beside her, WITHOUT a seat belt and little a/c. It's funny, I remember 5 years ago, when Elijah was taking his first bus trip, a grandmother of one of the little girls in the class complained that she had spent hundreds of dollars on a car seat for her grand child, and she was NOT going to ride on a bus. For the life of me, I can't remember if she did or didn't. She has a point, a good, safe one, but not a big enough one to keep my littlest child from experiencing the BUS. Not sure what that says about me.
      But everyone got there safely. The day started with the possibility of rain, but turned to a morning of cool temps and a beautiful afternoon. Couldn't have picked a better day to tour the zoo with twelve 3 & 4-year-olds, their teachers, and a gob of parents and grandparents. After five hours of walking, the usual complaints: "I'm tiirred. My feet hurt. I'm still hungry. Hold me!", a picnic lunch, a carousal ride, lots of animals, lots of hand-holding, 5 bathroom breaks, and some ice cream, I was ready to hang up my zoo shoes (that's running shoes, but it didn't sound as cute) until next year. And for the 2013 annual zoo trip - that will make 6.