Yesterday was Eleni's Field Trip to the Zoo. The Babe & I met the bus there. I was excited, this was the Babe's 1st trip to the Zoo!

Eleni's class is fairly small, 13 children, so between her teacher and the 2 other parents who came to help, we were pretty well covered. I told Mrs. Clare, her teacher, that we were all set, I had the stroller stocked with anything we could need. 1st Aid Kit, water, tissues, cough drops, sunscreen and even 3 umbrella's! I think my Flight Attendant skills were shining through!

We were delayed getting into the Zoo, 2 other groups got time slots before us, so the 3 kindergarten teachers decided to let the kids play on the playground before we headed in. I didn't think this was really a good idea because the Binghamton Zoo is all up hill, hard to do with energetic kids, even harder to do with tired ones! But, the kids had a blast!

It was finally our turn to go in. The kids were loving all the animals, they even decided to name each one! I got the Babe out of her stroller at each exhibit to point out the different animals to her. She'd reach out toward them, and cluck at them like we do to the cat at home! At the Bear's Pen, she decided she wanted to get down and go hug the big, fuzzy guy. Um, yeah, sooooooo not happening Babe!

About halfway through the Zoo, the trouble began. 2 little girls decided they were too tired to continue and promptly sat their behinds down and refused to move. Mrs. Clare tried her best to get them to move, then tears began! I promised them that there were plenty more exciting animals up the hill, let's go find them! They reluctantly got up, and walked VERY slowly up the hill. They should've tried pushing the stroller!

At the Leopard Exhibit a little boy and girl started arguing over whether or not we were looking at a leopard or a cheetah. It got to the point of them screaming "LEOPARD" "CHEETAH" at each other, over and over again. The little girl decided she'd had enough, turned around to run off and ran smack dab into the edge of a BIG metal sign, it just happened to be the one that said it was in fact a leopard! Ouch! The poor thing had a purple line going across her forehead immediately. Hugs from Mrs. Clare and an ice pack from me got her going again.

We finally reached the top of the hill, after many more hissy fits and tears over how TIRED they were! Come on, they're only 5 & 6 years old!

We head back down the hill and get to the Bald Eagle Exhibit. Everyone's looking at the 2 BIG, beautiful birds when my little one, Eleni turns around and looks at Mrs. Clare and I. She tells us, "I don't know why they call them "Bald" Eagles when they're obviously not bald." Mrs. Clare and I laughed out butt's off! I told her, "Yup, that's my little girl!"

The big steep hill we had so much trouble going up, became a challenge going down too. Those kiddo's wanted to RUN down it! A fall & a skinned elbow stopped them in their tracks. I cleaned the little boy's elbow up and got him all bandaged up. Eleni told Mrs. Clare, "We're really lucky my Mom was here with her 1st Aid Kit!" Awwwwwwwwwww!

I am soooooooooooo glad I got to go on the trip with her class! Ari's in 3rd grade this year, and there really aren't many opportunities to do things like this with his class. They just don't need as much help, and when they do it's not always possible to help with a little one on your hip. Long story short, do what you can with them when they're little. Even if it means taking a bit of time off of work, or missing some important meeting. At this age they want you there, you're still filled with magical superpowers!



I snuck off from the group when they went into the Aviary and pressed a souvenir penny for Eleni so she had a little momento from our trip. She slept with it last night!

Oh, and we asked them what their favorite part of the Zoo was. They all agreed it was definately watching the Turkey Vultures eat their breakfast, whole MICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It figures!

sounds like you guys had a great time