Zoo Field Trip

Yesterday I officially finished my school year as a teacher, so naturally today I chaperoned a field trip with Madeleine's first grade class.  It was the annual trip to the zoo, and after an ever-changing weather forecast, the day dawned with blue skies and sunshine.  Madeleine was so excited to have me along with her for the day, although she clearly felt the need to keep her mommy's weirdness under wraps.

ME: (singing, as the school bus started off) We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo, how about you, you, you?  You can-
MADELEINE: Shhh!  Mommy!
ME: Oh.  Am I embarrassing you?
MADELEINE: (nodding vehemently)

Apparently, it's only embarrassing when *I* sing, however, because Madeleine spent the majority of the bus ride clutching my arm singing, "I love mommy's aaaaaarm, I love mommy's aaaaarm!"

ME: How come you're allowed to sing and I'm not?
MADELEINE: Because.  Mommy.  You were, like, singing a preschool song.
ME: Oh, so preschool songs are embarrassing?
MADELEINE: (nodding vehemently)

I guess made-up, highly repetitive songs are cool, though.

We had a busy day at the zoo and managed to see pretty much every exhibit there, even circling back to our favorite spot before heading back to the buses again.  With five kids under my supervision, it was kind of a miracle that we managed to do as much as we did, since it took a LOT of coordination to get everyone moving from one area to another at the same time.

Some of the highlights of the zoo:

-Seeing the zebras up close

(I honestly think this is the closest the zebras have ever come to us)

-Madeleine feeding and petting the goats
-Getting to watch the adult gorilla using his fingers to manipulate objects
-Watching two horses nuzzling
-Getting to watch red pandas climbing trees


When I asked Madeleine what her favorite part of the field trip was, however, she picked this:

Going in the "cave" and pretending to be a prairie dog

Imaginative play beats real, live animals any day, I guess.

When we got back to school, Madeleine had an hour before dismissal.  Some chaperones opted to take their children home early, but Madeleine wasn't game.

ME: Madeleine, do you want to come home with me now, or stay at school?
MADELEINE: (looking at me as if I'm too simple to understand the obvious) Stay!!

So I went home, did a quick run, and headed back to pick the kids up.  Ethan came with me, as he had worked from home today so as to see Julia's class Monologue Performance, which I had to miss.  As we gathered Madeleine, Julia, and two of Julia's friends and began walking home, the sky suddenly opened up and it began to downpour so hard that we were drenched within seconds.  Ethan suggested we make a dash for home, but then it thundered.  And Julia completely fell apart.

Sooo, change of plans: Ethan and Madeleine ran home to get the car, while Julia had a very loud and screamy panic attack.  So there I was, with not just the two but a THIRD of Julia's friends (whose mother was late to pick her up) standing in the torrential rain waiting for Ethan to come with the car, when we would have probably actually been in the rain for LESS time if we'd just run home.  By the time Ethan arrived, Julia's friend's mother still had not come, so we ALL piled into the car: Ethan in the driver's seat, me in the passenger seat, Madeleine in the back in her car seat, the friend whose mother was late in the middle, Julia on the end with another friend on her lap, and the final friend in the hatchback trunk.  We drove the .25 miles to our house like champions and got inside to change clothes and get dry.  The mother running late was notified of the new pick-up spot, and Julia is now settled down with her other two friends, all in dry pajamas and drinking hot chocolate.

If only we'd had a prairie dog cave to hide in while it rained, we could have stayed dry AND had fun!