When Philip was in K-4, I helped him put together an alphabet book of pictures from magazines. With Braewyn being in K-4 this year, I decided to make her a photo book of places we've been and things she's made which start with each letter of the alphabet. Our visit to a nearby zoo provided the pictures I needed to wrap up the book! Z is for Zoo!
Not only did this outting provide the Z pictures, it was also a milestone in our homeschool journey. Our new children's pastor, George, who's awesome btw, organized Fantastic Friday outtings throughout the summer and the zoo was the first! This means Philip rode an actual school bus for the first time with about 50 kids and adults from our church to the zoo while I followed in our car with the girls. It was fun for him and a little anxiety-filled for me. It's the feeling I guess I would have had had I sent him off to public kindergarten two years ago.
Upon arriving at the zoo, we all ate our box lunches (well, my family ate grapes and graham crackers as I was banking on buying hot dogs but didn't realized large groups eat BEFORE entering the zoo!). Then George split the groups up into smaller groups each with an assigned chaperone. He said that I could just tag-along a group since I had Braewyn and Juliet. I told him I could be a group stalker. I did stay with the main group (including Philip who was in George's group; was it that obvious that I was holding the apron strings tight why George took Philip under his care?) for a while until Braewyn and I did stop for hot dogs. For the next two hours, I didn't see Philip. It was gratifying that I could let go and let him gain some independence. Later that afternoon when I picked up Philip from our church gym (the bus full of kids headed back home while I let Braewyn play on a super cool playground near the zoo), George said Philip had been great. Makes a momma proud and thankful!
Here's the recap in photos. Click on the first photo and you will be able to see all photos enlarged.
Juliet was squealing with delight at seeing the giraffes and orangutans and lasted the four hot hours at the zoo better than I had expected. And Braewyn no longer runs from my camera but has in fact turned into a little starlet always ready to give a smile and say cheese!
