Just Monkeyin' Around

Yesterday was the first grade field trip to the zoo, which I volunteered to help chaperone before I injured my ankle. Since I rarely get to help out much with the other kids at home, I went anyway, even though the ankle still isn’t up to par. It was organized well. Instead of a giant group of 7 year olds hearded along as a unit, each parent had a group of 2-4 kids and we went our separate ways until lunch, then again until the end. We saw bears, lions, zebras, manatees, baby bearcats, wolves, and bugs.

We have had zoo passes for years, and in all this time my kids had no idea there was an insect house. And the mama was a happy mama. (They discovered the existence of the reptile house with Dad last year. 🙁 ) Yesterday, my little zoo utopia was shattered as the other boys in our group made a beeline (ha!) for the door. So inside we went. I’ll admit, the insect house is cool. If you like insects. Everywhere.

There were giant walking sticks and water bugs and fantastic displays of bee colonies, mole rats, and leaf cutter ants. No problem. Fun to look at, and the boys learned some tidbits as well. But they also keep the hissing cockroaches and a zillion other nasty-looking things in that building too. And there isn’t anything more heart-stopping at the zoo than walking over in response to an excited kid’s “LOOK MOM! ISN’T THAT COOL!” and coming face to face with a 5 inch long tarantula. Aargh!

Oh why couldn’t they be interested in the butterflies?

And thanks to the walking, today I feel a lot like this guy: