zoo day

I had a blast last Monday.
I was able to be a chaperone for Mr. Orange's trip to the zoo with his Kindergarten class.
We met in his classroom to wait for the bus to arrive.  The kids were hysterical.  They were sooooo derned excited to RIDE the bus!  I think some of them forgot they were actually going to the zoo.

Last week the kids chose their buddies for the zoo.  Mr. Orange came home from school that day to tell me who his buddy would be.
Mr. Orange:  Mom, we chose our buddies for the zoo today.
Me:  Oh yeah?  Who is your buddy going to be?
Mr. Orange:  T.  (She's a girl who came into their class about two or three weeks ago.)
Me:  Really?  How did the two of you get to be buddies for the zoo?
Mr. Orange:  Well, we (the kids whose mom or dad would be going to the zoo) were standing around Mrs. Y's desk and we were choosing our buddies.  I noticed that T had not been chosen, so I wanted her to be happy and I chose her to be my buddy.  I can't wait.
Me:  (trying to get the misties out of my eyes and clear my throat)  That was really nice of you.

Before we boarded the bus one of the girls from his class was sent home sick.  T was able to join a group of girls and C (whose mom was not able to come) joined us.

We wandered all over the zoo.
The kids had one thing, and one thing only they wanted to visit.
THE SNAKE HOUSE!
Seriously??
We found it (unfortunately) and looked at snakes, lizards, scorpions, spiders, etc.
They were not satisfied with me just saying, "There's a green snake" or "Look at that lizard".  No, these boys wanted some serious information. They weren't playing around.  They wanted to know their names, where they came from, and, most importantly, if they were poisonous or not.

We took a lunch break and sat near a table of some of Mr. Orange's classmates who happened to be girls.  Pretty soon all of the girls were sitting with us.  Those girls cracked me right up.  They all acted so differently from the way they act in class!  It was so funny to listen to them.

After lunch the boys wanted to go to the park.
On the way we wandered through the Nature's Nightmare's exhibit.
I was doing fine in there until I saw the huge, neon-colored tarantula jumping around in it's cage.
Gave me the creeps.
Serious creeps.
The boys had to look at that one on their own.
Ew, it gave me the heebie-jeebies big time!
Totally gross.
(Arachnophobia is in the top 5 scariest movies I've ever seen in my life.)
We had to go into the ape house after that just so I could catch my breath.

We finally made it to the park and when we did I couldn't believe my eyes!  There were bazillions of kids running every which way.  It was insane!
I tried my hardest to keep my eyes on my boys, but quickly discovered (after losing Mr. Orange for about five minutes) that I needed about 8 more pairs of eyes.
I would be watching them, and a few minutes later would realize I was watching the wrong kid in a red/blue shirt with blonde hair.  It drove me c-c-c-c-razy!
Both boys, after seeing my panicked face when I found them the first time I lost them, would come over to let me know where they were every once in a while.

They chatted my ears off on the way back to the bus.

Kindergarten Zoo Day -
I highly recommend it.