First Day of School

We decided to surprise the kids with a special start for the first 'official' day of school...a field trip to the zoo!We had hoped to take them to the Syracuse zoo which is about 2 hours away, but Wayne hasn't been up to traveling that far. We decided to get a family membership for the year to the smaller zoo in Binghamton so we can take advantage of the zoo, discovery center, and special discounts to other local museums and attractions. Katelyn woke up not feeling well again so Wayne stayed home with her with promises of doing something special on another day and reminding her that we would go back to the zoo again before the year is up.

Teacher Mom had a scavenger hunt activity printed out for the kids to fill out. I'll confess, we were so busy enjoying the animals that we didn't complete the activity sheet, but Marc did a great job filling in most of the questions. The little guys loved the fish. Jonathan was also pretty impressed with the ball python. Mom was impressed with herself for being able to 'admire' the python and show the little guys where the skin was starting to shed. As long as there's a very thick piece of glass between me and the slithery thing, I'm brave.After our journey through the zoo we met up with Nathanial. On Wednesdays he doesn't have classes so we had lunch together and then he and Marc went to Barnes and Noble while Rachael, Jonathan, Ian, and I ran into AC Moore for some craft items for school. Much to Jonathan's dismay we took Nathanial back to the campus and let him get back to his studying and on-campus job. He really misses his big brother "Nafanel" and made sure we knew it for most of the 45 minute drive home.

Katelyn was feeling much better by the time we got home. She and Dad had taken Captain for a walk down to Pete's Used Furniture Store to look at 'treasures'. Wayne now has some antique twin size headboards to refinish for his girls added to his projects in the workshop. (Hopefully, they'll be the subject of another post in the near future.)