May 26

Since this weekend is Memorial Day weekend and summer officially starts now, I spent a while last night planning out our summer. I made a big command center on our chalkboard wall with a calendar and a list of our activities.

The kids came up with the term "Prepare Plan", so I listed my expectations for them:

I have also found it's helpful (for me) to have a rough guideline for each day's activities. This is flexible, but the kids like knowing generally what to expect each day. 

Then I came up with a list of Adventure Options. These aren't set on the calendar because I like to be able to use the weather forecast to determine which adventure we do when. It's also fun to let the kids choose which adventure they feel like doing each week! 

Today was our first Adventure day, and the kids chose to go to the Zoo. The bummer of it was that today was the first day of their summer hours. In the off-season, the Zoo opens at 9 am and the "free hour", when we can ride the carousel, pet the stingrays, and get into the Children's Zoo, is from 9-10 am. (Except the last time we went, we were told that the Children's Zoo was free the first hour, and the Carousel was free the second hour. Apparently it changed?)

Now that it's summer, the Zoo opens at 8:00 am. It's really hard to get lunch packed and kids ready to be out the door in time to get there for the free hour! We rolled in right at 9:00, so I knew we missed the Children's Zoo and stingrays. But since the last time we went, which was maybe a month ago, they told us that the carousel was free the second hour, I thought for sure we could do that.

WRONG. 

The employee working the carousel ticket office told me she had never heard of that. I know I shouldn't complain about the rules for free things, but it's frustrating when they keep changing the rules. Luckily, the kids were really understanding about not getting to ride the carousel. (Except for Lily. She was pretty upset.

Still, we managed our traditional elephant fountain picture. 

I love that Amber's kids have adopted this tradition as their own. Hi, friends!

We also paused here to plan our visit. The kids used a map of the zoo to plot out our course, marking the spots they wanted to see. Penguins were on the list, then the bird cage to complete an activity for the library's summer reading program, then the giraffes, then the rhino, then the hippos, and finally the insect house.

Caleb and Daisy took turns borrowing my phone to take pictures of animals. 

I only take pictures of people, not animals. These are penguins.

This is Kali the polar bear, with me and Eli on my back.

Flamingo!

This was also the scene of Eli's first meltdown and tantrum, when I tried to put sunscreen on him. Then I gave him the option of riding on my back or in the stroller. Both options were more than he could handle, and he wanted to go home.

The World's Fair bird cage was the scene of Eli's second meltdown and tantrum. He didn't want to leave the bird cage.

Elephants! Eli was excited. There was another tantrum.

Caleb and a fish!

Caleb's picture of the fish.

A tarantula to scare Daddy.

Sweaty family selfie on our way out of the Zoo. Don't worry - Daisy didn't ride in the stroller the whole time. She's 6, and HEAVY.

We stopped on our way out to help a random grandma with a baby carrier she was using totally incorrectly, and then found a shady patch of grass near our van for a picnic.

Daisy took this picture.

This was my favorite part of the day. My kids are good picnickers, and I am a good picnic-packer.

Adventure days are exhausting!