Day 47

In before care this morning, Dawson and I were playing Monopoly yet again. I beat him the first day, and then he beat me yesterday. So today was winner takes all because he will not be in before care tomorrow. Well, I went to jail twice this morning. Ugh. Think I forgot to mention yesterday how I went to jail four times. haha Well, and then Dawson started sending me into bankrupcy. He is definitely going to grow up and be a businessman. haha

When Hannah gets there in the morning, she usually has been taking over for me. Now tomorrow, looks like her and I will just have to play.

Today was Averee's birthday, so we switched  things up a bit today. Talked about turtles and tortoises this morning. Next, we did our craft project. This idea came to me last night as I was laying in bed. A lily pad photo frame from a paper plate for our individual photos by the frog. What do you think? I was pretty stoked about it.

So yesterday, I put some of these extra ocean tattoos that the zoo had in the craft bags the kids took home, and it was cool to see Cyrus have one on this morning.

Here's a photo I had to take of Zach working on his picture frame. Each time he colors a craft project, he holds a handful of crayons and draws with them together. I told him I liked it.

Also this morning, I found a penguin Averee had decorated yesterday, so I hung both of ours up by the rule poster. Averee decided that mine (on the right) was 007 and hers (on the left) was the villain. haha

We fed the giraffes after animal presentation today.

Then, we toured along the African boardwalk.

After lunch, we had our little birthday celebration. I picked up some cupcakes for the kids...

 ...and a birthday cookie for Averee.

Then, we had a little more time before half-day checkout, so we walked to the elephant spray, which the kids always love.

This afternoon, while working on craft with the 5th and 6th graders in the classroom, the 3rd and 4th graders were also working on craft. They were doing some clay modeling, and the purple was not good... as one girl tried to flatten it out, it stuck to the table. Miss Jessica to the rescue scraping it up with my fingers before I got smart and used a popsicle stick. Funny story... as I was doing this a few zoo employees walked in discussing some future plans by the sounds of it. Anyways it was the director of operations,  the stinking CEO, the guy in charge of animal care, and another lady from the office. Boy, to be scraping clay off a table with the CEO standing there... haha Classic.

Interesting afternoon snack today. This last weekend was the "Feast of the Wild" event at the zoo. Someone donated a bunch of leftover dirt cups, so we were told we could use them for snack today. A little too much chocolate for me, but they look fun. A few of the kids caught me taking photos of the food again. Just who I am haha. Gotta make sure I keep this blog interesting for all of my awesome readers with some photos throughout :-)

 

For Averee's birthday, we went to eat at a French restaurant in downtown Des Moines. Nice place. Here's one of my cultural experiences.

The bread to start:

A cheese sampler:

Homemade french fries with meat and cheese:

Averee's chicken entree:

My mushroom faux poivre:

Averee with her chocolate:

In our dresses at the restaurant:

Averee's surprise birthday present. Her parents were very clever and sneaky. I didn't even see it coming. I know she's talked about asking for a new car. If you can't tell, she was pretty excited. haha I rocked capturing the moment, by the way :-)

 

Then, when we're back at home I get called up to the kitchen to be a witness... Averee's dad sold some company stuff to his brother, and they needed a non-relative to sign as a witness. I know that's random but still kind of interesting. haha