A Day at the Zoo

We had the nicest day yesterday!  Finn's piano lesson was cancelled due to a sick teacher, and then his art class was cancelled due to sickness as well, so we suddenly had a free day. 

The children slept very late, and then we went out for an early al fresco lunch.  Then on to...the zoo!  We had not been to the zoo in a couple of years, and what a difference those years make: I was amazed to see how less flitting from one exhibit to another there was. Instead my children studiously examined each animal. The exotic ones are nice, but we were all drawn to the more pedestrian creatures. We stood looking at the cranes for a long time, with their red eyes and their awkwardly elegant legs.  We spent a long while in the aviary, too.  A scarlet ibis (okay, a little exotic there) was perched high up in a tree, preening so prettily that Annie named her The Queen, and curtsied to her before we left. Our favorite animal to observe was nothing exotic: just four turtles swimming around, nibbling lettuce and basking on logs......

next time we'll take our nature journals!

After a hot afternoon (and an even hotter car--my air conditioning is broken), we stopped for ice cream, which we all sorely needed for revival.

We had leftovers for dinner, and as we settled down on the sofa for book time I glanced out the front door and saw the full moon rising.  So we read The Moon Singer. After the children were in bed I had a warm bath, kept the windows open for the cool breeze, and finished a novel. 

The best part of the day was that Finn kept thanking me for everything.  His constant gratitude was endearing.  He's an unspoiled child and doesn't take anything for granted, and I'm grateful for that!