Animal week

I've mentioned before that Kaden's school, Voyage, is a hands-on learning school. I absolutely love this about Voyage and it has helped Kaden learn so much.

The last week and a half, the kids got to do a report on any animal of their choice. In class, they got to see pictures of different animals from around the world. Kaden was so excited to do his report and worked really hard on it. He chose a jaguar.

 

 I volunteer in his classroom every other Friday for the full two hours they are in class, and yesterday I just happened to be there for the 100th day of school celebration as well as the last day of their reports. Well, Voyage is all about hands-on learning, so for the last day of the reports, Voyage had a camel, zebra, and a zonkey in the parking lot! (Zonkey=mom was a donkey, dad a zebra)

The camel's name was Moses and he was HUGE.

Waiting to see the zebra and zonkey.

 The zebra and zonkey had to stay in the trailer. They were a bit more wild than the camel and like to bite and kick.

The zebra was gorgeous!

Zonkey!

The kids (and adults) all got a turn petting the camel.

His fur was sooooo thick! 

The owner said that Moses was warmer than any of the kids with their snow coats on. Kaden was nervous and didn't want to touch the camel, so I literally had to pick him up and force his hand to touch the camel. Drama, drama, drama.

 

After the wild animal excitement, we got the kids back inside to work on their 100 days project.

It was so cool for the kids to be able to see a couple of the animals they had been learning about the last week. I'm glad I was able to be there and be a part of it.

Hogle Zoo

Hogle Zoo had their last Wild Wednesday (free day during winter) this past week. The weather was scheduled to be in the mid-60s, so I told Shane to take the day off of work and I excused the kids from school. That morning, everyone got up and started getting ready like normal, then I pointed outside to the already brightly shining sun and said, "I don't know about you guys, but I'M not staying inside on a day like today. I'll be at the zoo if you need me." They were floored. hahaha So we packed a lunch and headed to Salt Lake!

There was a new (temporary) art exhibit there. They had everything from pencil drawn to crocheted.

I loved this one.

This one won some type of award.

This one won a whole bunch of photography awards.

Daddy's girl.

Kaden insisted on pushing.

 Side note: we brought the single stroller for Ari, but she didn't use it once while we were there. Lexi, however, claimed that her legs were SO tired from walking (to the entrance from the parking lot) that she HAD to sit or her legs would fall off. There were a lot of overly dramatic tears.

Baby was getting a drink.

Eating a pine tree.

We'll go back in ten years and recreate this pic. :)

Sunbathing rhinos.

At the top of the slide.

This guy kept going up to the doors and making really, really loud seal noises that sounded a lot like my kids when they're hungry.

The other little girl would NOT get out of the picture.

The brown bears were boring - just sleeping.

When we were watching the giraffes, Ari dramatically gasped and said, "Mommy, dey don't have a baby! I dink dey need to get two babies. Den dey will have one and I can take one home!" *another gasp* "I would WOVE a baby giraffe!!" And then she went on and on about how the giraffe would sleep in her bed and she would cuddle it all the time.

The tiger was feeling playful.

Overheated from playing with the ball.

Kaden and Ari were howling at the grey wolf over and over, but he didn't howl back. haha

 

 Kaden has been learning about animals a lot the last two weeks and he saw a picture of the world's largest tortoise. When he saw this one, he started freaking out saying, "MOM! IT'S THE WORLD'S LARGEST TORTOISE! I CAN SEE IT!!!!!!"

We had a lot of fun, but I'm excited for the African Savannah project to be completed this spring. Then there will be lions and zebras again!

Lexi's first pictures!

We got Lexi's preschool pictures back last week. Unlike with Kaden, I wasn't the least bit worried that she would pull a silly face at the last second. :)

I didn't know until recently that Lexi was one of three girls in a class with seven boys. No wonder she loves going to preschool. haha