First day of school

While the local school bus was driving through picking up the neighborhood kids for their first day of school, Tyler and I were loading our kiddos into the van for a trip to the zoo. Almost all of the county and city schools were in session and the temp had finally fallen back into the 80s, so we thought it would be the perfect morning for a trip out. We visited the stingray exhibit, the children's zoo, and the butterfly dome before we all decided that we were hot and tired and ready to go. Interestingly, the kids recalled petting the guinea pigs as their favorite part, even over getting to "pet" the stingrays. (Family, don't get any ideas--we do not want a surprise guinea pig at Christmastime!)

As for E.'s first day of school, we are going to officially start with a full schedule on Monday. We have already been doing phonics, reading, and penmanship for the past few weeks because he has been utterly bored in the afternoons. He is hesitant about starting history because he "doesn't know anything about history." We are going to focus on the ancients this year though and I think it might end up being one of his favorite subjects.

P. pretending to bite the goat. Why? We don't know why!
Daddy feeding P. to the alpaca.
Petting a couple of guinea pigs.At the stingray pool.