The Zoo & More

This weekend was just full of activity. Friday was Amelia's class field trip to the Greenville Zoo. I think it's funny that we live in NC but her two field trips this year were out-of-state - one in TN, the other in SC! It's just the geography of living in a corner of a state I guess!

We already had plans to visit my friend Heidi on Saturday so we decided to make a family trip to the zoo with the class. Daddy and I both took the day off from work and met the buses at the zoo. It was packed with kids and parents! Our class ate first, played on the really neat playground, and then went to the zoo. Amelia was so excited about going back to the playground that she decided it wasn't worth going back to the gift shop for the stuffed tiger she had seen (and wanted).

We took Amelia to this zoo several times when she was much younger and she was always more interested in the playground and just running around the paths. This time she was really interested in several of the animals, especially the flamingos. She was concerned that one of the flamingos had wandered off from the group and wouldn't find its way back. I told her that was a possibility since earlier this morning there were actually ten flamingos there. (mean streak, I know.)

Amelia was not doing a good job of listening to us or her teacher Friday but she was better over the weekend. After the zoo, we drove a couple of hours further into SC and checked into our hotel and then headed to Heidi's. The hotel's pool wasn't open yet despite the hot weather but luckily Heidi had one. Amelia said, "This is the best day ever!" So cute. After her swim, Amelia wanted to wear slippers but I hadn't brought any. Heidi offered her personal adult-sized husky slippers and Amelia wore them! This picture doesn't capture how ridiculous-but-cute they looked. We had a wonderful dinner and Amelia fell asleep on the way back to the hotel.

Saturday I met Heidi for the March of Dimes walk and after a stop of Hobby Lobby for more Hello Kitty sticker album stickers (we don't have a Hobby Lobby where we live), Amelia and David met us for some dancing (Amelia anyway) and free hot dogs as part of the post-walk activities. I also let Amelia get her face painted as a blue kitty.

We then went to Emerald Farms and looked around their shops and indoor train layout. Then Amelia took the little train ride (a tractor made to look like a CSX engine) and we looked at farm animals, too. Amelia played on the playground and fed fish at the pond. At one point in the store, Amelia saw a toy from one of her Baby Einstein videos. I was walking back into the room as I heard Amelia tell her daddy, "We could get this if we had a baby, but Mommy won't let us have one." [Shocking! She certainly has never asked for one, for which I am grateful.] Then she saw me and said, "Mommy, we could get this in case you accidentally get pregnant." WHERE did she learn that phrase?!?!?! That was definitely an OMG moment. We just went along with it, though, with an "Okay, sweetie. Or maybe Isidora would like it." *phew*

We stopped in downtown Greenwood for some yummy pizza and a look into their train museum where they had a replica one-room schoolhouse and Amelia got to write on a slate just like mommy did as a 1st grader! After that, we headed home. It was a fun and relaxing Saturday!