11-11-11

Thanks to Matilda's newfound love of being the "calendar monitor" at school, she was really into the awesome date today. For a week now she has been talking about how soon the date will be "eleven dash eleven dash eleven!" I agree with her that it is super cool. 

Thanks to the Veterans Day holiday (Thanks, veterans!), M was out of school today so we could all have some fun together with Grammy in tow. We chose to use the free day to go check out the awesome brand new carousel at the zoo. Stella came too, for an extra measure of fun. 

Then we happened upon 4 other kindergarten friends there, so our group was quickly wild and crazy. I was quite thankful for all the other grown-ups helping track the pack today since Porter spent his zoo time moving at this speed: full stride ahead!

 After much animal viewing, the bird show and a picnic lunch we finally made it to the carousel. Porter's first choice ride, the preying mantis, was taken. For a moment I thought all hell was about to break loose, but somehow he overcame his disappointment and chose to pull it together and ride the rhino.

 Matilda waffled widely, finally choosing this cute little log seat with some owl friends.
Stella got her first choice, tiger!

 Grammy also got her first choice of the dung beetle chariot. So cool! The kids obliged my demands for a photo with much yelling of "Ewww, poop!"

We will be back soon to ride the carousel again with the unicorn, preying mantis, serval, okapi and kangaroo in our sights. At the end of our visit, Stella's much nicer mom bought her an ice cream which led to a full on assault by Porter, who I was denying zoo treats. Stella shared really nicely and volunteered a few bites willingly. Porter's sweet tooth was not satisfied and soon he was dashing at Stella like some kind of wild dog after scraps. 

Hopefully poor Stella wasn't too traumatized. Porter's wails for ice cream ended as he fell asleep in the car, just feet from the zoo parking exit.