Kindergarten Field Trip

On May 18th the kindergartners at RJ's school got to go to the Natural Bridge Safari Park. Jared took the day off work and watched Savannah and Zachery so I was able to go with RJ to the Park. It was a fun trip.

The Natural Bridge is about an hour from our house, so we got to ride a school bus. RJ sat with one of his good buddies from his class and they had a blast catching about random stuff.
At the Safari Park you can either drive your car or take a wagon. We of course got a wagon, it was really fun to be so close to the animals. We each were given a large feed bucket to feed the various animals throughout the park. This is the group in front of us. You can see how the animals swarm the wagon begging for food. The first stop was mostly lamas and a few deer.

Here is RJ, excitedly waiting for our turn. Now RJ is usually extremely timid around animals. Especially larger animals. So I kept prepping him, letting him know that the animals would be right there in his face. He kept saying "Yea, I know." "It's OK" "No big deal"

And then we were off to see the Lamas face to face. RJ freaked out! He jumped to the middle of the wagon.

Luckily his teacher was beside us and she helped me out. She talked RJ through it. She showed him how to feed the animals and explained that it tickled. And while he watched her and the kids around us, he calmed down and decided to give it a try.

He did a very good jump. I was a little worried since there was a pesky mean little ostrich by us peeking like crazy into one of the other mother's back each time she turned away from it. Boy did that Ostrich want the food. We decided to stay clear away from the ostrich. I knew if RJ got pecked by the Ostrich, he might not continue.

Saying good bye to the Lamas. Off to see more animals.

Next were the one hump camels. When feeding these guys, you had to be sure to hold tight to your bucket. They were greedy and liked to grab the entire bucket out of your hands if you didn't hold tight.

The buffalo was RJ's favorite animal to feed. Instead of holding out your hand to let the animal lick it clean, you just held your bucket over i't's head and dump some food into it's mouth.

It was fun to be so close to these animals. Not only were we able to feed them, but we could pet them as well. I found it interesting that the antlers on these elk were very soft and warm. I didn't except them to be warm.

Here we have the two hump camels. I was busy watching two emus fighting and didn't even notice that RJ decided to brave it and go to the other side of the wagon and feed the camels. He said they cleaned out most of the bucket and tried to grab it but he held on super tight and won the tug a war battle. We did see serveral camerls with buckets in there mouths from battles they won. We were told that they would chew the buckets like gum and eventually spit them out.

Now who has pet a Zebra before? I was excited to have the opportunity on this trip. That was the highlight for me.

Holding an Ostrich Egg

Outside of the feeding park is a little zoo.

There was an area where you could feed the giraffe but the giraffe wasn't interested in walking over to us, so the kids decided to walk over to it.

Before this trip RJ would have NEVER walked up to any animal on his own, especially a goat with horns sticking it's head out of a fence. After the trip that is just what he did.

I can't wait to go again. It was a fun trip filled with excitement and laughter.

Random Photos from May

Mmmmm, Doesn't that look yummy?! We had a fun little celebration on Cinco De Mayo. We figured that Cinco De Mayo in America means: eat Mexican style food with a bunch of friends, and that is just what we did and it was oh so fun and delicious! Since there isn't any good Mexican restaurants here in Lynchburg, this was a heavenly pot luck and certainly hit the spot.
Here is an after the meal picture since we were too involved in indulging ourselves in food and good company, I didn't think to take pictures until the fun was just about over.

Look at these three cuties, all about the same age. Can't wait till they are all older enough to run around together, it will be so fun!

RJ is a wiz at math. He LOVES it! He is always asking us to give him an equation. His favorite equations are basic multiplication such as multiplying by 10's. One day Jared got tired of rattling off equations ever second so he gave RJ a page full of addition and mutlpilaction problems and then some pennys to help him count. RJ was in math heaven and wouldn't do anything until his page was complete.

RJ's school had field day this month. It was a HOT day! I helped out at one of the stations in the morning and got my first sunburn of the year, yikes. Luckily it wasn't too bad. In the afternoon the kindergartners had their races. RJ ran on a relay team. His race was last and he was so anxious to run.

RJ and Charlie getting ready from their race.

RJ's team got confused on the directions and took 3rd place, but RJ didn't care, he still got a ribbon, which he thought was so cool.

I have been trying to get some good pictures of Zachery and he never wants to cooperate with me. I should really just find some time to take him to JC Penny's for portraits. Savannah on the other hand will always pose if the camera is pointed her way.

Another highlight of May is RJ's new adventure. We finally broke down and signed him up for Karate classes. Yikes! That's a budget breaker, but he LOVES it!

Zachery thinks he is such a big boy. He loves doing whatever his older siblings do. One of his favorite routines of the day is brushing his teeth. He was so excited when RJ and Savannah left the bathroom and he could climb on the stool himself, just like a big boy.

We have been blessed to live in an area where there is a lot of animal life. We get deer in our yard quite regular, which can be a pain on the landscaping, but we haven't experienced a problem yet, knock on wood. The kids love seeing the animals in the yard. We also get a rabbit or too hopping around. I have seen a ground hog, there is a gopher hole in the back that our neighbors despise because their garden is close by and the creature seems to think he can get a free lunch. They have our permission to smoke the creature out of the yard since I know we won't appreciate having him as a close neighbor once we put in our garden. We had boxer turtles hiding about as well and all kinds of birds and nests all over the place. The home owners before us left behind this bird house which has been taken over by a small mama bird who laid four or five eggs. The eggs have hatched and we hear all kinds of babies chirping in the morning and afternoon. That mama bird flies back and forth feeding her baby's all day long! I am looking forward to seeing baby birds learning to fly since this the bird house sits right outside my kitchen window, I am hoping I won't miss it when the day comes.

Here is another nest that sits in the Wisteria above our porch.

Savannah has been loving her bike. She asks just about every day to ride it. This is her on teh Blackwater Creek trail near the house.

And the highlight of our month:
The tooth fairy FINALLY visited or house.

RJ has waited and waited for his first loose tooth. Once one became loose he spent days wiggling it. Once it was holding on by just a string he allowed me to yank the thing out. He was on cloud nine the rest of the day and even into the next when he discovered the tooth fairies gift.

And that is May, with the exception of a field trip that I will post later.