The visitor

Yesterday, Daddy got the kids home from school. They were playing in the back yard while Daddy did a little yard work. We don't have a screen door on our slider and Daddy saw a little bird hop into our kitchen. Daddy watched the bird, hoping that she would just fly back outside. She didn't. She flew into the living room towards our bay window.  Don't mind the mess on our windowsill, but if you zoom in you can see the bird by the corner of the window next to the headphones. 

Daddy called the kids inside so they could see the bird up close. The kids came inside just as Daddy was able to catch the little bird. Gillian took a quick picture of her. 

The little bird didn't like being held and she squirmed away from Daddy. As she flew up in the air, she pooped on Gillian! The bird flew around the kitchen and then out the back door. 

The kids and Daddy were so excited to tell me about their visitor. Gillian kept shouting "And the bird pooped on me!" I just love that it was a female Cardinal that came to visit. Thanks for visiting!

Ponies

Today at John's camp they had pony rides. On our way home tonight, I asked him about the pony rides. He said "We didn't get to ride them. We are too big. So we got to walk them." That stinks that they didn't get to ride the ponies. John's age group isn't the oldest at this camp, so we were a little surprised to hear that they weren't able to ride them. John told Daddy about it later. "We didn't get to ride the ponies. But we did get to walk them around. And you know what my pony's name was JD!" Daddy asked him "Tell me more about JD." John said "Well, he had a red hat and it said 'JD' on it. And he was brown. That's all I remember." Daddy pushed it a little further "What else can you tell me about him? Like what was his cutie mark? A turtle?" John laughed (for those who don't know cutie marks are the little designs My Little Ponies). John then said "If we did get to ride them, then I would tell them that I don't need help. You know I rode a horse in Myrtle Beach!" 

It stinks that he wasn't able to ride the pony today, but he was able to brush him and walk him around the camp. For a boy who loves nature, he won't complain. 

Suburban

In the car this morning, we got stuck waiting for a train to pass. John looked out his window and said "I think I see an animal." I saw it too. I told him, "I think that's a groundhog." He said "I don't know. I've never seen one. We should look at my animal book. First we know it's a suburban animal. And it eats leaves." I questioned "Suburban?" He said "We live in a suburban community. Rural is the biggest. But we live in a suburban community. We need to look for him in my animal book."

A zoo or China

A few weeks ago when I picked John up from school, he asked me "Can we go to a zoo? Or China?" It turns out that he was working on a panda puzzle and wanted to see pandas in their natural habitat. This week is John's spring break. I decided I would surprise him and take him to a zoo. I gave him a few clues, but he wasn't able to guess. 

This morning we got in the car and before we hit the parkway, he said "The zoo! We're going to the zoo!" He was right. We were headed to the Cape May Zoo. We arrived before the gates opened. John played on the huge playground while we waited for the zoo to open. Then we headed inside. John led the way. He is really good at reading maps!

We walked around and saw a cow, an owl, some goats and peacocks. Then I pointed out two bald eagles. John said "They are like the most important animals here." I asked "Why?" He said "Because they represent our country!" 

We walked through the bird house. Two steps inside the door, John said (very loudly) "It stinks in here!" I shhhed him and we walked through and checked out all the various species. He even remembered, "Flamingos are pink because they eat shrimp!"

We saw a camel, some llama (Gillian would have loved them), bison, a lion, a capybara, and a bunch of turtles. The turtles were all sunning themselves on the rocks on the edge of their pond. John told me "I can't wait to tell Travis about all the turtles! They must be friends."

 

Next we saw some snow leopards, giraffes, an ostrich and zebra. We also saw a red panda. Now this wasn't the kind of panda John had hoped to see, but he was still very excited. 

We walked through the reptile house. John pointed out every snake, lizard and turtle to me. He loved seeing all the turtles. We checked out the sea otters and a few more animals. Then we took a little break and John went on the carousel and we both road the train. 

We visited the gift shop. John picked out a stuffed snow leopard for himself and a stuffed sea otter for Gillian. We had a little lunch. After lunch I asked John, "Do you want to go back and see any of the animals again or do you want to go home?" "Well, I want to take my new friends to see their relatives." Basically he wanted to take the snow leopard and the sea otter back to their exhibits. You can't say no to that so we headed back. 

On our way back through the zoo, John said "I can't believe no animals are following me!" I asked "What are you talking about?" He said "Well I'm a boy that likes nature. And I thought that animals would know that and would follow me around the zoo. Cause they would know that I am nice to animals and nature." I love his big heart. 

I had a great day wth my boy. I can't wait to do it again!