My Special Day with Caleb

One week ago, Caleb's second grade class took a field trip to the Franklin Zoo in Boston, and I had the privilege of joining in on the fun as a chaperone.  In fact, there were so many chaperones, most of us had just one charge- our own child!  I was really excited to have the whole morning at the zoo with my main squeeze, who kept thanking me over and over again for coming on his field trip with him.  Aw!  He is such a sweet little boy!

The bus ride down wasn't nearly as bad, ie loud, as I'd imagined it would be.  The hour and a half went by pretty quickly.  Of course, in a weak moment I'd relented and let Caleb bring a game boy, so he was silent the entire time, and I got to chat with some adults.  That was a nice change of pace, ha!

We were greeted by Fiona, who was handing out lollipops- what a surprise!!

 

Then it was off to see the animals!!

Oh wait, that's just Caleb the goat, ha!

Now Caleb's a hopping frog!

 Hello there, Mr. Lion- his ROAR was menacing, and it made me very thankful for glass between us!

And then he did this, just flopped himself over and rolled around on his back.

It was hysterical!

I love camels, they're so saucy!

Inside one of the bird sanctuaries

There are lots of nice pathways and trails at the zoo- this was on our way to see the gorillas, and Caleb looked so handsome.  I'm having a really hard time accepting the fact that he's turning eight next month.

Love these beautiful creatures

Love these smart little lemurs too!

Many of the walkways are lined with ornamental grasses to make it feel like you're inside the heart of the jungle- so much fun!

Oops!  I was fooling with my settings and got a great close-up of that grass...

...there, that's the shot I was after!

Karate chopping (bush-wacking) our way through the jungle

It was time to go before we knew it- I'd been having such a good time with Caleb, wandering around and watching the different animals.  I didn't actually take that many pictures- there are LOTS more animals than I've represented here.  I was so thankful for the opportunity to have this special day with my little boy!  Thanks Mimi, for taking care of Isabelle all day!

After much debate, hemming and hawing, and sticker shock I might add, we finally decided on a new carpet for the office re-do/mishap.  We went with Lowe's in-stock carpet because it comes in 15-foot rolls and we have a 13X18 size room- the extra we needed when we planned on purchasing standard 12-foot carpet was really adding to the bottom line, so we were glad to have found the 15-foot stuff.  And the best news?  It could be installed within 72 hours!  They were scheduled to install around 1 pm, so it's a very good thing Mimi and Isabelle happened to be home at, say, 11:45, when they showed up- usually you're left waiting around forever, so this was a surprise!  My Mom said they were very courteous and professional, and they did a great job!  The only thing that bugs the daylights out of me is the gold edge-thing they put down- I loathe it!  It's awful!  I would have preferred silver, and this gold is that tawny, retro, cheapo-looking gold, ugh, but Bill says we aren't doing anything to it so I'd better make my peace with it.  I'm trying.  I know it's such a small thing, but....I'm trying.

Here is how the room looked when I came home from the field trip- Caleb was finishing up at school, and Bill had come early and taken Isabelle to the store, so I had the whole house to myself for 30 or so minutes.  It was such a relief to walk into this room and not be greeted with utter chaos and disaster for the first time in weeks (the disaster is everywhere else, since we had to clear the room out for the carpet installation, ha!)  We have finally moved some pieces back in, but I'm not sharing those pics just yet.

Ah, that's sooooo much better!