Zoo Journals

What. An. AWESOME. Day!  

It hit me recently that I don't have much more time with just these 2 kids.  

Don't get me wrong- I'm SO excited to meet #3, and can't wait to add him/her to our family.  

However- 3 kids is a lot different than just 2!  Especially with a newborn.  

So I'm trying to really take advantage of our last few weeks together before everyone's lives are temporarily turned upside down.

Today we took an impromptu trip to the zoo.  

I whipped up little "Zoo Journals" for the kids (namely Ada) to complete throughout our trip.  

And I can't get over how much she ATE THIS UP!

She worked very hard to make sure we saw each animal in her Zoo Journal- 

and she put a lot of thought into her "Observations."  

Dax got into his Zoo Journal, too!  Check out how he's even marked off his animals like big sister.  :)  

I flipped through his after we got home and he had "checked off" each and every animal.  

(With lots of extra blue scribbles, too!)  

Towards the end he even wanted in on the "Observations"- 

he would point to an animal page and state "Sleeping" or "Big".  

We are TOTALLY doing this every time we go on a "field trip" from now on.

Enjoy the pictures I was able to snap in the midst of the chaos!

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We got lucky and caught the jellyfish at their feeding time! 

We learned some extra information from the Biologist about them- 

which Ada absorbed every syllable of!  

Love Dax's completed jellyfish box!

When we were leaving the aquarium, Ada begged to show me her favorite fish of the entire exhibit.  She searched and searched for it in this particular tank- and luckily we caught a glimpse of it before it darted back into the coral!
I took a picture of it for her. :)

 Checking off the monkeys!

Her monkey observation: "Some monkeys sat in baskets."

 Watching Ada check off the monkeys before doing so himself.

Notice the blue streaks on his face. :)

Watching Ada check off the monkeys, before doing so himself.  Notice the blue streaks on his face!  :)

 Ada had to stop at the gorilla photo-op.

Realizing I'd put in a page for the "Dax" animal in her journal!  Her observations of the Dax:

"He was marking on himself!"

I put an "Ada" page in Dax's book.  

When I asked him if he'd seen an Ada animal at the zoo, he looked at me like I was crazy.  

"Uh-huh" he said. 

Like, "Duh.  She's here.  She's been here the whole time.  You're not funny, mom."

Her Tiger observation: "He was sleeping in the sun for a long time.  And then he woke up and wagged his tail, and heard us."

And it's not a zoo trip for the Dowell kids without a carousel ride!  And a picnic- which of course was too chaotic to snap any pictures of (like much of the trip!).