Yesterday was my dad's birthday. My family sang to his voicemail. He called in the evening to thank us from just outside of Raceland, Louisiana. Dad was on his way to have shrimp po-boys for his birthday dinner.
We took the next in line for Birthday Boy to the zoo. I thought the forecast would scare a lot of zoo goers away, but we circled the zoo looking for a place to park for a whole hour. Then some guy up at the art museum was leaving and let us have his spot, so it turned out we were only up the hill from the north gate, and had a very easy walk. We met Helena inside and stood in line for the stingrays. ...and it rained. It rained and rained and rained and Abbie stabbed me with her umbrella and it rained some more. Kids and long lines were not a match made in heaven. Hell, maybe, but certainly not heaven. For pre-schoolers, mine did okay. About a 6 on a scale of 1 to 10.
Stingrays feel a lot like catfish. The smaller, mud-colored ones were actually quite friendly and even cute. Abbie was a little too splashy for them to get close to her, so eventually i took her to the gift shop, while Grant, Josh and Helena bought little fish to feed to the stingrays. We bought Grant a birthday present from Abbie: a little plastic blue stingray. He loved it, and so did she. She almost didn't let him have it. Then, it was off to see the animals! Since we were soaked, what could be a better idea then going into the sub-zero penguin house? So we did our popsicle impersonations in there (very fun) and even saw the grizzly bears on the way. Grizzly bears don't mind being out in the rain.
The otters weren't home, of course. I suspect they spend their entire day in the children's zoo, which I have never been to. (When I win the lottery...) It was really pouring on the giraffes and Okapis, zebras and camels, but they didn't seem to notice. The big cats were next, and it turns out even they don't mind a little drizzle. And we took Helena to the butterflies in the insectarium and they were a big hit, even though she gave the spider displays a wide berth. Then, the rhinos and hippos and elephants. By then the weather had cleared.
We all had dinner together, too. What a great day! Even though my hair was something of a bad joke by dinnertime. I actually changed my wet clothes in the car, and was much more comfortable, except for my socks, which had to wait until we were home.
Today was practice, just me and Helena and Rieko. Individual attention makes for a good practice. Tiring, but good. I will not be at practice on Tuesday, but I can't wait for Thursday's practice!
As for Tuesday....a little boy I know is turning five. We're going to make that cake, and Grant wants Beefaroni for dinner. How funny is that? Josh is going to stay home, and so am I. I think it's going to be very fun.
In the meantime...I'm tired! Going to see if the whole movie thing happens tonight, but I'm not counting on it. On the list before that is baths for the kids.
Well! I wonder what my friends the world travelers are up to right now. All I know so far is that poor Melanie couldn't sleep on the plane. That's how I've always been, so I know how she feels. Have they been to Mt. Fuji yet? I want to know!!!! I didn't go to Mt. Fuji when I was there. The mountain we hiked on was called Mt. Takao.
Oh, I almost forgot. This morning I left the house with sopping wet hair because I was all excited to play a CD I'd just made on the way to practice. I made it from a bunch of MP3's that Josh got from a guy at work named Ron. However....Ron does not get a gold star. Of all the particular songs that I was interested in burning, only two were the album version. Some were recorded from radio, and some were live. One had a skip. Rrr. Now I'm all disappointed. But I have hopes for the future.
My brother's birthday is next Saturday. Josh is a nonconformist. All my other boys have August birthdays.
Anyway, I must go. Hope you are having a wonderful and happy day!
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