On Wednesday morning, I got up early and drove us to the zoo. We got there around 9:30, it was open until 5pm. We hadn't been there in about two years, so I was hoping the kids would do a better job actually looking at the animals this time around. They sort of did.
My plan was to prevent breakdowns by making the kids snack and drink regularly. It still failed because even although Simon ate breakfast at home, had a banana and fruit bar on the car on the 90 minute ride to the zoo, and had a cheese stick near the gorilla play area, he still had an epic crying breakdown before we even got to the lions around 11:15 am. What set him off was that he was playing on some rocks, and wanted to play there forever, but after about 5 minutes I said it was time to go. A ten minute crying episode ensued. Here's a picture of the lion enclosure that Alice took while I tried to console Simon and convince him to eat his peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Eventually he stopped crying, ate, and felt better.
Alice was eating an apple slice while we looked at baboons, and her tooth fell out.
Finally around 2 pm we'd gone all around the zoo (only skipping the desert dome because the kids said they were already too hot). We got to the zoo's two wonderful play areas with 3 hours left. Perfect.
We left right at closing time, and dined at a nearby Chik-Fil-A for supper. I got a cup of coffee so I wouldn't fall asleep at the wheel on the drive home. It worked great, except that I was up until 2:30 am wide awake.
