A Trip to The Wild Animal Experience

 We didn't know.

A wonderful family fun gem was only a 10 minutes drive away from our house.

The Wild Animal Park.

It is the most hands on zoo we have ever been to, and the kids (and grown-ups) loved it!

 When you arrive you are greeted by  a barnyard full of hungry goats.

 This sign cracked me up.

 But they were serious....the lemurs waited patiently for Froot Loops to head down the feeding chute.

 Kimberly was very brave...she fed everything.  No matter how much slime they left on her hand.

(there were many hand cleaning stations all around the zoo)

 Will this be a new tradition?  I think so.  Even Mark joined in.  What a good sport he is.

 A few of the animals, like this Zebu, seem to need to see an orthodontist.

 Do I need braces?

 Is your Mama a Llama?

 Luke's all time favorite animal...Jase the Giraffe.  Look at that tongue. 

 Kimberly was standing on platform...she still had to stretch to feed Jase a carrot.

 Okay...that tongue kind of freaked me out....

An American black bear....lounging on its back.

 Cute kids.

 A watusi---It was huge, and those horns were unbelievable. A watusi can reach 1600 pounds and the horns can be 8 feet across.

 Very friendly fallow deer waiting to be fed.

 The fallow deer were just beautiful.

 Kimberly's all time favorite animal..the kangaroo.  We got to see a small joey climb out of this mother's pouch and then climb back in.  It was so cute. 

The bigger zoo we usually go to doesn't have kangaroos or giraffes, so the kids were very excited to see their favorite animals.

A huge white Bengal tiger. 

We were told it is a snowflake tabby Bengal tiger.

It was so big...it weighs about 800 pounds

 and stands 8 feet tall.

 The keeper said it eats over fifteen pounds of beef a day.

 

 Let's feed a camel.

 Brave Kimberly...Luke was afraid it would spit on him so he stayed far away.

 alligators

 I enjoyed this sign.

 Luke did feed the alligators....of course he was way up on a platform.

 The guinea hens ran loose, eating all the animal feed kids drop around the park.

I think these guys were my favorite.

If you are local...The Wild Animal Park is definitely worth your time.

Thank you, Daddy for taking us on this adventure.

Field Trip

 Dad is on vacation this week, and the poor guy has been working at his second job almost non-stop, so I decided to plan a little family fun for today.

We headed with the homeschooled kids to the Syracuse Museum of Science and Technology.

 It was great to get out of the house..we are soooo tired of winter---although technically I believe we have moved into mud season with occasional snow.

 We basically had the place to ourselves...one of the perks of homeschooling!

 Playing basketball on the "green screen"

 Gracie did a little cave exploring.

 She also rode a bike with a skeleton.

 Excavating dinosaur bones

 Rock wall climbing

We had a wonderful day together.

The only down side was watching the IMAX movie...We all got seasick.  I had no warning about how with theater experience would effect us.  Daddy, Kimberly and I all felt sick by the end of the 40 minute show.  Luke and Grace seemed to do ok with it.  I don't believe I will be going to another movie like this any time soon.

The Principal Called for a Day Off!

 Our Principal, seen above taking a foul shot, decided this morning to call a mental health day...Yoo hoo!!!!

 Daddy took us to Chuck E Cheese.

The perfect spot to go on a weekday, schoolday...We practically had the place to ourselves.

 Taking the traditional photo with Chuck E Cheese.

 Luke in the funhouse.

 

 We had a great lunch and won alot a tickets.

Daddy was very happy that they now have a "ticket muncher" that counts the tickets for you.  Of course we discovered this after counting over 200 of the tickets by hand.

Thank you so much, Daddy, for such a fun day!