All About Kevin!

This week and next Caroline has camp at the Cummer Art Museum downtown (30-40 min away).  It runs pretty much all day.  While Caroline is off being an artist, I found that the zoo has a 45 minute program for kids age 3-5.  So we dropped Caroline off at 9 and headed to the zoo.  We had 2 and a half hours to kill before his program started so we saw every single thing at the zoo, with the exception of the kangaroos.  We went in every reptile house (I usually avoid), every bird aviary (I also avoid) and sat on every animal statue we could find...with the exception of the komodo dragon, which was too hot.  Here is Kevin with the alligator statue.

and the gorilla...

and an elephant...

Then to switch it up, a real giraffe

We of course went on the carousel.  Kevin chose the scary leopard.  He was trying to chase down the deer in front of him, but it was just too quick, staying a couple feet ahead!

and the panda statue...

OK.  I think that covers all of the statues in the zoo.  We are nearing the end of the main part of the zoo.  We headed out of the Japanese Gardens headed to see Kevin's favorite...the komodo dragon.  Of course it is crazy hot, and he is near the end of his wits, but is still excited.  He even runs ahead to get going.  When we get to the komodo dragon exhibit (the farthest point in the zoo), one of the dragons is "on vacation," and the other is hiding behind the bushes.  It was going to take a bunch of effort, imagination, Mommy to pick him up, and Kevin just didn't have any of that left in him.  He just turned around and walked away.  Oh well...

It was almost time for his class, so we stopped and ate lunch and had an icee.  That gave him a little more energy.  We headed into the kids area.  Here he is coming out of the maze.

The program was about birds.  He got to meet a couple birds, like this screech owl.  The teacher read a story, talked about differences and similarities in birds, and passed around different eggs and feathers.  Kevin thought the ostrich and emu eggs were huge.  He also got to touch a nest.  He was excited to see what all it was made of - even trash.

Then they made bird houses.  They were given white cardboard birdhouses, and used bingo markers (great idea, I thought) to "paint" them.  Then the kids decorated with stickers and "jewels."

Kevin did this all by himself.  Tom and I were concerned that the dinosaurs (the stickers he decorated with) might scare the bird away, but Kevin assured us that it would be ok.  I thought Kevin did great.  In fact, I was really impressed with him.  He sat quietly unless called upon; answered a question with a less obvious answer - name a flightless bird - penguin, not ostrich like every other kid yelled out; did all of his work himself - cleanly, quietly, nicely; and sat in his seat the whole time; and not to be biased - his birdhouse turned out the best.  I was so proud.  I don't have too much to worry about with him in school - knock on wood!

Now off to the last little bit of the zoo.  The penguins...

and the play area.  Wheee!!!  Kevin didn't want to play in the splash park, even though I had carried his swimsuit, crocs, extra clothes, and towel in my backpack all day in the crazy hot heat.  Oh well...

Now what to do?  Kevin not wanting to go to the splash park threw my plans for the day off.  We still had 2 1/2 hours left before we could get Caroline.  First we went and got ice cream.  That was yummy on a hot hot day.  Then we headed toward the art museum, with like 2 hours left.  Ugh.  We found Memorial Park right along the river.  They had a cool statue that was dedicated to the Jacksonvillians who died during the "World War."  I thought the wording was funny, until that I saw that the statue was erected in 1924, before the 2nd World War.

Kevin was a little tired of all the pictures I was taking of him.  Caroline usually takes some of the photo crazy away!  With her gone, all of my crazy was focused on Kevin!  He managed to push some back.

Somehow he still had energy to run...of course he was running to the bench in the shade.

Whew...He's pooped!

Now what to do?  Let's walk on the balance beam!

We were hot and tired, so we walked to Publix.  Kevin got his favorite cheesy chips and a drink, then headed back to the car.  He had a little snack and then we read our books while we waited the last little while for Caroline to come out.  A long, hot day.  Next week, Kevin has another zoo program, but I'm going to try to find a different way to fill our time.  It was just so hot!

Kevin was so excited to have Caroline home.  They came home and played together making statues and weapons (guess who made which!)