The Zoo

We went to the zoo a few weeks ago. I picked a day that would be sunshiney, but cool to spend the day outside. The weather was perfect and the kids had fun. We had great company in Shaylee and Katie and their kids. We ate snacks and looked at the animals and took no good pictures.

  There are a few lessons to be learned here. First of all, the Hogle Zoo is unimpressive. It's actually not that fun. When I was done there, and even as I was looking at my pictures, I thought to myself, "we only bring our kids here so we can take photos of them and someday have proof that we took them to the zoo." But then I started thinking, "My kids have no idea what a crummy zoo this is. They are thrilled to be here. They are thrilled to be running around in the sunshine. Yes, they would have just as much fun in a pile of dirt, but they love being with me and their friends and heck, if we can throw some animals into the mix, then why not? This is not about how satisfied I am, or how blog-worthy my photos are. It's to make my kids happy.|" Which means I spent too much time rushing them on from animal to animal and that we saw 'the next thing'.

  I'm learning that some things are for the moms, and some things are for the kids. It actually helps A LOT to manage your expectations when you define who the activity is for. If I only care about my kids having fun, I won't spend so much time in their faces begging them to smile for the camera, and I will let them collect rocks instead of looking at the animals at the zoo. If it's for me, I will encourage and teach them along the way, but keep my goals in mind. 

  Take birthdays, for instance: Crafting special birthday hats, fancy invitations and creating elaborate cakes....that is for the mom. I don't like it, so I'm trying to forgive myself for not doing it. Gifts, a special breakfast and balloons thrill my children, so we make them a priority. The priorities are different for everyone and will undoubtedly be different for us year by year. I don't want to throw my energy or guilt into things that are "for my kids" but are actually for me to impress other people with. Crafting is fulfilling to some people-rarely to me. So, I'm going to let that one go. 

 Without further delay, on to the zoo:

 Maybe the best part of the zoo was sliding down this hill on their bums.

Fences have never intimidated this child. While the rest of the kids were playing in the fountain, Charlie was sticking his feet under the barriers and wading in the off-limits pond. Oh, this boy.