Friday Field Trip!

For our Friday field trip this week, we embarked on an exciting (and exhausting!) adventure at the Bronx Zoo. I'm still experimenting to find out the best way to travel on the subway with my crew of 5, so today we started out with Josiah in the sling and Joey in the umbrella stroller. It proved to be a false start. The umbrella stroller isn't working right (it's been ages since we've used it) so we abandoned that idea, made a mental note to check Craigslist for a better small lightweight stroller, and took the jogging stroller (that we've been using daily) instead. Turns out it takes a good 45 minutes to get to the zoo by subway, but it wasn't too bad. And this smart mommy transferred at a farther-away-than-necessary station just so that we could use the elevator to switch to the uptown platform! Hey, slowly but surely I'm learning!!



Here are the older 4 at the entrance of the zoo...


Our first stop was the Wild Asia Monorail. Now most of my zoo-going experience has involved 100 degree weather, sweat, and lots and LOTS of walking. Not so here! This is my kind of zooing! (Hey, it's my blog and I'll make up verbs if I want to.) We got to sit in this nice little train car while seeing the animals of Asia with a "tour guide" narrating the whole thing. Nice!
And of course the boys like anything train-like, so everyone was happy!








Apparently when you're 5 months old your socks are much more interesting than wildlife.


Here are the boys in front of some sort of monkeys. Joey is really into Monkeys. Next to yum yums, they're one of his favorite topics of conversation.


After visiting Asia, everyone was ready for lunch. Of course I wanted to go to the restaurant that we get a discount on with our zoo membership, and of course it is on the other side of the zoo. But never fear, like I said before walking is pretty much optional here, so between the zoo shuttle and the Skyfari, we chose the Skyfari.

This ended up being a bit scary. Not because of the nature of the ride itself, but because they split us up. Yes, the posted signs did say limit 4 people/680 lbs., but I kind of figured that it was an either/or type thing. Now, my tall skinny kiddos weigh a combined total of about 160 lbs., and while I'm not about to divulge on this blog my actual weight (hey, I've had 5 children in 9 years, lol) I can assure you we fall way WAY under 680 lbs. Still, no go. So I send Joshua, Jonathan, and Jordan in the car ahead and Joey, Josiah, and I go in the next one. No biggie, until I see the signs plastered inside the car: Absolutely NO shaking/swinging the car...extremely dangerous (my paraphrase). I'm just watching them in the car ahead of us, waiting for it to start swinging precariously and then plunge into the zoo below. Thankfully, the boys behaved (hey, 2 of them can read that sign...and know what danger means...sometimes) and there were no incidents!

Looking from my car into the car containing Josh, Jon, and Jordan...


A nice, calm, non-swaying car containing Josh, Jon, and Jordan...(whew!)...


Joey


The view from Skyfari...the jungle-y area is the zoo, then behind that the Bronx. The really hazy buildings in the background are the Manhattan skyline. It was much cooler in person, really.


Jeremy joined us later in the afternoon and took the boys on the Bug Carousel.








Next we headed over to the Children's Zoo. This area is really well done, and in the future we could easily spend a couple hours here. But it was close to closing time and we'd promised Joey we'd make it to the Monkey House, so we pretty much rushed through this.

Look at the cute little baby birdies sitting in their nest!


Jordan in the prairie dog town.


Daddy helps Joey get up close to a prairie dog...


Jonathan and Joey...


Jordan and Joshua...

Climbing a giant spider's web...thankfully there was no sign of the spider!

Joshua

Jordan


Checking out some salamanders...

For someone confined to a stroller for most of the trip, he sure was happy!

Jumping like a bullfrog...

Jordan jumps so far and so quickly he almost warps into some alternate dimension...

I really wanted a bunch of these ears, since so very often my poor children tell me they didn't hear me, but alas, they were bolted down.


Feeding a goat...

And a sheep...

Going back on the Skyfari (with an adult in each car this time...yay!) I tried to hold the camera out in front of me and get a picture of Josiah, who was in my lap. My aim was obviously terrible, but the results were too cute not to post!

Joey looking out over the zoo.

Please check back later for more of our adventure!

Our school day so far...

Well, we didn't start school this morning quite as early as I had hoped, but we did start by about 8:30. Due to some extenuating circumstances, we took some of our books and did math, grammar, and spelling, as well as Jordan's reading/phonics at the park. It worked out really well! I was able to work one-on-one with each child while the others played together on the playground, instead of trying to keep the others quiet/occupied. While the weather is nice, I think we might try to do this once a week or so. We were out for about 2 hours total, and everyone had a good time AND got their work done!

Getting More Organized with Our Time...

As we finish up our 7th week here in NYC (wow...have we really been here that long already?) I'm realizing that we can't go on in our current schedule, or lack thereof. We're finishing our 4th week of school, and while we have finished most of what we set out to do in that time, I feel like I'm in constant "catch up" mode and not using our time as efficiently as we'll need to long-term. In our previous life in Texas (LOL) we had a basic routine that we stuck to more often than not, which included chores, school, errands, meals, etc. Here I haven't turned many chores back over to the children, haven't yet figured out how to work in necessary errands, (every outing, besides just walking to the park, requires either lots of walking or navigating the subway system or both, and dealing with stores whose aisles aren't wide enough to accommodate a stroller, etc.) and although we're accomplishing most of our homeschool goals, we don't have a set schedule for subjects, so I end up having to teach when I should be cooking, or when I'm tired in the afternoon. THIS ALL MUST CHANGE!! :)

The first step I'm going to take is to start making myself go to bed earlier and get up earlier. I am naturally a night-owl, and being in New York encourages me to continue to be a night-owl...everything seems to happen later here. I guess they don't call it "the city that never sleeps" for nothing! I suspect, however, that we will be more productive if we can start school by 8 a.m. and finish everything but history or science before lunch. Once we've done that for a week or two, I plan on implementing my next step, which will be implementing a set schedule to order at least the school portion of our days. There...now that I've told y'all, I'll actually have to do it! Some accountability would be a good thing!

Now, since some of you only put up with my ramblings because you come here to see pictures of the children, here are some photos for you! I forgot to take the camera to the playground today (we went to a sprinkler park nearby) so you'll have to settle for random photos in our apartment that I haven't gotten around to posting yet!

Those of you who are somewhat familiar with New York City may have heard of the Naked Cowboy, who plays his guitar in Times Square in nothing but his tighty whities and cowboy boots. Well, here's our version...


Aren't they adorable?


"I'm a rock star!"


Happy baby!

Well, I guess I'm off to bed!!

A Walk Down Memory Lane...Joshua

Tonight I was looking back through old photographs of the children and thought it would be fun to post some of them here. I think I might do a series of posts like this maybe once a week for a while, focusing on a different child each week. I think it's fun to see how they've grown and changed, and how much they've stayed the same. Here are some fun shots of Joshua from about 10 months (when we first went digital, lol) through about 6 years.

Joshua at about 10 months old at Peepah's house in Arizona. The digital quality just wasn't the same back then, but he's still a cutie!


In Nicholas's bouncy seat...he's really too big for it!


Joshua's first birthday




Joshua's first birthday was actually on Easter. Here he is all dressed up!


Joshua welcomes his first baby brother, Jonathan! They are 20 months apart.


Fun with Daddy's hair gel...


Bath time!


Brushing your teeth is lots of fun!


Working a puzzle...


He looks so pensive sitting in this basket with his sombrero hanging down his back.


Coloring with markers with Daddy.


Making cupcakes...


Tasting cupcake batter...YUM!


At our neighborhood playground...


Playing in the box of peanuts that previously contained Christmas gifts from Granddaddy and Grandmommy!


A portrait of me and my brother!


Joshua's 4th birthday!


At Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs...


Josh and Jon fall 2003...Josh is 4 and Jon is almost 3.


Thanksgiving 2003...


Joshua, Jonathan, and baby Jordan 11/03...


Tee ball summer 2004...


Joshua's first 1K kids fun run!


Washing the dishes...


Christmas 2004


Spring of 2005...Josh 6, Jon 4, and Jordan 1.


Fall 2005 at a local church pumpkin patch...


Joshua and his "best friend" Job from Build-a-Bear...


December 2005, just days before Joseph was born.


It's amazing to see just how much he's grown! Looking back, it's all gone by soooo fast!