Life's A Zoo

We go to our little Cape May County Zoo a lot here. For a lot of reasons.

1. It's free - umm..heck yes! Free entertainment for the whole family? Yes please.


2. It's small - believe it or not this is a good thing. It makes it not so large and overwhelming that you can't decide on a whim to jump in your car and spend an hour or so "walking the zoo", seeing it all and then heading home without having to pack snacks, lunch, 190 diapers and 13 water bottles. 

The downside of it being a small zoo (and being the only real family entertainment within 1000 miles) is that if you attend on a weekend, a field trip day or any day between late May through the end of August is that you will be battling 10 thousand unattended wild south Jersey children and their obnoxious inconsiderate parents in a compact area. Avoid at all costs.

3. It has an enormous playground right near the entrance by the parking lot, so it's basically a two for one deal for the kids. Go to the zoo, then wear off whatever energy you have left at the playground. Perfection.

The three big boys (Calen, Matty, Aiden) watching the birds

We went today with friends and spent almost TWO HOURS there. Calen was a big patient boy today and walked the entire zoo (instead of asking for the stroller that Cam was occupying) with no complaints and even had the energy to spend almost an hour and a half at the playground after that. Even Camden was in good spirits the entire time (even though he only had a 45 minute nap that day) and couldn't stop laughing/squealing/being a howler monkey at the top of his lungs on the swings.

My howler monkey on the swings

Because the kids were so good today, I had to set myself up for certain annihilation by taking my tired, hungry men to Home Depot to get paint (because Camden's Monkey room is only half painted. Remember when I said I was going to get it done within like 3 days? Remember how that was like 3 weeks ago? I ran out of blue paint and never bothered to go to the store to get more. I was painted out at that point until today).

Calen wouldn't stop playing to take some stupid picture

I had the lid to the old can of Dutch Boy blue paint (from 2010, when I painted our accent wall in the dining room). Home Depot doesn't carry Dutch Boy. Fine. So I put the kids back in the car and went to Lowe's and got them out of the car again. They don't carry Dutch Boy. And the paint can lid said it was from Walmart. FINE. So I put the kids BACK in the car, drove across the shopping center to Walmart, got them OUT of the car a third time (Cam had dozed off each short drive in between stores and was infuriated each time I woke him up). I get into Walmart. Walmart informs me that Dutch Boy paint doesn't exist anymore. I'm not interested in his pathetic excuses, so I ask him to just look up the code for the color (it's on the lid). Sure no problem. Until he informs me that NO codes are showing up at all and I can't get the same color.

Really? Well that's neat, but half of my kid's room is this particular blue. And I can't very well leave it half blue. You best find me something quick. So he starts experimenting with gallons of paint to attempt to make the same color. All while the boys, who just got done spending 3 and a half hours on the go at the zoo/playground, oh and an hour grocery shopping this morning so they're especially exhausted, and we're closing in on dinnertime so they're DYING OF STARVATION, are quietly sitting in the shopping cart. For an hour.

Yes, you just read that right. It's not a typo. My tired, hungry kids that have spent all day being shuffled from one place to another were just sitting there, quietly, not complaining, not crying, not whining.

What just happened?

Maybe they were too tired to complain (unlikely). Or maybe they were possessed by local monks (likely), but whatever the case be, they were amazingly patient little angels. Mommy was proud. 

Once the paint guy FINALLY got me a gallon of paint that somewhat resembled the color I needed, I rewarded my patient little men with Peanut M&M's and a new matchbox car. I wish (most) adults could be encouraged with such simple rewards.

Today's zoo crew. AMAZING everyone is looking. Everyone is also exhausted.

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