Fri 6/10 Zoo Days

I took all three of my kids plus two more to the zoo. One was a baby and the other is three. I really thought it would not be that hard. I was wrong.

My friend met us up there with two of her three kids. I thought this would make it easier.  So now we have one baby, two strollers and six boys.  It was crazy.  Mostly because William prides himself in getting to every exhibit first, so he runs ahead.  The three year old was more interested in really enjoying every exhibit.  So we had to divide to conquer.

The little boy got his finger smashed in a door by one of my children.  It was a really bad smash.  He cried and I thought kept pointing to his torso.  I had pulled up his shirt to see what was hurting.  It took me forever to realize it was his finger.  We went to the front of the zoo to get a bandaid.  This seemed to help.  (about a week later his fingernail fell off)

When we got to the bears, I was really starting to wear down.  My friend was the one who noticed that we were missing somebody. I will give you one guess who it was. William was halfway around the circle of the bear exhibit by the time I caught up to him. I kept going from exhibit to exhibit thinking, he'll be at this one.  It was getting to the point that I thought, maybe he wasn't in the circle anymore.  The zoo was not full that day and I actually knew quite a few people.  However, you know how it is when your child runs off and it starts taking a long time to find him, you start to worry.

All of my kids ran off when they were little.   William is just the last one and I think he is too old for it.  He is five.  He can stay with me.  I have a hard time letting people watch William because he is so hard to keep up with.  I tell people - now you know he runs off, right?  My close friends, who I trust with William, know that I am not exaggerating and what they are getting into when they watch him.

Anyway, I found William.  He had almost gone completely around the circle to where he would have met up with us.  I was frazzled by the time I got to Chic Fil A for lunch.  I was on my own with four boys and a baby in a car seat.  The people at Chic Fil A are so sweet.  I am sure they recognize me as someone who comes in a lot, but they also recognized that I was a woman on the edge.  The manager brought me all of my food, drinks, napkins, ketchup, straws, napkins. everything.  I just love that place!

Here are some pictures that I managed to take before the madness.  I am sure that you are not really supposed to climb on the gorilla, but trust me everybody does, not just my kids.