zoo date & slumber party

We began our day with a preschool field trip. We saw a traveling production of Hansel and Gretel by the Birmingham Children's Theater, somewhat adapted from the book of the same story we read last night. Dennis liked it all except, of course, for the mean old witch who wanted to cook and eat the children (he covered his eyes a lot), but this particular version wasn't all that dark. The mean old witch ended up in jail--she was deathly afraid of vegetables and the children (all the preschoolers in attendance) shouted out vegetable names to scare her into submission, whereupon Hansel and Gretel captured her and got themselves safely back home.

After the play, we met the Gallmans at the Birmingham Zoo and did zoo-type activities for a while (train rides, elephant viewing, predator admiration, etc). Most interestingly, we saw a sea lion show and (best of all) fed the lorikeets (which is what Dennis is doing in the photo). Chloe came home with us after a dinner at Cracker Barrel with Gran and Uncle Denny and Pop, and the kids have been playing "camp-out" since we got home. They are staying up way too late, of course, but that's what you do at slumber parties. We have some fun stuff planned for their tomorrow. I thought they'd have run out of words by this point, given the amount of chatter I heard in the car on the way home tonight! Chloe was singing her preschool songs to us and gave us a "dolphin show" in the backseat. Dennis was naming animals that started with the letter I said when we were playing "What Animal am I Thinking of?" (Chloe was very good at guessing the animals from the clues, and Dennis was very good at naming animals that started with whatever letter I announced, so this was a FUN game!). We also rhymed words and spied colors, all fun car games!

Dennis told me this morning that he didn't like girls. I told him that I was a girl, and he replied "yes, and I've been hoping God would change you into a boy". Wow! Let's hope THAT doesn't happen. It has sure been a fun day, great to see the kids having fun (and ensuring once again that I'm certainly glad I only have one child)! Can't wait to see what they come up with tomorrow!