A Walk on the Wild Side

About a month ago, we went to the Wildcat Bluff Nature Center for the first time for a special event called A Walk on the Wild Side.  I'd been meaning to get the kids out to this nature center for a while now, but it's usually too hot once I finally decide that it's warm enough to go.

What was it that finally convinced me to go?  Even in the hot heat?  A baby lemur named Paddles.

This is Paddles.  He is a baby ring tailed lemur, about 10 weeks old.

How can you say no to meeting a baby lemur?  We love lemurs!  Remember when then kids said that the two types of pets that they would want (other than dogs) were penguins and lemurs?

And so, we went.  And we met more than just Paddles.

This is a young reticulated python.  It's going to get huge.

And this guy is a kingsnake.  He's pretty common around here, because people actually buy them to keep on their farms.  They don't bite people, but they do eat other venomous snakes, like rattlesnakes, which farmers don't want around.



And we did get to meet Paddles.  Lex followed the lady around with him for a long, long time.

Connor thought that he had really awesome paws.

Lex finally got up the courage to ask to hold Paddles, but he was informed that since he is still a baby, it wouldn't be a good idea.

Apparently, each time a new person holds Paddles, he pees on them.  Lex opted not to get peed on by a lemur, but it was a close call.  He almost thought it would be worth it.  Hopefully we will be able to meet Paddles again when he is a little bit older, and a bit better potty trained.

In which we go to the California Academy of Sciences

I really liked this museum because there was a ton of wildlife and a planetarium inside!



One of the first things we did was explore a huge rain forest bio dome.















Then, we made our way into the aquarium.

Did you know that a group of sand dollars is called a purse?



Dwarf cuttlefish.  Still a favorite.  Because Octonauts.



We got to see a brand new planetarium show called Incoming! about comets and asteroids.



We also got to watch them feed their penguins.

Connor and Lex have declared that the animals that they would most like to have as pets (other than dogs, obviously) are penguins and lemurs.  Those kids have good taste.  I might someday say yes to either of those, because they are both totally adorable.

A long, long time ago, in a city far, far away, Lex received an ant farm for his birthday.  He loved the ant farm.  And then the ants all died, and we meant to replace them, we really did, but an empty ant farm just isn't as interesting as an ant farm full of ants, and so it was forgotten about...

Until now.  I finally got around to ordering some more ants and space gel for them to live in.  Because Lex saw an ant farm in a store and wanted me to buy it for him, but we already had it at home.

And then there was a blizzard and the ant shipments were put on hold due to freezing temperatures.

But, finally, the ants arrived!  Along with the power mix to make a new gel habitat.  But the gel had to be mixed and microwaved with DISTILLED water.  With all the bottled water we have around here, none of it was distilled.  So, I ran to the store late at night and bought the best gallon of distilled water that 88 cents can buy in this town.

24 hours later, we were in the ant farm business. Lex poked a few holes in the gel, and then we put the ants in and sealed it up.



Lex loves his ants.  He watches them all the time.  He can sit and watch them pretty much all day.

This is what their home looked like when we first put them in.  Those are the holes that Lex poked in the gel.



This is the first tunnel they started to dig.

This video is a cute little interview with Lex about his ants, right after we set up the ant farm.

Souvenirs

What did the boys pick out from the gift shop at the Truman Presidential Library?

I'm glad you asked.

Lex picked out a little replica of the replica of the Liberty Bell that we saw.  (Yeah, I know, what is he going to buy when we visit the real Liberty Bell in Philadelphia?)  It's a working bell, and he said that he was going to use it to train Tik.  Then he changed his mind, and said that he was going to put it by his bed, so he could ring it and I would know that he wanted his breakfast in bed.  Then he changed his mind again, and he put it with our little village of souvenir buildings. Which is fine by me.  That whole breakfast-in-bed-at-the-ring-of-a-bell thing was a little sketchy, in my opinion.

Connor picked out a coloring book.  Which is amazing!  I am finally getting him to color!  I *heart* coloring, and my children, well, they have always been reluctant color-ers.  Which has been breaking my Crayola-loving heart.  But that seems to be changing!

This coloring book is awesome, because Connor loves the presidents, and he has been fascinated by their pets since we saw an exhibit about presidential pets when we were at the George W. Bush library last December.  For the record, some of the presidents have had some strange animals at the while house.

I also think that he picked it out because he is currently working on two of these types of coloring books already.

We are learning all about the Greek Gods and Heroes and myths this summer while we are learning Greek.  We are also reading the Percy Jackson series of books.  He usually picks a God, and I read to him the page about the God in this book, and then he colors the picture that goes with it while I am reading a chapter out of Percy Jackson.

Sidebar:  Connor and Lex demand that the third Percy Jackson book be made into a movie already!

The other coloring book that we are already working on is this one about pirates.  We did a unit study on pirates this summer, because summer=pirates, and also because we read the Magic Tree House Book #4:  Pirates Past Noon.

I really like the Magic Tree House books because there are two books on each topic.  One is the fictional story, and the other is a nonfiction companion that covers the related topic.  Book one was about dinosaurs, book two was about medieval knights and castles, and book three was about Ancient Egypt and the mummies.  We did an entire unit study for each one of these topics this past school year.  We are currently getting ready to read the fifth books in the series, Night of the Ninjas (the fiction book) and the Ninjas and Samurai Fact Tracker (nonfiction companion).

What Connor didn't know when he picked out another Dover Coloring Book at the gift shop was that I have already bought a few more for this coming school year.

One is going to be used for our United States geography and history lessons:

And this slimmer volume is going to go with it:

And, finally, it is high time that the boys learn the sign language alphabet.  It drives me crazy when I am trying to finger spell a word to one of them as a secret message and they don't get it.  I have been trying to get Kevin and the boys to learn it for years now, but it's time that they actually do.  And this book has a few signs for each letter as well.

Because secret messages are cool.  And they can come in handy when you need them.

Cameron Park Zoo

I feel like a sunny afternoon spent at the zoo is a great homeschool day.





The first animals we saw were these white-handed gibbons.  They reminded me of the boys, mostly because there were two of them, they were about the same size as the boys, and they walked completely upright.

No, I did not just call my kids monkeys.  I would never do something like that.

Anyways, these gibbons and the monkeys below were my favorite animals that day.



These squirrel monkeys were adorable and hilarious.  They loved to come right up to the glass and tease the boys.



Connor said he wanted a squirrel monkey for a pet.  I said no.



The American Black Bear.  Which is apparently indigenous to Texas, and can't navigate a steep ditch, because that's really all that was separating us.



The river otter enclosure was so entertaining that we stayed here for probably half an hour.



You see that slide?  It went inside and through the river otter enclosure.  The otters would climb on the slide while the kids were in it, or they would swim right under it.



See?  The otter was right on top of the slide!



The boys loved playing with the otters this way.



Ocelots!  Just like on Minecraft!  This was another favorite of the day.

Jaguars

This nocturnal enclosure was entirely done in black light, and the owls were very photogenic.



It's just like Eeylops Owl Emporium.  Okay, maybe not exactly like it, but close enough.

There weren't any animals living in the teepee.  But there was a herd of bison nearby.

Giraffe!

Greater Kudu

Both boys wanted their photo taken with the baby giraffe statue.

Another one of my favorites was this orangutan mommy and baby.



The mommy was very protective of the baby, and as soon as she was done using that stick to get the leaf she wanted to eat from our side of the fence, she went and got her baby down from the fence.  By the way, once she extended the stick, I could have reached out and grabbed the other end.  I didn't though, because I didn't want to get into a fight with an orangutan.





I know we have taken photos of the boys with this Komodo Dragon statue at a bunch of other zoos.  It's become a thing now.  We have to do it every time.

A real Komodo Dragon.

Last but not least, we found Johnny Lemur!