Going to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo!

This week Hannah went on a field trip with her class for the very first time since she was 5yo and in JK.  I was excited when her teacher invited me to join them as a parent volunteer.

The day was overcast yet a perfect temperature and the zoo was empty!  In our past experiences we’ve always need to dodge other people to see the animals so it was such a treat to walk up to exhibits without fighting crowds.

The day was really well organized and run too.  We started with about a 30 min session in a classroom where the children learned about habitation, migration and more.  This picture brings tears to my eyes as Hannah is adding a picture to the board after raising her hand and answering a question. In the 4 years that I have helped in her classes I think I can count on one hand the number of times that I have seen Hannah raise her hand to answer a question or participate in class this way.   She’s always been concerned with not giving the correct answer so she just wouldn’t offer an answer.  Her teacher this year has been working with her to help her gain confidence in answering questions and it was breath taking to sit back and see Hannah not only raise her hand more than once!  Thank you Ashley!!!

After the classroom session we headed out in small groups to visit the animals.  Each small group was assigned a zoo worker who discussed things they had been taught in the classroom. 

Our first visit was to see the baby pandas who are now about 18 months old. 

My how they’ve grown since we saw them a year ago!

From there we saw a number of other animals. 

I am so thankful for this day with Hannah as well as the opportunity to get to know her classmates a little better.

A Trip to the Zoo

Last week Hannah and I enjoyed a fun day at the zoo with the gal who will be caring for Hannah once I return to work (sniff!!) in mid-August. It was a sunny, hot day and we had a great time with friends touring the zoo.



Hannah, Noah and Owen taking a break in front of the tiger enclosure


Hannah and the tiger


The gorillas made me laugh! They were running and jumping and all Hannah kept saying was 'Ball! Ball!' When she looked into the cage as there was a large ball in there for them to play with.

Hannah and I stayed for lunch when the others headed home for naps. Hannah decided to nap at the zoo so I enjoyed wandering around and seeing more animals. Polar Bears. Mommy's favourite!


Sleepy XiaoFen



Mommy made her way back across the park in search of a Beaver Tail! Mmmmmm!!! I was going to share but Hannah slept through it so mommy had to eat her portion too. This just means we'll have to go back sometime so that Hannah can enjoy her first taste of a yummy Beaver Tail!

She woke up before we left so we spent a little time playing in the water park. We didn't have enough time left in our day to change Hannah into her bathing suit so she had fun splashing (read: soaking us!) in the water park fountains.