hot day at the zoo

Not a bad weekend. Saturday we all went to the zoo for a birthday party there for one of Sam's classmates. Turns out her parents are big donors at the zoo, so we were privileged to see an elephant trained to paint abstract art. (This says something both about the elephant and abstract art.) 

Sunday we hung out at home. Sam was at loose ends, so asked him to use the hose to water our flowers, and then let him play with the hose. Most of us can't remember the first time we had a chance to play with a hose. Sam was in heaven, spraying this and that, including the older boy who lives next door, who considered it a fun challenge to dodge the stream while pretending to shoot Sam with his (also pretend) rifle. Sam finally settled on digging a hole in the ground with the stream--an exercise in the power of erosion.

It was a hot day. The polar bears were enjoying playing with some ice.

Sam's art enrichment class had its art show last Thursday. Here's Sam in front of  his bio and  one of his pieces.

Sam has recently perfected the art of hanging upside-down like Spiderman.

...and whirling around so the rope traces a wide cone and he almost hits the slide.

Here Sam's posing on some metal statues of lions. The zoo just put in a lion exhibit and is quite proud of it.

Josh had a great time at the zoo as well. But then, anywhere Josh is allowed to toddle provides him a great time. Unlike Sam at this age, Josh sees and is interested in many of the animals. He was fascinated by the Mexican gray wolves, who were making rapid orbits around their enclosure. But then, like Sam at his age, he was also pretty interested in what wood chips he could find.

This is the last week of school. Of the seven first and second graders, three, including Sam, will be switching to public school. Sam doesn't talk about it, but it's clearly a hard transition for him. He's had a great experience here--some excellent teachers, and a very supportive learning environment. Time, though, for a bigger world.