Hello 5

The oldest had a birthday today, 5 years old! Here are some photos from our day.

Here we are with some presents first off of course.  A Minions lego set, a pterodactyl puppet and a set of letterbots. I think they're called letterbots. They're transformers that change from letters of the alphabet to dinosaurs. There were other gifts but the letterbots were the huge hit.

After pancakes we headed to an animal park in Grove City. It's relatively new and we'd never been there before. Let me tell you it was amazing. The enclosures were fantastic, nicer than one of the nearby larger zoos. The way it's laid out makes it feel incredibly spacious and although the parking lot was busy we were never too close to other visitors. The big draw is that you can feed most of the animals so they're all very much conditioned to see visitors as treat dispensers.  Which lets you see them much closer up that we are used to.

Hello zebra!

It was REALLY neat.

Here are a few of the reindeer hanging out in the barn. They really like baby carrots.  

This was the oldest's favorite animal. Guinea pigs. For some reason they had all gathered together in this part of the barn and most of them were nursing little ones.

Checking our wingspans.

After the animal park we came home and had his favorite,  tacos.

Then he wanted to decorate his own birthday cake.  The grandparents came over for cake and coffee. We'll have a party with the cousins this weekend.

My dad brought over these two huge caterpillars he picked off of a tomato plant. They pupate underground and emerge as sphynx moths. We've raised caterpillars before but this is a new one for the house. For tonight I stuck them in here with a branch from a tomato plant. Tomorrow we'll get out an aquarium and I think the oldest and I are going to plant a habit that can accommodate these and maybe some monarchs too. 

I can't believe he's 5 already. That happened quickly. Next month he'll start kindergarten at a private school because our local district is going virtual.  He needs to be in a classroom for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which is that I cannot possibly homeschool successfully while also watching over a two year old and being in my third trimester. Absolutely no one would benefit from that. The private school has a maximum class size of 12 students and is able to distance in the classroom and clean surfaces every hour.  It's looking like we'll be taking him to and from school which is fine. The situation isn't perfect but it's the best we can come up with. 

It's really been a wonderful day today and I'm sad to see it over.