Zookeeper Party!

This year Henry chose to have a Zookeeper party theme.  He made sure to emphasize that he did not want just a zoo party, but a zookeeper party.  That is what he wants to be when he grows up.  

 

Henry wanted to make t-shirts for all his friends but they were not on sale so I didn't.  he made is own though.  It says "HenZoo" which is what he named his imaginary zoo and he made a logo for it- it's a circle with a snake in it holding an arrow in it's tongue. Pretty clever I think.

 I perused Pinterest for ideas and found plenty of ultra fancy decorations to make, but nothing about actually what to do at such a party.  

Here's what our family brainstormed and eventually came up with:

(I didn't go all out on decorations this time and just used stuff we already have)

#1 All zookeepers are welcomed to the zoo and their training.

#2 Play Zookeeper Says (variation of Simon Says) to better relate to the animals we will imitate their behavior- so for example Zookeeper Says act like a gorilla, or a turtle or ...and so on.

#3 Feed the hippos (variation of bean bag toss) We tossed our toy food into a bucket we taped with hippo teeth, eyes and ears.

#4 Dolphin Show Practice  (variation of ring-toss) We divided the kids into pairs and they tossed glow in the dark bracelet rings to each other- and they had to try and catch/land it on each others' nose.  basically they took turns being trainer or dolphin.

#5  Aquarium building  We colored an aquarium scene with crayons and then water-colored over the top of the drawing.

#6 Proper Reptile Handling  Isaac and neighbor went over to a pond and caught some snakes (they were hoping to get a few painted turtles but it was too cold that day).  Isaac showed the kids how to hold a snake and let the kids hold them, play with them, touch them, etc. Then returned them home after the party.

#7 Pinata- just for fun & on Henry's wish list for awhile.  He picked a dinosaur one since he didn't want to get an animal and have all his zookeeper friends beating up an animal so picked an animal that's already extinct.  Quite the thought process went into that choice.

#8 Eat cupcakes

#9 open presents

#10 scrambled for ideas for killing time until parents show up- we ended up getting out the parachute and using it to bounce stuffed animals in the air and then burying each other in stuffed animals.

We could have used a few more games that we thought of, but I didn't prepare for them thinking we had plenty.  Henry had another craft in mind and pin the tail or trunk on the elephant was suggested, but I wasn't organized enough during the week before.

The kids seemed to have a great time. :)

Dog & Turtle

Saturday in between a bunch of running around Isaac caught Sadie pushing something under her cushion like she was trying to hide something.  He went over to see what it was and she sat on the cushion and looked at him with sad puppy dog eyes.  He reached underneath and when he almost felt something she put her paw on his hand.  He reached some more and he found...  her ear dropper.  (She's on meds for a chronic ear infection).  She hates getting ear drops.

 Here's a tiny painted turtle (about an inch and half) I found in the road while "running" (more like pretending to).  My neighbor rescued it and put it in her bucket of pond water she happened to have.  It was totally flat and gray, but after being in the water for a bit it's color returned and he puffed up to more healthy look for a turtle.

Pictionary

One night for Family Home Evening Isaac had us all play a game he learned in art class.  It's kind of a mix of pictionary and gossip or post office or telephone & whatever else you might call that game.  We decided to go with a "scripture" theme.  Each person gets the same number of pieces of paper as people in the group.  On the first piece of paper each person draws a picture.  Then everyone passes that paper to the left.  On the next piece of paper write down what it is a picture of.  Pass it to the left.  On another piece of paper illustrate what the paper says.  Pass that to the left.  Write down on another piece of paper what you think it is.  Keep going around in a circle until you are out of paper.
Here's our results (I don't remember if this is the right order or not anymore on some of these):

9th grade dance

 

Saturday was also the 9th grade dance.  It's "not a formal" or a "date dance" according to the letter sent out from the school, but of course everyone dresses up and some people take a date.  Ana met with a group of girls at an Italian restaurant and then went to the dance with them.  I didn't get any pictures of her friends, but here's a few I took of her.  And Henry.  Of course he needed to be in the pictures too.  Dressed as Little Red Riding Hood.  We pulled the cloak out of the costumes in the basement when looking for another costume for my sister's son who needed a "Vietnamese Emperor" costume for a book report.  Ya.  Anyway,  Henry really likes the way the hood has a point at the top.  He's grown quite fond of it.

Air and water

Saturday the kids had swimming lessons + a bunch of other stuff.  William and Henry were thrilled with William's swim shirt.  Henry thinks it's awesome, "William looks like a football player!"  Admit it.  It's kind of funny.
Sunday we went to a church music program.  Some professional performers played or sang and then bore their testimony.  It was amazing.  The kids were very well behaved- at least during.  After the boys were army crawling under the pews and sliding down the hill outside.  At least where it mattered they did alright. :-/

Another Field Trip

I went on the nature center field trip with Henry.  It was fun and a good group. 
I found out I look Russian.  At least according to a Russian boy that kept asking me, "Are you Russian?" "no"  "You look Russian." and he'd give a look like maybe I was trying to tease him. 
I had a little bit of a surrealist type experience- they had a table of animal skins and bones and legs.  It was a little weird watching boys comb the fur of other animals with a muskrat or beaver skull and "walk" a deer leg.  I almost expected them to grow Salvador Dali mustaches all of a sudden.

Field Trip

I went on the zoo field trip with William.
It was fun and they were a good group.  The last hour though I think we spent seeing how fast we could go through the entire jungle exhibit and "up north" exhibit 2 times.  No, not because we were in a hurry, because I had three boys; and I did not realize I was actually supposed to be timing them until the end when they asked how fast they actually went that second time around.