Lions and Tigers and Camels? Oh My.

Daphne gets to have a lot of fun.  I'm sort of starting to worry that she's going to expect it to stay that way when she grows up, and then be really disappointed and bitter and blame me when it doesn't.  Look at her up there in that picture.  This was Friday, on her first grade field trip to the National Zoo.  She and two of her best friends were running along following elephant prints without a care in the world. (Except "Are we EVER gonna get to eat lunch?").  (It was 10:30 am).

I got to go along on the trip as a chaperone, or as Daphne calls it, a "shepherd."  I was in charge of those three little girls in the picture.  Easiest job ever.  They are all good friends, as I mentioned, and they are all in my Daisy troop.  It was a blast.  Highlights included this wolf:

This curious little seal:

And lots of other cool animals like river otters and pandas and 4 different kinds of owls and flamingos and gorillas and lions and tigers and bears...

The weather was great, the kids were great, and the animals really put on a show.   I have a new appreciation of the National Zoo.  Even riding on the school bus for an hour wasn't too bad (except for the bus driver, who kept telling really dark jokes to his audience of 6-year olds - "If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving may not be the thing for you" - there were lots of questions about that one.)

Saturday was a designated Family Day.  We had to X out a day on the calendar so that we made sure there were no birthday parties or girl scout activities or band practices, and do some things as a family before fall is over.

We decided to go to Temple Hall Farm's fall festival and corn maize.  Temple Hall did not disappoint.  Not only was there a corn maize, but there were piles of hay to climb on, pig races, corn dogs, toilet seat horseshoes, corn hole, tether ball, a bouncy pillow, a sandbox filled with corn (I can't tell you how much corn fell out of Daphne's undies), a magic show, and a CAMEL RIDE! 

When I woke up Saturday morning, I had no idea I'd be riding a camel.  But I'm so glad I did.  How many chances in life do you get to ride a camel with your kid?  Who needs to go all the way to Egypt?  Not me.  They probably don't even have corny dogs  and pig races there.  Virginia is awesome.

After the Corn Maize, we needed to sit down.  So we went to Lost Creek Winery.  Kev and I sat outside and listened to Gary Smallwood covering some light hits of the 70s while Daphne ran around the big yard. 

And we ended family day at Q Company BBQ - a new place around the corner from our house.  It has a gigantic Texas flag on the wall and delicious pulled pork.  It was kind of perfect.  We should have Family Day more often.

Sunday we didn't really slow things down. We went to breakfast and Trader Joe's in the morning, and in the afternoon, I took Daphne on a letter boxing hike with the troop while Kev did some banjo recording and cider bottling with Mister Tim.

And finally, in the evening, Kev and I went to the movies while Daphne did arts and crafts with her favorite teenager.

We are all pretty exhausted today, but it's worth it.  It was such a fun weekend.  I think we've gotten our money's worth out of this fall.  Next weekend, we should probably have Daphne mop some floors and pay some bills and pull some weeds or something.  Just to balance things out.

In the meantime, we have no food or clean clothes, so I better get back to reality too.  Hope you had a good weekend!