Free Food is Always a good lure

Saturday often brings the question, What do you do all day to entertain the kids? Often we turn to the parent connection at gocitykids.parentsconnect.com for the sweet hook ups. For example, see here and here. As a quick plug for that site, they let you know the obvious time, date, and place of things, but also tell you price and age suggestions. Go check your city out. Alas, it isn't always full of activities our troupe would enjoy. Lucky for us, the US mail brought hope for fun this Saturday morning. We had the "exclusive" invite to breakfast and activities at the San Antonio Zoo. This members only event was just the ticket of curing Saturday boredom. (or at least could be used as motivation to clean up the house which is a standard Saturday activity because that is what the day is for: to get ready for Sunday.)

It turns out our exclusive invitation wasn't so exclusive after all. By the time we made it to the Zoo a mere 20 minutes after the event was to start, the lot was near full and there was a line to get in. The kids were more then anxious for the food. After a long wait in line and my desperate efforts in trying to distract hungry children waiting in a confusing line, we finally saw the tables' offerings. Who knew how wonderful prepackaged cereal bowls could look even without any milk to accompany them? I decided to not tempt the good will of those around me who had already proved less then cordial and take my stroller up a near by ramp, so I pulled Talia out and went with the 3 kids to wrangle up some grub. Word to the wise, DO NOT leave you biggest carrying capacity at the base of the stairs and then attempt to get enough food for 4 starving people with only one hand available for holding and keeping food from a snatching infant. As more people crowded in, I knew we had to find a place to eat. My load, including Talia who had managed to rip apart one of the mini muffins to find a wrapper and shoved it into her mouth part way, was slipping. I looked around a tables and benches full of gawking adults almost embarrassed for my existence and decided to put down all of the food and grab the stroller. During some point of this show a kind teenage boy offered his assistance to me--a single adult trying to get food for these 3 kiddos and doing a sub par job. I mechanically stated that I was ok and was just going to solve the problem by getting my stroller. Somehow he knew that lie wasn't worth listening to and started to pick up my cereal bowls and mini muffins and walk them over to a near by table.
To keep Talia happy, I let her snarf on an apple. Here she is trapped in the stroller and waving hello as she consumes the apple.

But even the food connection wasn't going to please her for long. Naps were calling and who really wants to be in a stroller for long periods of time anyway. I had to cut down our adventures to those things in close proximity to the breakfast. This was more then adequate. I enjoyed the animals that the zoo keepers brought out on display. I was the nerdy person who kept asking questions like "Does the snakes' eyelids blink side ways or up and down?" (answer: snakes doen't have eyelids. Instead they have scales. When they are about to shed the scales fog up. More information was given, but I was the only interested then and I am sure that goes for my readers now.)
The kids loved fishing in the little indoor stream.

Mia loved getting a lion painted on her face.

Both patiently planted pinto beans in a biodegradable jimmy rigged newspaper cup.


And Talia connected with the caged animals with a sympathy only another trapped individual can feel.