So, we are skipping ahead almost an entire month here, but come on, that still makes me a month behind on this blog. So I am skipping over the usual stuff and getting right to the "events" in an effort to get current before the end of the week. (If I actually achieve this goal, I am going to buy myself a new something. Not sure what, yet. Either shoes, a purse, or a new sweater, I will keep you posted.)
We celebrated Nick's birthday with his friends a day early this year. He wanted to have a zoo birthday and Wednesday is the only day all the school kids have free. He was fine with it. A party before is much better than a party after, I have taught him well. :) Due to space limitations in our car, and the fact that the particular zoo we were going to is a good 30 minute drive away, he could only invite 5 kids. Naturally, being that he was turning a mature 11, no girls made it to the short list. Unfortunately, one of the boys ended up getting sick the day before the party, and couldn't make it. Noah was more than happy to take his spot at the last minute, and super excited to get to hang out with his big brother and all his big friends.
I had said on the invitations to please arrive no later than 1:15, as we were scheduled to begin our special tour with the zookeeper promptly at 2. I was counting on Swiss promptness and a desire for following the rules to help me out, but sadly, they let me down. One super Swiss boy showed up about 15 minutes late, effectively using up all the buffer time I had built in for my self. And I still needed to stop at the bank and pull out cash to pay for the party. (This zoo doesn't take any kind of plastic!) It was right on the way, so I hadn't done it earlier in the day, and boy was I sorry now. I sped like a mad woman, but slowed down everywhere I knew there was a camera. About 2 weeks later, we received proof in the mail that I missed one. :( And of course, there was no parking right by the entrance, we had to go clear around to the annex parking, and then walk back. I made the boys all run, so as not to be any later than necessary, and we all went through the ticket line huffing and puffing and wheezing like a pack of asthmatic hippos.
Fortunately, the zookeeper was very kind and stayed with us a little longer at the end, to make up for the time we had missed in the beginning. I gave her rave reviews on the survey they asked us to fill out at the end. This private tour was seriously worth every single penny.
She told us really interesting facts about several different animals, including things that even the *Walking Encylopedia of Animal Facts didn't know. There were also games to play by all the animals that helped us to understand their lives better. Things like putting some frosted plastic over your eyes and then walking around trying to see through that like the wild boars, or rubbing red clay dust on our necks just like the Swiss vultures do to show who is the strongest/bravest of the pack.
We also got to listen to the difference between the aforementioned Swiss vulture feathers as they fly through the air, and an owl's feather. Those vultures are loud! And huge! No wonder people used to call them "Child Snatchers" , although actually, they only eat bones from a carcass, not live animals, which is why little cute bunnies share their enclosure. And even though in the books Hedwig is a girl snow owl, in the movie they used a boy because they are all white and look prettier. And if you don't know to what I am referring, are you sure we are friends and you should even be reading this blog? 🙂
After the tour ended, she brought us to the restaurant in the zoo, where they had a table in the back all decorated and ready for us. They brought out a birthday cake and drinks for all the kids, and we had a very relaxing snack.
Now those of you not living in Europe may not appreciate how nice this was, but believe me, I was very shocked and very pleased. The lady who delivered the cake asked us what we wanted to drink and I told her. She brought us two bottles and then said, to please help ourselves to however many more bottles we needed from the cooler, and pointed to where it was located. I about keeled over from shock. Generally, when you go out to eat anywhere here, and order even a glass of water, they bring you a little bottle, or fill your small glass 3/4 of the way up. If you want more, you pay for a whole new bottle or glass. Refills do not exist, and carte blanche access to a cooler full of drinks is one step away from total anarchy, but I promise, it really did happen. I have 6 witnesses.
When we had polished off every last sticky Smartie (kind of like an M&M, and they were all over the cake, even though it was lemon flavored), we went out to enjoy the rest of the zoo on our own. The restaurant is right by a large playground and we spent a good 30 minutes enjoying all it had to offer.
One boy ended up giving himself quite a huge gash on his arm, but the restaurant had a very capable first aid lady on duty, and she patched him up so well, it looked like he had broken his arm when she had finished. All he needed was a little sling to complete the look.
The weather was so perfect, we ended up staying in the park for another 90 minutes, stopping to play all the trail games along the way. Finally we decided to visit the bears and then head back home. But then the boys saw it, the water fountain, and it proved to be too much of a temptation to pass up. First they started out just walking around the edges,
then they took their shoes and socks off,
then they rolled up their pant legs,
and then they abandoned all pretense and ended up lying complete down in it. I have no picture of this last development as I was too busy running over to them to stop the next crazy kid from trying it. I mean, sheesh, I didn't bring towels with me, they were soaking wet, it was getting kind of cool and windy and we still had a long walk back to the car and a long ride home. As it was, they still all ended up mostly soaked, but at least I felt like I had tried to stop them. 🙂
After gazing at the bears, one of which turned out, on closer inspection, to be a tree trunk, (Darn messed up retina), we realized that our car was just on the other side of the fence. But there was no exit. We briefly considered climbing over the chain link fence, but then realized that Noah would never make it up and over, so we resigned ourselves to walking all the way back to the real exit, which was in the exact opposite direction of our car, and then walking back around the outside of the park to our car. Seriously, it took like 25 minutes of walking to finally get back to where we had been on the other side of the fence. That they really need to remedy.
We had spent so much time in the park, that there was no time to stop back home and open presents before I needed to take the girls to swimming lessons. I hadn't wanted the boys to carry them around during our tour, so told them to leave them in the car. And that is where we ended up opening them.
Kind of lame, but the boys were old enough to think it was more funny than anything else. It was a great afternoon, spent with some very charming young boys, and I am so glad we did it.
*also
known as the birthday boy, Nicholas