Haleigh and Zoo Camp

We had talked about zoo camp for months and finally it was here! Mark was home from work for the day and my cousin's family was visiting, so Haleigh and I dashed off to make the first drop off of my big zoo camper. Of coarse we were running a little later than we wanted to, but thought we were still in time to get in before the gates were closed. The entire way I am giving the talk ... "This is a big deal to get to do this. What is very important for you to do today?" My sweet Haleigh's response was so her, "I know Mom, the most important thing is love." I know sugar sweet, but I was going for OBEY!! We finished the list of how we are to behave and of coarse to have a really great time... We started to check in and the young man at the gate says, "Can you step over here, I need to talk to you." He kindly pointed to our registration paper and then his watch. Apparently Monday was not the 30th it was only the 28th, and we were not late we were actually 2 days early. After many apologies and Haleigh asking me to stop apologizing we headed home.

Then came Wednesday!! As we greeted the same gentleman at the gate (on time even) Haleigh smiled and said, "I'm back!!" And so zoo camp began!The first day Haleigh got to pet Hopper the bunny and visit the bat house.
Thursday morning started off a little shaky. Haleigh was to wear her zoo camp t-shirt. It was pretty big on her, she wasn't too happy about having to wear it. Then as we were getting off the exit we realized her snack was still on the kitchen table. I convinced her that it would be ok if we got a snack from Spinx on the way but she insisted that a brown bag was not "normal" to bring snack in. We transformed a purse we use as a small version of a diaper bag into a snack bag and all was well with the world.
Once the drama ended and the camp day began campers got to pet a box turtle named Oscar. He was missing his back leg - I tried to verify that he was missing his leg before the camp day started. Other animals studied on Thursday were the giraffes. Here is what Haleigh learned in her own words, "They like to eat grass and they are about 2 stories tall, I think that's about 16 1/2 pages." I almost ran off the road, she never missed a beat!

Today's wardrobe issue dealt with the shoes. Haleigh much prefers sandals (or no shoes really) so the required "closed toe shoes" apparently made her feet "...sad, not mad just sad because they got too hot in my purple shoes." After the explanation of keeping her toes safe if she stepped in the wrong place on an animal adventure she was happy to settle with another pair of closed toe shoes.
To wrap it all up, today they pet a rat snake and a lizard named Lilly. They also got to explore the elephants' sleeping area.

I asked Haleigh what her favorite part of camp was. She responded, "Watching the lions fight!"

(Mackenzie is tired of missing out of all the camp fun. She insists that she is going to "monkey camp to paint the monkey pink." I guess she is mixing Sophie's art camp with Haleigh's zoo camp!)