4th grade field trip

ice skating

Kate's 3rd grade field trip was to the Dallas Stars center in Frisco. She was a little hesitant at first but warmed up pretty quickly and really wants to go ice skating again soon.

**When I was a teenager I always wanted a cute boy to take me ice skating. Romantic, right? When I was 18 that wish came true when Cary took me on a date to do exactly that. I had these visions in my head of what it would be like...you know, like it is in the movies. It was nothing like that. I hated it and clung to the railing the entire time. I vowed to never ice skate again....until Kate wanted me to not only go on her field trip with her but she really wanted me to ice skate. For her, I thought I would give it a try again. I put my skates on and stepped on to the ice. After a few minutes of slipping and sliding and trying to keep my balance I again realized that ice skating is NOT for me. I still hate it, but for Kate I would do almost anything. So, while she had fun with her friends gliding across the ice, I had just as much fun sitting in the stands watching her. And again, I promise to never go ice skating EVER again.

Sharkarosa Wildlife Ranch

Kate and I went to Sharkarosa Wildlife Ranch yesterday for her 2nd grade field trip. This was one of the best field trips I have been on, and Kate was in absolute heaven. This place was made just for her.

They have tons of lemurs. We learned that despite what they say in the movie Madagascar, it is really a Queen that leads the tribe not a King....and the position of Queen can rotate among the group. They somehow decide amongst themselves who and for however long has this position. It could be for 6 months or 6 years.

Kate and Harmony on the safari

On the safari there are buckets of food attached to the tram that the animals will run along side and eat. They also make stops along the way for everyone to pet the different animals. They had several Clydesdale horses. This was Kate's favorite.

This part of the safari was a "no petting" zone. They threw the food our around the tram so the animals would come up close so that we could see them better and take pictures. The kids loved this pot belly pig.

I thought this was an odd grouping: a deer, a pig, a goat, an alpaca (he got cut from the picture), and something else...not sure what that big white one is...

This is Thristy the camel. They had tons of camels. We learned that if camels are happy they don't spit and these camels at the Sharkarosa Ranch were super happy which we were grateful for...there was no spitting.

This baby camel had his debut yesterday and was around people for the first time. He was literally crying for his mama. Kate was so concerned for this little guy. At one point I think she was on the verge of tears herself because she felt so bad for him.

This baby zebra is 5 weeks old and has super soft fur. Kate wants this pictured framed for her bedroom.
Sharkarosa Ranch also has lots of kangaroos. Most of them are albinos. They take them in because these kangaroos would not be able to survive in the wild. This baby kangaroo in particular was not an albino. He was super cute all cuddled up in his "faux pouch".
Kate did want her picture taken in front of this sign. I thought it was funny so I bribed her by going into the gift shop. :)
Want more info on Sharkarosa Ranch? Just click here.

Grossology

On Friday Joshua and I went on a really gross field trip. In Frisco there is a Sci-Tech Discovery Center where Grossology is now on tour. Most the time we are trying to teach our kids when it is the appropriate place to burp or toot or whatever...and to use their manners. Well at this place it is very acceptable to talk about all of our bodily functions...in fact they want you to. The kids thought it was great as we learned about throw-up, poop, toots, blisters, burps, snot, boogers, and every other gross bodily function that is part of the human body.

Did you know that your small intestines is 20 ft. long?
- or that on average we burp 15 times a day
- or that E. Coli is good in the body but bad out of the body
- or that we swallow 1 liter of snot every day
These are just a few of the fun facts that we learned. We also got to help dissect a cow eyeball, and see how our stomach digests food...it was pretty gross to say the least.

Joshua with a giant pair of kidneys

His homemade blister....ewww!

We walked through a gigantic nose. These are some lovely nose hairs.


Noses come in all shapes and sizes. I don't know what Joshua is doing in this picture....silly kid.

Dissecting cow eyeballs. Another interesting fact that we learned is that cows have night vision and all cows have brown eyes.

A giant game of operation..Joshua with part of the intestines

This is Nigel...he constantly has snot dripping out of his nose.
The boys loved this station. They got to make farting noises over and over and over again.
This is the skin wall. Their were hair follicles that the kids could climb on like a climbing wall. We were running out of time so we just took a quick snap shot. The kids were really tired at this point and ready to have lunch. I don't know how they could even think about food after all the disgusting things we had seen and learned.
Joshua's group ready to head back to school.....it was a really gross day!

Take me out to the ballgame....

Joshua's second grade field trip was to the Texas Rangers Ballpark. I am not a baseball fan at all. Bsseball always seems very long and boring to me so I didn't know how we could spend the whole day touring a baseball park but we did it was very interesting. We started by going through the Legends of the Game Baseball Musuem. Then our tour guide took us to the stadium(the best part). We got to go to the press box, press room, batting cages, dugout, locker rooms, the baseball suites only for VIP's, and we even ate lunch in the baseball stands. I was actually surprised at how much I enjoyed myself and the kids had a blast!!

Joshua's class and teacher, Mrs. Smith in the press room.

In the dugout

Best Buds

Kate's Kindergarten Field Trip

Kate and I went on her very first field trip yesterday to the Heard Museum. We had lots of fun and I took tons of pictures. Here are just a few....Enjoy!!