It’s been about a year since we last went to the Calgary zoo. So when the kid’s friends mom asked if we could meet up, with them there for the day I figured why not. We got there and bought everyone a zoo pass, the pass is good for a year it includes free parking and other perks. Since we had just bought the passes, we had to set up our license plate on the zoo website so we could get free parking. While my mom was busy doing that, we went to go see the Penguins. The penguins weren’t doing anything glamorous, just laying out in the sun. So when I noticed the kids getting antsy I told my mom we were going to start looking at the other animals.I wasn’t aware that my kids friend’s were tagging along, without their mom till it was too late to turn back. I sent my mom a quick text saying I had all the kids with me, and we headed towards the Canadian Wild’s part of the zoo.
I’ve been to this zoo probably more than a hundred times over the years, and I’ve never been down this part of the zoo. Mostly because I’ve seen most of the Canadian wild animals, in the actual wild lol. So there I was in the middle of a busy zoo, quickly trying to adapt on how to “parent” five kids at once alone. My kids are pretty good at listening, for the most part but one thing you’ll learn is once one kids walks away the others follow. I managed to convince all the kids to hold hands, Keera was holding onto Zaden’s hand. Emilee was holding Keera’s other hand, then I held Emilee’s other hand. I then held Zaden’s friends hand, and he held his sister’s hand.
My plan was to have the older girls on the ends, because despite them being a year apart in age. They know what behavior is allowed, and what other behavior isn’t allowed. Keera for example doesn’t often run off, but Zaden tends to be more all over the place. Especially when there’s another person his age around, he likes to show off. Then Emilee’s hit the stage, where she just wants to be part of the crowd.
I don’t like being in charge of other people’s kids, because I know how I parent my kids. My kids know that when were out in public, we don’t run around we stick together so no one gets lost. My kids are expected to be polite, and not scream. They know that if they don’t listen there will be consequences. How I parent my kids is not how everyone else parents their kids, and being in charge of other people’s kids puts me in an awkward position.
We had managed to get halfway through the Canadian wild’s section, and we had found this huge chair. So I convinced the kids to take a couple of pictures, I thought it would be a cute. It was also a stalling tactic to give my mom, and the other kids mom a chance to catch up and find us. Once they found us, we went to go look at the other animals.
In the middle of the zoo there’s a huge play structure, I might sound like a party pooper but I don’t like bring the kids to play in there. I think the point of coming to the zoo is to go look at the animals, if I wanted to take the kids to play on a play structure we’d have went to a park for free. Since I’m not in charge of the other kids, and their mom said they could go it only made sense I’d let my kids go play with them at least for a little while. Or forever be labelled as the “meanest mommy” ever.
After half an hour I was done, I didn’t want to just sit around doing nothing anymore while the kids played. The kids said they were cold, so we headed over to “Kitamba” one of the sitting/food areas to warm up. Ironically the kid’s friend’s mom, said she was going to buy all the kids ice cream. I agreed it was okay, but all the ice cream options were in one of those cooler freezer type things. Most of them had nuts, or the potential nuts in them. I’m overly cautious about Emilee’s nut allergy, I never want to leave it up to the possibility of nut traces. So I declined the offer for her to buy Emilee some ice cream. I then remembered there was an ice cream place right around the corner, just by the flamingos called the “Dairy Bar”. We went there and bought Emilee some ice cream, she ended up getting more ice cream then everyone else and I paid less. 😛
Once the kids finished off their ice creams, their friend’s mom said that they had to go. We said our goodbyes, then we headed to see the Giraffe’s and Hippos. I used to love coming to the zoo to see the elephants, the giraffe’s and hippos. Now they no longer have the elephants, they were sent somewhere else. It’s disappointing, but they’ve still got the giraffe’s and hippos. We got to see a new giraffe that had just been transferred this summer, along with two other adult giraffe’s and their baby. The baby giraffe isn’t really a baby anymore, he was born sometime in October of 2015. Of course they’ve got two hippo’s there, who are adorable I love how big Hippos are lol.
Afterwards we went to see the Monkeys, and the Rain-forest area before we decided we were going to leave. I was disappointed that we weren’t able to see the butterflies, but I completely understand why we couldn’t. Overall it was a really fun day, we all got some fresh air and exercise. I’m enthusiastically waiting for the day we can go back.