Photos I found on the internet from last week.

Jasmine and Aaron.

Looking at the giraffe who seems to be very interested in Jasmine.

Group photo.

Feeding the tiger. Apparently- and I just found this out- each of the age groups of kids had a particular animal to give a "present" to. The pre-K kids were assigned to the tiger. They painted and colored a cardboard box, put a bunch of fish in the box, then gave it to the tiger. The tiger/bear, etc had to open the box and get the present. The tiger is just opening his "present".

Last day at Zoo Camp..

It was Giraffe day at camp today. The kids read a story about giraffes, visited the giraffes on the savannah, then discussed which one they liked the best. Jasmine said she liked the pink one the best! And... I found out that there really is a giraffe there named "Flamingo"... so I guess she was correct. They made a giraffe hat at the end of class. Funny thing- when they were asked to put their markers, etc away, Jazzy put the markers in the box.... then she noticed the picture on the front of the box.... so she took all the markers out and meticulously put them all back in the box in the correct order to match the colors on the front of the box:). Hope she isn't picking up on my neuroticism!

Yesterday was tiger and lion day. They watched as the zookeeper fed fish to the lions and tigers. Then the kids sang to the "baby lions" to make them go to sleep! Not sure if this is really true or something that Jazzy made up:)

Almost forgot my giraffe story: In vet school- maybe junior or senior year, I was working at the front desk on a Sunday. My mom showed up and I gave her a tour of the school. Since I was in pathology rotation, I took her to the very large refrigerated room where the bodies are kept for necropsy on Monday. We opened the door and a *huge* male giraffe was laying on the floor. His body covered the entire room! My mom almost had a heart attack!!:)
(Hi Mom:))

Here is Jasmine and friends in the craft room "cleaning up".

Farm Day....

Today at Zoo Camp, it was "Farm Day". Apparently they visited Jack the Horse, some cows, Jack Black the black goat, Cinderella and Ariel the sheep... I am getting these names and recount of the day second -hand from Jasmine... so who knows if it's true since she has a very vivid imagination! She says that they fed the sheep and ate muffins - again with the sheep. After that, they played at the splash pond water park at the zoo and got soaking wet, so we went to piano lessons smelling like wet farm animals!

Waiting to go into camp.
In our front yard - showing the back of the tee shirt as well as the little sheep she made.

Another day at PhxZoo Camp and Swimming....

Today, Jasmine's class studied Javelina's... which if you ever hike or walk anywhere in Arizona... (and you wouldn't want to do that right now since the whole state is on fire)....you will typically run into a family of javelina's. Last time I was on a walk with Spirit, we ran into a little baby javelina completely covered in cactus spines. He looked like a little porcupine. No mommy with him at all. I couldn't catch him, and I'm sure he became someone's lunch:( They read the story "Three Little Javelina's" They also discussed the desert terrain and the type of animals here. Jazzy came home with a cup painted brown tied around her nose.... a little pig nose.. as well as her drawings of saguaro cactus.
Tomorrow is "farm day" at the zoo. There is a farm at the zoo with horses, pigs, cattle, sheep, goats, etc... so they will read the book "Can't Sleep without Sheep", then go feed the farm animals. Apparently every day they play in some fountains somewhere too- with their clothes on, but they dry very quickly in our 5% humidity.

Swimming yesterday.
Coming back from a walk/hike today at the zoo.

Zoo Camp

Today was the first day of Zoo Camp. *Hundreds* of kids there!! Couldn't get Jazzy to smile at first. She said she wanted to go home. I said "Too bad...I already paid for it.... you're staying!!:). I think she had fun. Today was "Rainforest Day". They met and petted a "Rainbow Boa" and made a paper snake, as well as a rainforest stencil. They read the story "Verdi" and "Stella Luna"- which is about a bat. When the teacher said that bats hang by their thumbs upside down when they are sleeping, Jasmine said ..."I hang upside down when I sleep on the couch"!! Really..? I have never witnessed that:) Aaron Abrahmson- Jazzy's friend from pre-school is in her class. He is also in her gymnastics class. They are good buddies.

Jazzy refusing to smile.
With her new friends, next to Aaron, waiting for all the other kids to get there.
Things to do today.
Jazzy and Aaron
Making a paper Rainbow Snake.

Seminar weekend.....

Got up at 3 Am this morning to drive to Tucson... on the far west side, take Jessie to Bernice's house, and Jazzy to Grandma and Grandpa Blakeman's for the weekend. Jasmine cried when I told her I would not be with her this weekend... the first time ever since November 18, 2008, but when I told her that she would get to sleep with Justin and Jade... she immediately started jumping up and down and screaming. So, it couldn't have been that bad:)

The seminar is at Loew's Vantana Resort on the west side of Tucson in the Catalina Foothills. Apparently, this is where Julia Roberts and other celebrities stay when they come here. I have my own jacuzzi, a TV in the bathroom... so I guess I could watch a movie while sitting in the jacuzzi... and my own private porch. Too bad I'm here alone- ha:)

The seminar -- well, the first speaker who will remain nameless was supposed to speak about "Vaccine Updates"-- which was why I got up at 3 AM to get there. He didn't speak about vaccines and didn't even have notes. He is an employee of Fort Dodge so I completely tuned him out when he said that all animals should be vaccinated immediately upon admission to the shelter. Dip wad!!
The second speaker, Michael Lappin DVM, ACVIM of CSU... was much easier to listen to and very entertaining. He has a PhD in parasitology (as well as many other titles) and was talking about parasite studies in Iceland... where they really don't have parasites in general. He said "It's always Cancun in the colon, even in Iceland"!!! Everyone fell off their chairs laughing. Guess you had to be there:) He was basically just trying to make a point that in Arizona, everyone thinks that we don't have alot of parasites due to the heat and low humidity... but we really do (supposedly).

Here is the view from my private patio:) Going to the jacuzzi now!

Science Camp....

This week was Science Camp at Kindercare. They studied Einstein, Alexander Graham Bell and discussed E=mC2, which led us to a discussion of energy and mass being interconvertible.... "thoughts are things":). Also, "we are atoms of water"? Don't know about that... maybe "molecules of water"... but we are mostly the space in between and inside of the atoms.
Anyway, every morning when Jasmine gets up, I always tell her she looks like Einstein, and here is proof!