Teachingmommy: Zoo Lights!

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Zoo Lights!

Gotta love Colorado. We were able to take Maelin to the Denver Zoo for Zoo Lights tonight and the weather couldn't have been nicer. It was about 45 degrees all night with a very light breeze: just chilly enough to feel festive but nothing was freezing!

That didn't stop me from bundling her up like the Stay-Puft-Marshmallow-Man though...she just looks so darn cute in her snowsuit! (a hand-me-down from our cousins in Michigan where I'm sure it got a lot more use than it does here!)

Anyway, the Zoo Lights were gorgeous and Maelin LOVED it. She loved the animals, the carousel, the lights, the snacks and the fishies. She kept repeating "apppo" (hippo) and "ishies" (fishies) over and over again after we had seen them. We had to explain to her that the fishies and hippos had gone to sleep so we had to keep going so she put her finger to her mouth like she was shhhhing someone and made sleepy noises. What a cutie.

Here are a few pictures of our trip to the zoo. We're totally going to make it a new holiday tradition! Try to get there yourselves...it runs until Jan 4th! (tip: buy your tickets online before you go: Kat did this and saved us a good 45 minutes of waiting in line!)

1 comment:

Stina said...: How fun!! I'm going tonight with my singing group. We're performing at 7pm. It's going to be really, really cold! BRRRRRRR!!!; December 15, 2008 at 11:18 AM

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Spanish Steps: Rome, Italy

Must Read Books & Great Authors

"A Tree Grows In Brooklyn" is a novel by Betty Smith first published in 1943. It relates the coming-of-age story of its main character, Francie Nolan, and her Irish-American family struggling against poverty in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York. The novel is set in the first and second decades of the 20th century. The book was an immense success, a nationwide best-seller that was distributed to servicemen overseas.
"Gone With the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell. This is my all-time favorite book and you MUST read this at least once in your lifetime. It has won the Pulitzer Prize, it is available in 31 different countries and it has been hearlded as "The Great Amercian Novel"
"My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult is a heart-wrenching novel about what it means to be a good parent, a good person and a good sister. Kate has had cancer since childhood and her younger sister Anna was concevied to be a perfect-match bone marrow donor for her. As Anna grows up, she struggles with how she and world will see the rights of her own body. This novel is the first book in years that had me crying. It was very well written and very enjoyable if you're in the mood for a tear-jerker.
"The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls is a memoir about a nomadic, deprived childhood told with the wonderment of a child who always wants to believe that Daddy will be a hero in the end and that Momma really does know best. You are enrapt reading about Walls and her siblings rifling through trash cans at school looking for food, doing the skedaddle in the middle of the night, or waiting for Dad to come home after another bender. It's a riveting story and a testament to Walls' desire to rise above a life that could have easily turned her into just another tragic headline. I really appreciated this story because of the very real probability that some of my students are living this very life.
One of my favorite authors (I have everything she's ever written) is Marian Keyes whose stories are set in Britian or Ireland. She is the internationally bestselling author of Watermelon (which is my favorite), Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married, Rachel's Holiday, The Last Chance Saloon, Angels, Sushi for Beginners, Under the Duvet, and her latest, The Other Side of the Story. Her books have touched readers around the world, and they are now published in 35 countries and in many different languages.