Nathan's Big Adventure: Summer 2010

This week's theme is the ZOO.

This week was a short week due to the Memorial Day holiday so we didn't have enough time to fit in all the activities that I had planned. If we come across a day later in the summer with nothing to do, I'll just get out some of the crafts that we didn't get to this week.

Zoo week started with a trip to where else . . . The Dallas Zoo. We were very excited because the new Giants of the Savanna exhibit had just opened. Check out our entire zoo visit here.

Here's the big 3D sign as you go in the tunnel.

Our favorite part of the new exhibit were the giraffes. You can get up close and personal with them. You can feed them lettuce leaves and even pet them.

Nathan loved the butterfly house. There were many caterpillars all over the plants and the ground. You had to be careful where you stepped.

Nathan's favorite part was the children's petting zoo area. He was allowed in the goat barn to pet the goats and he also petted a white fluffy bunny. He was wishing that he had brought his fishing pole.

The children's zoo also has a lazy creek where the kids can wade in the water. We always forget to bring Nathan's swimsuit when we visit the zoo. It was our last stop before leaving the zoo so we just let him get his clothes all wet. It was really hot and he had a blast.

We have spent a lot of time this week in the pool. It has been very hot and the pool feels great. Nathan is a little fish. Once he is in the water, he never wants to get out. It's a good thing that Mommy loves to swim, too. We sure do love our pool during the summer!

Nathan is sporting his new sun shade hat and sunglasses. You will see him wearing these a lot this summer.

This marshmallow activity is not really related to the zoo, but it sure was fun. We built structures using marshmallows and toothpicks. I built the zoo animal cage on the right. See . . . I did relate it to the zoo. Come on . . . work with me.

Then, Nathan did one better. He built our house and then added a square shaped pool in the backyard. What a smart kid!!

This activity worked on his fine motor skills. He later built a three car garage and then a large fence around the house and garage. He called it his marshmallow city. We left them on the table over night and the marshmallows hardened. Nathan has played with it all week. I will be keeping these tiny marshmallows in stock. It's easy to pull them out when I need to occupy his time for awhile.

I had a couple of zoo animal crafts planned this week but we only got to do one. I let Nathan decide which one he wanted to do and he chose to make an elephant.

Here he is painting a paper plate for the elephant's head. We made the gray paint by mixing white, brown and blue together. Nathan loved mixing the paints to see what color they would make in the end.

He also painted two ears and a trunk that Mommy cut out. After the paint dried, which was a while because Nathan glops it on, he glued eyes and stripes down the trunk. Squeezing the glue is also great for his fine motor skills because he has to squeeze the glue really hard which works out his hand muscles.

Here is the finished elephant. I tried to get Nathan to hold it up but he was just not in the mood to have his picture taken. That is happening a lot lately.

While the paint on the elephant was drying, Nathan and I went outside to play with some parachutes. We had four little zoo animals each attached to a parachute. I thought this would a great outdoor activity but the parachutes didn't work as I wanted them to. I wanted to throw them up in the air and have them float down so Nathan could try to catch them. They just plummeted to the ground too quickly for even me to catch them. This activity only lasted about 10 minutes before we both gave up and went inside to the cool house.

To go along with the zoo theme, Nathan and I made Monkey Bread. This recipe is very easy and I had Nathan help as much as he could. We used biscuits in a tube and I cut them into fourths. Then, Nathan shook them in a zip lock bag with sugar and cinnamon and placed them in the bread pan. I cooked the carmel topping and poured it on top. Then, we popped it in the oven.

Here's the finished monkey bread. It was delicious! Nathan lost interest once it went in the oven and didn't even want to try any of it. He is currently in a peanut butter and jelly sandwich phase and is not very interested in eating much else. Well . . . I gave it a try. I have some more snacks to try out in the coming weeks. I'm hoping one of them will peak the interest of Nathan's taste buds.

Here's a list of our favorite books we read this week about the zoo.

Sam Who Never Forgets by Eve Rice