Wildlife safaris with 1st graders and tomorrow is my last day of preschool!!

If you have never been on a wildlife safari with a tram full of 1st graders, then I submit that perhaps you haven't really lived.  And if you have, well, then each of us has a keen understanding of what the other has been through!

I chaperoned my younger son's 1st grade field trip to a place where they have various wildlife -- elk, buffalo, kangaroos, alligators, zebras, donkeys, giraffe, snacks, turtles, longhorns, etc., etc. -- and give each person a large bucket of animal food and then they take you on a tram ride through the animals where you can feed them.  

Really it was very fun, but also quite crazy!  There were large, hungry animal heads coming into our tram from both sides at times.  Some kids were super excited and wanted to FEED! ALL! THE! ANIMALS! and some children were terrified.  One little girl in my group very nearly fell out of the tram and a little boy I had to tell no shortage of 87 times to "Sit down!"  I was pegged in the back of the head with animal feed and my jeans were slobbered on by some sort of bison-like creature!

But, there was much squealing and laughing and I didn't lose a single child, so all in all, it was definitely a successful field trip!

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Tomorrow is my last day of preschool!!  Okay, really it is this little princess's last day of preschool:

But considering that she is my youngest child and I have had one child or another in preschool for the past 9 years STRAIGHT, I am totally claiming it as MY last day of preschool!

I have no idea whether I'll cheer or cry, the emotions are so mixed.  The preschool years are so sweet and I have really loved our school so it is sad to leave it behind, but eleven and a half years in total of having a small person (or people) with me for the majority of every day is a long time and part of me is ready for this new era of parenting all school-age children!

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Happy Friday, Friends!