A Day at the Zoo

It has been a very busy spring for us so far. We are working on planting our garden and several projects around the yard. More on this soon! We have also fit in visits to the Zoo, a Manchester Fishercats baseball game homeschool night, Brimfield Antique's fair, a moon rise party/bonfire, 2 different birthday celebrations, along with our usual homeschool work, co-op, and church activities. We were very proud to see W sing a song with his Church school classmates in front of the congregation last week as part of a music service. All of the performers all did a great job!

Each of these probably deserve their own post, but for now I will share some photos of Southwick's Zoo from our visit last week.

a kangaroo lounging about

Southwick's Zoo is privately owned and located in Mendon, MA. Some of the animals we saw included: lions, a tiger, kangaroos, camels, zebras, emu, flamingos, various primates, giraffes, rhinos, an alligator, peacocks, and macaws. At Southwick's there is also a tram train ride through the woods and we saw animals local to North America including elk, deer, swans, and turtles. They also had a goat petting area which was a hit with the kids, they wanted to go in twice. 

C and a goat

May was a great time to visit, as it was much less busy than when the boys and I went with their grandparents 3 years ago in August. C was just a baby then and W was 4, so neither one remembered going there. They have several rides, including a skyfari sky ride which was fun, but I think the next time we will skip the added fee for train/sky rides and focus more on the animals, of whom there are plenty to see.

Bengal tiger

Lions

Each exhibit has a world map highlighting where the animals are from, and we pointed these out to W to identify the continents.

thankfully not the real lion ;)

W gave the skyfari a thumbs up

a posing peacock

giraffe exhibit

a colorful mandrill

We had a wonderful time and hope to visit again soon.