So, the big girls started Zoo Camp on Monday morning.  Gracie and Emmie are in the Wildly Farmtastic Class and Ruby is in the Animal Olympics class.  My sister and I have a plan worked out - I'm dropping the girls off in the mornings and she's going into work early so she picks them up in the afternoon.  Of course, in my usual worry about things before they happen manner, I was a little concerned about how I'd manage to get all four girls up, dressed, and loaded into the car by 8:00 so we'd make it in time for zoo camp drop-off.  Particularly since Gracie, Abigail, and I haven't been following anything that looks even remotely like a schedule all summer.   Not to mention, I was just a touch nervous about dropping Gracie off for her first day of any kind of summer camp.  Well, as is usally the case, I probably shouldn't have worried at all.  My sister had all of the girls' sack lunches made the night before, so I got up early and showered and packed the ice chest.  Finally, at 7:00, I went to wake up the girls.  Here they are:



That's Abigail curled up in the right corner beside Ruby.  They did great getting dressed and eating breakfast and we made it to the zoo in plenty of time.  I unbuckled Gracie from her car seat and she was out of the car, walking away with her cousins, with hardly a backwards glance.  The night before Ruby was a little worried because she was going to be in a class without her little sister and her little cousin, but Monday morning, she was just fine.    Here's a picture through the car window.


And because I'm neurotic and ridiculously over-protective, I decided that Abigail and I would spend the morning in the zoo ourselves, you know, just in case any of the big girls had trouble.  Which, of course, they didn't.  Here's a couple of pictures from across the parking lot after I'd dropped them off.  Yes, I'm a bit of a stalker

Gracie and Emmie get their nametags



and Ruby, the big girl, going off to join her class



Abigail and I spent a few hours wandering around the zoo.  It felt strange to just have one kiddo with me - I kept thinking I was missing someone .  We did have fun, though.  We watched the sea lion show and saw a humungous sea lion blow bubbles:



We saw the elephants


and finished up our morning in the butterfly pavilion.




And we saw a bunch of these chubby bumble bees as we left the pavilion





Then, we headed home and waited for the big girls to get back from camp.  They were all very excited - Emmie and Gracie met an owl named Willie and a horse named Chloe and Ruby got to see a cheetah.  So far, zoo camp seems to be a hit.  Stay tuned to see if that, in fact, is the case.

Steve, we miss you more every day and can't wait to see you!  I love you!