We moved James from Pack 7, where we felt our Den Leader was dropping the ball (especially compared to all other Dens in our Pack and how much they complete every month, as reported at Pack Meetings) and, unfortunately, just not patient enough to deal with a group of young boys (refer back to our rough 3 days at Cub Scout Daycamp earlier this summer), to Pack 104. James is now in the Vicksburg Pack that is populated mostly by SouthPark and Bowmar students (Pack 7 is populated mostly by St. Francis students), including 3 of his closest friends in town (Coltin, William, and Derrick). We made the decision earlier this month and completed the paperwork in time to join them at their end of summer Zoo trip. We all felt warmly welcomed by our new Pack members, the kids learned a few things (we had a special classroom session and zoo tour, plus crafts), and James had a chance to get to know some of the other boys that go to Bowmar (where he'll be at school this year). We also lucked out with a very nice day (for the Deep South at the end of July - not like the insane heat I ran in at Big Butts this time last year!) and managed to stop by Mellow Mushroom for Cora's free pizza and pick up new soccer cleats for James.
James and Cora both insisted on carrying their journals around the school to take notes. James, our little scientist, drew pictures of each species. Cora, our OCD girl, made a list (which included species, names if zoo staff told them to us, and the number of each animal that she saw).
(I bought these flamingo capri leggings with mom in mind, so I had to wear them to the zoo and pose with the flamingos for her!)
The Jackson Zoo has Nene (AKA Hawaiian Goose)! I drove ALL OVER the Big Island searching for them back in 2008, and here they are. Since they're endangered are hard to find in the wild, I'm gonna go ahead and count this "sighting" for my Life List ;-)
Back to the classroom for some hands-on learning, crafting, and live animals!
It was International Tiger Day, so the zoo had extra craft stations set up near the tiger enclosure and the kids went wild over their conservation puns as photo ops :-)
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