Franklin Park Zoo

Yesterday we visited The Franklin Park Zoo with another family. My younger three, my friends younger three and a neighbor of our friends went along for the trip. Trevor and our friends oldest son opted to stay home and have a pizza and video games day together. They're growing up too fast, sniff.....

It was a fun filled day and admission was free! Can't beat that. Here are some photo highlights.


Upon arrival it's always hard to decide where to go first.

Which way should we go say Hayley and Colin.

We saw many types of birds through the day.

Lions were one of the favorite exhibits.

Tristan has always been interested in bones and fossils and there were quite a few in the "safari" section of the zoo.

Many of the exhibits were themed by habitat and most of my pictures of indoor habitats came out too dark. Outdoor photos came out ok though.

Tristan enjoyed the carousel

There was another fun aspect to this zoo visit......

signs such as the above were all around the zoo neighborhood what could it mean?

A movie is being filmed in the zoo! It's called "The Zookeeper".

The children had fun catching glimpses of the set. The best views were on a bridge in the tropical house but we weren't allowed to take pictures there.

Back to the zoo part of the zoo we saw more animals.

Colin Loved the Gorilla's best. Tristan and Hayley loves the Lion best.

Colin also loved watching this Tapir interact with a bird in it's enclosure. he took a couple movies of them playing.

One more picture before time to head home.

Right into Boston's rush hour evening traffic!

We got home in the end though and the kids (7 total from 3 families) did much better with this trip than some when they were just a couple years younger. The youngest in the group was almost 9 and the oldest 13. The days of travelling with lots of little ones were hectic, today was a breeze in comparison.

Tristan's Food diary 7/24/09 & 7/25/2009

24th zoo day out. Out of the house all day

Breakfast 8:00
Carnation instant breakfast drink
muffin

snack 10:00
granola bar
doritos

lunch 11:30
pasta salad
pudding

snack about
strawberry yogurt

dinner late afternoon?
zoo kids meal - grilled cheese sandwich, french fries, sprite soda

snack 6:30 on ride home
cheese crackers
pediasure strawberry drink
----------------------------------------------

25th woke up late

brunch- 9:30 ate quite a lot had seconds
French toast
hash brown potatoes
juice

snack- 11:00
pediasure drink
cookies

dinner 1:30
choice of assorted leftovers
he had a piece of pizza and a few veggies
"not that hungry"


snack 3:00
banana

supper-6:00
raw vegetables and dip
large soft pretzel
(did not eat all will offer a nutritional drink before bed)

back posting since it's for my records and want to keep the zoo post on top

busyness and waiting

In an attempt to "combine trips" since we live rurally, days out can be quite hectic! It saves gas and certainly saves time though so we combined 2 doctors appointments and a shopping trip requiring three stores into one trip today. First Tristan had two different doctors appointments, Hayley came along today to keep her brother company.

Then we had a quick on the go lunch before shopping. Stores needed today, Natural foods store, bread shop and Walmart.

Then lunch in the car on the way home, well actually on the way to swim lessons. Tristan had a much better day in with the level 4 and 5 group than he had yesterday with the level 2 and 3 group. Less kids, kids his age and deep water swimming skills not nose bubbles in the shallow end!

Then finally home a little after 4:00. I made an early supper and the kids went off to play Webkinz. Hayley bought Tristan a lion Webkinz while we were out. He named it "Calculation". Tristan is such a math guy. LOL

Tristan's Food diary 7/23/09

An on the go day

Breakfast 8:00
toast
carnation instant breakfast drink

snack (in the car on the way to appointments)
9:45
cheese and crackers and a drink

Lunch still on the go
12:00
1 large muffin
1 nutripals drink

snack(still on the go! fitting in on the way home from appointments before swim lessons)
2:00
1-grilled cheese sandwich

supper (early to get something substantial in) 4:15
vegetable pizza- 2 slices
hash browns-2

snack 6:00
pudding
rice milk

First day of 2009 swim lessons

Swim lessons got off to a rough start this year, the lessons started 2 days late due to some water quality tests not being in. Today they finally started and it was definitely chaotic. Some levels needed to be combined due to the fact that the lessons will now be 45 minutes rather than 30. Also we were told to be there at 2:00 and Tristan's level didn't start until 3:00. That was OK there is always the sand to play with.


I was worried when I heard they were combining Tristan's level, 3, with level 2. Level 3 starts deep water skills where level 2 is still beginner skills. I knew it was not going to be acceptable when I saw them playing Ring Around the Rosie and Red light- Green light, just to try to get the more timid kids to dunk under water!

After class I asked for Tristan to be moved up a level as did one other Mom for her child. I'm a bit concerned since that will be level 4 & 5 but there seems to be no happy medium this year. I'm not willing to let Tristan play and not learn anything new, we did pay for these lessons. He needs to work on his deep water skills not play "all fall down" with kids as young as 5! There are 12 kids in the level 2 and 3 class as well and there were only about 5 in the level 4 and 5 class so hopefully the smaller group will be better too. We will see. I know the instructor was frustrated with the large class size and I heard her saying this was not going to work well. She's quite young and it's her first year as a red cross instructor as the one that usually teaches in our area moved on after last year. Hopefully tomorrow will go better.

Tristan's Food diary 7/22/09

Breakfast 8:00
toast slices with cream cheese- ate two
1 strawberry pediasure drink

snack 10:00
grapes, ate quite a few

dinner 12:00 (early due to swim lessons in the afternoon, didn't want him to eat right before the lesson)

Mexican pizza (refused)
Plain pizza- 1 slice
grilled cheese sandwich with mozzarella cheese- 1
salad-none
home made french fries- ate
lemon lime soda

snack 4:00

pudding

supper 6:00
grilled cheese sandwich- ate 2
coleslaw- ate asked for a small amount of seconds
french fries- ate

edited to add
requested a pediasure drink before bedtime 8:00- drank all

Rainy Tuesday

A rainy day today so we mainly worked on indoor projects (or play). Hayley and Tristan played Webkinz all morning, the animals not the computer game. Through the day the kids played with pets, computers and watched a tv movie about a boy who turned into a mermaid. I cooked, read...and that's about it. A quiet but nice day.

Tristan's Food diary 7/21/09

Breakfast 8:30
multi grain toast with marmite- 3 slices
carnation vanilla breakfast drink

snack 10:30
not hungry

dinner 12:30- ate most everything except the lasagna
baked marinated veggie burger
baked potatoes
baked beans
skillet veggie lasagna
cole slaw
broccoli

snack 3:30

chocolate covered chewy granola bar
ate 1 good sized bar
(recipe use fave brand chewy granola bar or home made bar, melt favorite chocolate, spread melted choc on the granola bar, refrigerate for 20 minutes to harden the chocolate, serve with a napkin, messy snack!)

orange juice

supper 5:30

leftovers from dinner, baked beans, burger, potato, broccoli. ate most


snack 7:30

1 pediasure strawberry drink

A fairly quiet summer day. I have been catching up on laundry now that I have a working dryer...washer, dryer and dishwasher all working at the same time, what a treat! I still have this random cough, so frustrating and tiring. It must not be contagious as still nobody ese in my family has caught it, so that is the one good part. I am so tired of coughing though! It gives me a headache after awhile too. I hope it is gone very soon. Kids played outdoors and indoors, with pets and video games. In the afternoon we went to the lake for Tristan's swim lesson only to find they have postponed the start of lessons due to water quality test results not being back yet. They expect to be able to start the lessons by Wednesday. We met the red cross swim teacher and she seems very nice. We played at the beach for an hour or so and then came home. Put on a video for the kids and I caught up on computer things and read a little of my current library book.

That's really about all for the day, it's nice for some summer days to be quiet and relaxed.

Tristan's food diary 7/20/09

Breakfast 8:00

pancakes- ate 4
orange juice- drank

snack 10:30
peanut butter & Graham cracker- ate several

dinner 1:00

stir fried Chinese vegetables
stir fried tofu
rice
french fries
ate a little of everything, more of the tofu and french fries than the veg and rice, not quite as much as I would have preffered.

snack 3:30
strawberry shortcake and juice

supper 6:00
vegetarian hot dog in a bun with condiments- ate all
macaroni and cheese (mix of nutritional yeast cheese and dairy cheese)- ate most
pudding-1 medium size

glimpse into the day

Why is Freeze wearing clothes today (I asked)

Because he asked to wear clothes today (daughter replied)

I decided it was easier not to press for details.

No good pictures, kids and dogs were on the move.

I was on the couch, coughing as usual. This cough makes me so tired I hope is goes away soon. I did get some cleaning done and meals made but not much else today.

What's up with Tristan?

I realised that some blog readers might not understand why I'm tracking Tristan's eating habits. For the past 3 years or so Tristan has been "off the charts" for growth, on the low end not the high end. He is very small for his age, proportional, height and weight match, just very small. He also has a few developmental issues such as learning basic things at a later age than typical and acting immature and seems to have low endurance at times. When he was small he had some issues that resolved (soft spot seeming to close early and a couple others). He also turned out to have fairly poor vision. Since he is still not growing well we are investigating if there is some other health problem (s) causing the poor growth. There is nothing that jumps out to suggest anything major is wrong but several smaller things. Tracking his food intake is just a way for me to see if there are any patterns. Tristan is definitely a lover of junk food in our otherwise healthy family! He also dislikes some foods due to the way they "feel" in his mouth.

That's about it right now, he'll have some more tests later this week.

Tristan's food diary 7/19/09

Today was definitely an off day for Tristan.

Breakfast 8:30, he woke later than usual
breakfast mix (several cereals and nuts) ate half maybe 3/4 cup?
nutripals strawberry drink- drank all

snack 10:30
got potato chips on his own before I made snack and had been munching them.
strawberry shortcake was planned snack- ate half
juice

dinner 1:00
roast dinner with assortment roast and boiled vegetables and vegetarian "ham"
ate less than half, found out he'd grabbed more potato chips and had been munching on those shortly before dinner!

snack 4:00 "not hungry"

supper 6:00 offered a choice of leftovers from dinner or mac and cheese with veggies, refused both
gave him a Carnation breakfast French Vanilla drink since he was not going to eat supper and he did drink it all.

Thankfully the big packet of chips which he found (was left over from last weeks beach day) is nearly gone now so junk food temptations won't be there tomorrow.

Wild indeed

Lots of animal play today, whatever do people who don't have a houseful of animals do with their downtime? LOL Not sure my kids would know what to do. They walked dogs, walked ferrets, took turtles outdoors for some playtime. Kids also played in the pool off and on as it was a nice day. I'm still trying to fight off this heavy cough so rested in between housework and meal prep.

Our two older turtles are about full grown now and the little one is maybe half grown.



They sure have changes since we first got them, they were no bigger than a quarter back then!

Walking the dogs.

I continued to research Tristan's health issues and monitor his food intake. It gives me something to do to feel like I'm working on his growth problem. One thing he does tend towards is to get a snack too close to meal times and then he is not hungry enough for the meal. I'm encouraging him to wait or choose something like fruit rather than say cookies or something heavy if he gets hungry very near to a meal.

Tristan's food diary 7/18/09

Breakfast 8:00
multigrain pancakes w/maple syrup ate 4 small pancakes
pediasure strawberry drink

snack 10:00
graham crackers with peanut butter and apple slices
ate 2 graham crackers w/peanut butter didn't eat apple slices was full

11:30 asked for banana, ate all

dinner 1:00
1 slice vegan cheese pizza- ate all
1 slice dairy cheese pizza- ate all
pasta salad (seconds)
green salad- ate most
raw broccoli to dip in salad dressing- ate several broccoli florets

2:30 asked for pudding

3:30 snack
home made garlic bread (didn't want)

6:00 supper
choice of leftovers
macaroni and nutritional yeast cheese- ate half
salad- ate most
garlic bread- ate 1 piece
small chocolate cupcake

Littlest pet shop clean up and repair clinic

80 something littlest pet shop animals

30 something wet wipes

1 glue stick

and half a day.

That's the sum of Hayley's littlest pet shop cleaning and repair clinic.

I take it her littlest pets are much happier now.

Tristan's food diary 7/17/09

Breakfast 8:30 am
Marmite toast- ate 4 slices
fruit juice

Snack 10:30 am
chex mix, home made version, cereals & assorted nuts- ate perhaps 1/2 cup
small soda

dinner 1:30 pm
pasta casserole (macaroni, sauce, vegetable protein crumbles, nutritional yeast cheese) Tried, didn't like ate a few bites. Gave him plain pasta instead after he tried casserole.
broccoli and cauliflower- ate
chips- home made french fries- ate

dessert-
sugar cookie

snack 4:00

chocolate pudding
banana

supper 6:30
leftovers from dinner mac and cheese, broccoli and cauliflower and french fries. ate most

Sick Day

Tents
RC cars
pool
video games
pool
animals
cleaning (wonders never cease)
tents
movie

That's about what the kids did today.

I basically cooked the meals (while washing hands a lot and trying not to cough) and sat around feeling sick. I have some kind of funky heavy chest cough thing that nobody else in my family caught. I'm seriously wondering if it's from swallowing too much sea water while being tossed around in the surf last week.

I also researched some of Tristan's potential health issues after having digested all I talked about with his doctor yesterday. Took phone calls about referrals and was pleased as punch to get two appointments with different doctors (but very near each other) for the same morning. Combining trips when one lives far from everything is always a very good thing.

Tristan's food diary 7/16/09

Breakfast 8:00 am
2 waffles with maple syrup (tried even though he usually says I don't like that) ate all
1 nutripals strawberry drink

snack 10:00 am
(refused fruit snack, wasn't hungry)
water

dinner 1:00 pm ate all
stir fried tofu in vegetable broth (ate some)
mashed potatoes with veg. margarine and veg. broth (ate all even though he doesn't typically like)
baked beans (asked for seconds)
corn
drink of water

dessert
1 chocolate cupcake

snack 4:00 pm
banana- 1
pudding-2 small
water

supper 6:00 pm
macaroni and nutritional yeast cheese (ate most)
broccoli (ate all)
small lime soda

snack 8:00 pm
butterscotch pudding

a pretty good day, he tried something new and ate something he typically refuses.

Enjoying the outdoors

Children and animals getting outdoors more to enjoy the summer weather which has finally made it's way to NH. Plenty of badminton, biking, "camping" and swimming happening here.



Boy Tent:



Girl tent:

In the pool:

the water is only 60 F degrees guys are you actually having fun swimming???

Summer reading and playing

Reading has remained somewhat of a mystery to Tristan being a late bloomer and having eyesight troubles. He continues to learn in his own way even though we are on summer vacation from any formal learning. Tristan has a magnetic board and letters upon which we all put different words for Tristan to notice and learn. Everybody enjoys surprising Tristan with a new word or phrase from time to time so you never know what will turn up. Today Tristan "wrote" his own word on the magnet board and although it is not correct he gets credit for a very reasonable guess!

Below the word says " iCarly" as in the kids show, just a very different way but he had the right idea trying to sound it out.


Later after some effort Tristan wrote this on his chalkboard:

He had only missed the K on trick so Hayley told him to add one. Great job Tristan!

I love to observe the natural learning that occurs in summer. Tristan is making sense of reading and spelling. Hayley has been doing some excellent ink drawings. Colin is improving his spelling while playing a role playing strategy game. Trevor has been learning more about the inner workings of computers while helping to upgrade an older machine so it will play his newer games.

What about the youngest member of our family, Freeze the 1 year old Labrador dog? He is learning to walk better on the leash and to calm down at least occasionally!


The kids had Freeze in our above ground pool this morning! "He really wanted to swim Mummy" Well it is not a pool meant for dogs I'm sure, it's just plastic or vinyl or something. One of the 15' easy set up pools. Freeze didn't break the pool but he did attack the chlorine tablet floater.