I am so exhausted. I haven't been home for more than 15 minutes since 10 this morning. I kept W home from school today and we met our new hs'ing friends at the park. We went into the zoo first. J was so happy to see G again. They were running together and holding hands. We watched the sea lions get fed and do a few tricks and then we ate lunch (we all packed a bunch of stuff). I like that zoo. The bald eagle is definitely my favorite. I couldn't help humming "America the Beautiful". A man stands near the aviary with a cart that has all this cool stuff on it like hawk skulls, an eagle's foot, coyote fur, etc. He gives this really cool mini-lesson on hunting animals. There was also a nice petting zoo we went to next. Then to the big playground where we saw it was "Spring Fling" week. Music was playing and there was crafts for the kids to do. I saw an old friend there with her 3 kids. She's a math coach at a middle school and was surprised to hear I was homeschooling. We talked about that for a bit and she admitted one of her kids was just like J. She agreed with me that homeschooling was a great idea - but I don't think she would even consider it for her kids.

We left the playground at 3, said goodbye to our friends and went home to wash up and change out of the dirty park clothes. J had a playdate with her best friend from her old dancing school at 4:30. [At 3 years old, J was asked to model for her old dancing school's website. She's still on there. Check it out at www.americandanceanddramastudio.com ] W fell asleep so when we got there I just laid him on their couch. I was served a beautiful strawberry margarita and we all went outside so the kids could play. J learned how to use a pogo stick and she loves it so now I want to buy her one. K had fun, too. She always seems to get along great with J's friends (sometimes it's to a fault, but usually J loves having her sister around). We ordered a pizza and left at 6:30.

I dropped the kids off at home at 7, picked up my friend M at 7:05 and drove 20 minutes to a special prayer service honoring all diocese choir members. There were over 200 people there. It was nice and we had refreshments downstairs and were given a pretty wooden cross that says something appreciative on it. I like it and I'm hanging it up somewhere :) So I got home around 10 and I'm just ready to drop. Great day, though.