Plankendael

The end of the school year approached at high speed and coincided with the end of my maternity leave + parental leave. So since a week the organisation of our household has change a lot again: I am back at work and both boys go (back) to the daycare for the summer.

Beertje had already been going to daycare for several short days to enhance a smooth gradual transition. I realised I had booked him all day in daycare the last day I was at home. Kabouter would only be half a day in school, so I decided to profit from quality time with my oldest boy. Since the birth of Beertje, I had not been alone with him yet unlike Jan.

Since we now have a subscription to the nearby Plankendael zoo, I might as well start using that benefit and invite Kabouter's best buddy and his mom (who also have a subscription) along.  After an incredible stressful morning rush with dropping off both kids, running some errands and trying to prepare my start to work again and the arrival of my in-laws who'd take care of the kids 2 days, dropping off in emergency forgotten bottles at daycare, taking some paracetamol for my pounding fatigue headache, I managed to scramble a pick-nic in 3 minutes in a backpack and to rush back to school to pick-up both excited boys in time.  In all honesty, if I hadn't arranged the play date with his friend, I probably would have decided not to go to the zoo last minute, but now I had to stick to it.

Once in the car, I started to relax and was happy we were going out for the afternoon after all. Even the rain showers seemed to take a break for the afternoon.  Immediately upon arrival the boys guided us enthousiastically around "to the elephants"  "to the giraffes" while eating their lunch sandwiches while walking as they had no time to stop. We were lucky: it was the first day that the new baby giraffe was coming outside. The huge baby looked tiny and fragile amidst his tall family.







The pinguins where another "must do" stop for the boys.  This time there was no almost collision with a strolling pinguin, but we were all puzzled by the funny loud sound that one of the animals was making.
"Huh, what's that noise?"
"It sounds funny, who is that? "
"It sounds like this..."
and then we spotted the vocal pinguin in the group :)






After another snack at the leopards, a short stop to wave to the baby rhinoceros and a casual chat between the boys and the gardener about their shoes, we returned home. It was very quickly very quiet on the back seat of the car, proving it was a fun afternoon.










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