Saturday, March 3, 2012

National Aquarium - Part One


The girls came home from school this week super excited about spending their day off of school on Friday at our local National Aquarium in Baltimore. Their music teacher at school, Mrs. Phillips also volunteers at the aquarium and she was going to be working that day diving in the tanks and feeding the fish. I took a few of Banana's friends and we had an incredible time!



Fishy kiss....


Fishy kiss....

Fishy kiss.....

No fishy kiss.....

Go gators!!!?????

It was so much fun for the girls to see their teacher in the tanks - - one of them commented about how they could see the pure joy on her face.  Mrs. Philips was born on a tropical island and has been scuba diving her whole life.  She spends a lot of time volunteering at the aquarium.






























It was a very fun and interactive experience -- my Boo was fascinated the entire time....  Look how thick that glass is!


Teachers make everything a learning experience - - they spelled out messages back and forth to each other.


Can you see the clam shell in her hand?  They brought up several treasures for the girls to keep, sting ray teeth (who knew?), clam shells and sea shells.






They even learned quite a bit about scuba diving!



Part two - coming up! 

Aquarium - Part Two








The scary big eel that even Mrs. Phillips stayed away from.




Very wet hugs for Emily!!
















The aquarium staff is great about interacting with the kids - they point out so many things that we miss and really know how to engage an audience. 




My Punkin LOVES sloths.  She wasn't able to join us because of choir practice so this picture is for her....


When Mrs. Philips wasn't in the water she was able to spend some time with the girls and teaching them about all the animals at the aquarium -- it was so neat to see how "pet-like" so many of them are and hear about the little things they do when they recognize their care-takers.  We learned how very friendly and intelligent an octopus is!


and of course my Banana loves the turtles...


watching the feedings in the sting-ray tanks.... absolutely fascinating!  Mrs Philips even tried to feed Boo some shrimp through the glass!




Calypso the giant sea turtle!


These pictures remind me of a friends blog who has a similar picture of her son with the caption
"Because childhood is full of wonder"












Thanks Mrs Phillips for an absolutely WONDERFUL day at the aquarium!