Zoo Field Trip with Erin

My 2nd Field Trip Ever!  We had a good time.  The only problem was that it rained, and rained.  That wasn't so bad, but with my backpack, folder, their  lunch bag,   and putting the umbrella up and down and trying to handle that, along with taking pictures and checking the time on my cell phone so we would make our appointed times, not so easy.  Then, their assignment: List the continent on which each animal lived.  I let Erin use my folder so she would have something stable on which to write.  We also had a pencil.  I didn't have enough hands.
They worked hard on their list and really did a good job.  In the picture Erin is holding the black folder and thier assignment paper.  The only continent that was not well represented on their list was Europe.  We did have one entry for them, but the girls really tried to find more.  Then, we arrived at the front gate n time, but just then I realized I didn't have my folder.  And, the girls assignment paper was in it!  I'd put it in my folder to help keep it dry.  Oh NO!  My only thought at that time was that I must have left it on the table in the African Outpost Cafe where we ate lunch.  So, they watched the girls while I briskly walked all the way back to the Cafe and back.  No luck.  So, after all that hard work the girls did, they didn't have a paper to turn in.  It made me feel bad.  It also made me feel bad that I'd lost my folder with all my Docent information in it, along with my appointment calender.  Before leaving the Zoo I left my name and phone number at the front desk.  So if anybody turned it in they'd call me.  I felt pretty sure it would turn up, but wouldn't be comfortable until it did.
So, when I got home I hoped that the Zoo had already called to let me know my folder had been found.  But, no such luck.  After sitting and talking to Mary Lynn for a while and telling her all about the Field Trip, I remember that the girls checked to see how long their arms were, compared to a Gorilla at the Gorilla exhibit.  You know, the outline on the wall that you stand in.  And, they asked me to do it, too.  So I had to set everything down there, and stretch out my arms.  I thought, maybe, I just didn't pick everything back up!
Well, when I checked my email I had an email from another Docent at the Zoo, Clarice, who said she found my folder down at the Gorilla Exhibit today while she was doing SAZ, and had put it in the Docent Room by the hour book folders.  What a relief!  I thanked her by reply email.  It was just where I thought I might have left it.  I hate that the girls didn't have their paper, but at least I'm getting my folder back.

On the Rhino, not far from the front gate.  The Field Trip was just about over.  These girls were well behaved and pretty darn smart.  I think they had fun and learned a little, too.