You Cant Always Get What You Wa-ant

Today we went to the Bronx Zoo.  Another homeschooler had a birthday party there, and the boys agreed to go.

"Let's get going!" I called.  "Put on shoes."

All of them put on shoes. 

"It's very hot out.  Elazar, change out of your sweater.  Jack, leave your sweatshirt at home."

Then I rushed around grabbing some food and put on some sunscreen.  "Anyone want sunscreen?"

"No," Aharon called.

We got to the zoo and it was hot.  Jack tried to hand me his sweatshirt.

"Nope, I'm not carrying it.  I told you not to bring it."

"So I have to carry it?" he said.  I offered him the bag of food and he put it in there.  He soon began crying about how awful it was to carry his sweatshirt. 

A minute later, the water bottle had spilled all over the bag and it was full of water.  At that point, I had not taken a map and was already lost.  Note to self.  I have a horrible sense of direction.  Get the darn map.  Luckily, the water did not get on his sweatshirt.

We went to the birthday party, which was nice, and pet a peacock, which was cool.  They didn't want to see any animals.  (I had in mind that I had zero educational goals for this trip, so that I wouldn't get frustrated when that happened.)

Then I got lost getting out.  Then I got lost again.  Then Aharon started crying and saying he can't breathe.  Then we saw flamingos and Aharon said he didn't want to rest after all.  Elazar was sweltering; it turns out he didn't hear me tell him to change out of his sweater.  He started complaining that this was a terrible trip.  Yes, he mused, perhaps even worse than the whalewatching one (where he vomited the entire time).  When we got to the car, it was so hot, he started crying.

I turned on the AC and everything calmed down.  Then Aharon and Jack began fighting, physically.  Pinching, screaming, kicking.  A croc soared into the front seat.  We were in traffic.

Right at that time, the Rolling Stone's You Can't Always Get What You Want started playing, like the perfect soundtrack to my life.  I turned it up. 

So in summation, our first field trip in a veerrrrrrrrrrry long time was excellent insofar as getting them from one place to another.  They all follow alertly, I don't have to keep track of them, they walk themselves, they don't complain about walking (except Aharon, but he's edging out of that age, too). 
However, there is still crying.  Lots of crying.  And fighting.  I still came home thinking perhaps it was not worth it. 

But it's definitely improving. 

Chen wants to go to the museum of Natural History next week.  I had been looking forward to taking the boys to see it.  But it will be optional, as they all loudly proclaimed: they are NOT going on any more trips unless they choose to.  We are supposed to go 20 minutes to roast marshmallows tomorrow and they are not sure they want to go. 

So we'll see who joins me and Chen next week.