St. Louis Zoo

Animals Aglow 2026

It’s that time of year!

For the third year in a row, the St. Louis Zoo is hosting Animals Aglow, an amazing, nature-themed lantern festival. And for the third year in a row, we attended. I love how there are some familiar things every year, and some things that are brand new. This dragon, who greets you as you walk through the gates at the south entrance, is a new addition:

Near the dragon is a cute pair of lovebirds set among plants that have a definite Dr. Seuss vibe:

There are other large-scale installations, as well…this pavilion is a popular spot:

This tree has a cool interactive musical feature:

There’s so much to look at on this butterfly tree!

Of course there are more traditional lanterns, as well:

And the dragon tunnel is a returning favorite, but in a new color this year!

The zoo Starbucks is offering a special “Year of the Horse” chai flavored with brown sugar and honey:

It’s so much fun to get to see the zoo lit up at night!

The majority of the lanterns are animal and plant themed…there are so many beautiful designs!

But my very favorite part of the festival is the lantern tunnel…I knew it would be when I saw it at the zoo during the day, and I was not disappointed! There are so many beautiful colors and patterns!

This has become one of my most-anticipated events of the spring, and I can’t wait to see what it looks like next year!

2025-26 School Year–Week Twenty-Nine

We started the week with a somewhat unexpected field trip to the St. Louis Zoo. We were supposed to go to the Missouri History Museum, until I remembered that they’re closed on Mondays. Since we always go on an end-of-the-year field trip to the zoo anyway, I just swapped them around. It gave us the opportunity to see the lanterns for Animals Aglow in the daylight, which is always a fun experience, and now we’re really excited about going to see them at night sometime soon!

Chickadee reviewed the Pythagorean Theorem in algebra, and then used what she knows about it to solve some geometry problems. In science she started a two-chapter unit on earth science, and we got to make “plastic rock” with cornstarch and water! She read about India and Pakistan after the partition and the Bhopal disaster in history. She finished one of her last big writing assignments. We wrapped our study of Lutheranism in religion. This week’s recipe from the American Girl Sweet & Savory Treats Cookbook was Strawberry Icebox Pie, a delicious no-bake dessert perfect for spring inspired by one of the dolls in my personal collection, Melody.

Next week we’re hoping to go on a field trip that’s a follow-up to one we had at the beginning of the school year!

2025-26 School Year–Week Sixteen

Back to work following a nice (long!) Christmas break!

We got right back into it with adding and subtracting rational expressions with different denominators in algebra. In history we read about the Easter Uprising and Indian nationalism. We picked up where we left off in Treasure Island. In science we started learning about forces, beginning with gravity. We talked about different denominational beliefs regarding the Sacraments in religion. She began a two-week project writing a movie review. We continued our overview of the US Constitution (and also discussed some of the power given to state governments). For our first week back, I chose what I foolishly thought was going to be an easy recipe from the American Girl Sweet and Savory Treats Cookbook for Ice Cream Bonbons inspired by Addy. It was NOT an easy recipe, with every step being a different exercise in frustration, but we made a memory with the disaster it ended up being!

We also visited the St. Louis Zoo, and spent some time in the primate house, where the spider monkeys were very obviously interested in Chickadee’s hat!

We have one more week of math before the quadratic formula makes an appearance!