St. Louis Zoo

Animals Aglow Updated

Last week, Ladybug, Chickadee, and I went to the St. Louis Zoo for the second (annual?) Animals Aglow Lantern Festival!

Let’s start with the one thing that was mostly unchanged from 2024…the impressive dragon tunnel…it was just as cool as I remembered it, both in the daylight, and lit up at night!

Most everything else seemed different…there were many animal and flower lanterns, but different types and designs, which made it feel like a brand-new event:

One new display that I really enjoyed was the “9 Sons of the Dragon”…here’s a look at some of my favorites of the group:

They had a special new drink at Starbucks, too…the “Snakerdoodle,” in honor of the Year of the Snake:

Speaking of the Chinese Zodiac, another new display that I loved featured a representation of each of the 12 zodiac animals…I liked them so much, they’ll have their own post later! For now, here’s a little glimpse of them, including each of us with our year’s animal:

Everything about the zoo looks beautiful at night all lit up!

This iridescent dome looked spectacular in every light!

And here’s a look at the fantastic movement in the largest of the lanterns, which was almost 50 feet high!

We’re already hoping that the event returns next year with more new things to discover!

2024-25 School Year–Week Twenty-Nine

This was a fun week! Not only did we finally get to play tennis, but we also took a rare nighttime field trip to the St. Louis Zoo for the Animals Aglow Lantern Festival!

Of course, we did our regular work, too, although that is dwindling down, and our days are getting shorter. Ladybug began volume three of Jane Eyre…the end is in sight! She continued working on her term paper. In psychology she read about aggression, attraction, and altruism. Her final writing assignment was writing a “bad” thesis using subtle and blatant irony. She continued reading American Nations.

Chickadee completed all of the new material in her pre-algebra book with a final lesson on finding the area of regular polygons, and is now ready for the end-of-year review! Since she finished her history curriculum for the year, we’re focusing on topics that bridge the time around the California Gold Rush and the Civil War, including the Underground Railroad and the Oregon Trail. She began learning about the five senses in science. We started reading Amon’s Secret.

Three more weeks of school, and a lot of fun things in the mix between now and then!

2024-25 School Year–Week Sixteen

Time to get back to work after an extended Christmas break!

We eased back into our routine with a visit to the St. Louis on Monday…we really wanted to see it while it was still snow-covered, and we weren’t disappointed!

Ladybug also learned this week that she placed first in the high school category of our city’s winter art contest…she put a lot of effort into her painting, and was very excited to find that it paid off!

We got back into the routine of our regular schoolwork, too. Ladybug identified the appeal to pity and bandwagon fallacies in logic. She picked off where she left off in A Tale of Two Cities. In psychology she read about physical portrayal of emotions. She started reading 1984. In religion, we read about John of Damascus and the Great Schism.

Chickadee calculated permutations and combinations in pre-algebra. We read about the French Revolution in history. In science, we discussed evolution. She continued her literature study of The Trojan War. In writing, she read the “The Highwayman” and learned about reversals in poetry.

Hopefully I’ll find another interesting outing in the coming weeks to break up the monotony that is the time after the holidays!

A Balancing Act

Yesterday we visited the St. Louis Zoo, and as always, the penguin habitat was a highlight of the trip for me. I watched this fellow carefully shift his weight to one foot so he could use the other one to scratch with…it was quite the calculated movement, and I was quite impressed with his balancing act!

Oktoberfest 2024

It’s time for a look back at all of the Oktoberfest fun we’ve enjoyed over the last month or so!

We started close to home toward the end of September, with Belleville Oktoberfest, which begins even before the big celebration in Munich. It’s not my favorite Oktoberfest, but it’s easy to attend, and I love any reason to wear a dirndl!

Next up was my favorite area Oktoberfest, in St. Charles, MO. This year’s event was interesting because it was super muddy, but still a lot of fun, with music, dancing, food, and shopping.

We went back to Zootoberfest at the St. Louis Zoo…they still have the best pretzels!

New to us this year was Soulard’s Oktoberfest in St. Louis. There was more good music with the added bonus of a stroll through the Soulard Market.

And finally, our family Oktoberfest, once all of the other area celebrations had wrapped up. We started with an Oktoberfest Eve meal of brats and sauerkraut, plus German tater tots inspired by the ones we tried in Soulard, and apple strudel made by Ladybug for dessert.

Of course I had to put together one more look featuring Rare Dirndl, and it was also a bit of a Disney Bound, as a nod to the Disney Princess with my favorite fashion sense, Rapunzel!

We made pretzels, and instead of fondue, I made Obatzda, a German cheese spread that’s great on the pretzels.

For dinner we had all of my German favorites…Schweineschnitzel, spaetzle, and rotkohl….all homemade, too!

Every good holiday deserves a special drink…I made an apple pie mocktail with apple cider, caramel syrup, cinnamon, and ginger beer. It tasted like fall in a glass, and I even learned how to make an apple fan for a garnish!

And for dessert, one of our family’s all-time favorites–Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte!

I’m kind of sad that Oktoberfest season is over already…it’s become something I really look forward to every year!

Chickadee Thursday

Having fun at Zootoberfest at the St. Louis Zoo…Chickadee discovered that just as you can buy Mickey Mouse ears at Disney World, you can buy elephant ears (to wear, not to eat!), at the zoo!

Changing Light

I’ve already shared a look at the Animals Aglow lantern festival at the St. Louis Zoo; now I’m sharing one of my favorite details of any lantern festival…seeing how the lanterns change with the changing light!

I learned from the lantern festival at the Missouri Botanical Garden almost ten years ago that there’s a beauty in seeing the structures while the sun is still up, and then looking at them again in the dark, and it’s still true. You notice different details as the light changes, and each is beautiful in its own way!