Duck Overboard!

Hi everyone! Today our ESY program had a field trip to a small park district zoo in our area. It is a very nice little zoo with a mixture of local wild animals that can no longer live independently, such as foxes, deer, skunks, and coyotes, some farm animals like horses, cows and sheep, and a few more exotic animals like llamas. There is also a bunch of duck ponds with all different breeds of ducks, some that are owned by the zoo and some that just show up on their own. (The duck pond has always been one of my favorite parts, because I love ducks. During the spring and summer, if you get there in the morning, you can buy special duck food and help feed the ducks!) 


We've been telling the kids all week about our field trip, and they were all excited. Even Billy seemed excited. On the bus ride there, he was such a happy little guy, singing and talking to himself, saying things like, "Where we going? Look, pretty trees! Red light! Stop! Green light... go! Turn! Where we going?" We left Kitty at school, but he brought another one of his favorite transitional items, a squeezy duck, and he was happy to talk to it and play with it, putting it on his head and saying, "Where is ducky? On Billy's head!"


But when we got there, he wasn't so happy. I had to pretty much carry him off the bus!


He did cheer up when he saw the duck pond! Unfortunately, he thought it was a swimming pool. He kept saying, "Swimming pool! Smell it! Swimming pool!" Then he started trying to climb the small fence that separated the path from the duck pond. He said, "Billy swimming pool!"


"No, Billy, it is only for ducks," I told him. 


Before I could realize what I had just said, Billy got a big smile on his face, and shouted, "Ducky swimming pool!"

"No, no ducky swimming pool!" I protested.


But it was too late. The duck sailed over the fence,  and landed in the middle of the duck pond, right next to a very startled real duck! 


Billy laughed like crazy at the sight of his little duck floating in the pond. Meanwhile, I wasn't about to lose Ducky! I jumped over the fence and was just about to wade into the pond. The other staff members, all of the kids, and some random zoo visitors, were all staring at me, while Billy laughed like a mad scientist. 


Luckily, a zoo employee came and fished the toy duck out of the pond with a net, so I didn't end up having to dive into the slimy pond. Billy wanted his duck back right away, but it looked so gross, I told him ducky was going to have to go home and take a bath first! 


It was definitely one of the funnier moments of the summer. And only four more days left!