Another wave of winter weather blew through town last night, which translated into another snow day for my second grader. I have completely lost track of how many inclement weather days we have accumulated this year, but I’m pretty sure these kids might be in school until Independence Day.

My little man is pretty good at entertaining himself during days like this, but as they start piling up we both get a little antsy. This morning I promised to do something fun because I thought we both needed to get out of the house (and I knew the roads would be dry by lunchtime). I was right on both accounts. My eight year old’s request for the day was to see the polar bear in her “natural habitat.” He sure knows how to work his mother. Although it was only 30-something degrees with a light breeze, I was all mostly in at the mere hint of something slightly educational. So after lunch we bundled up and off to the zoo we went.

This gibbon looked so lonely when we first arrived, but he quickly made his way over to say hi and hung out near us.

As it turned out, if you stood in the sun sheltered by a building and wore a large coat, gloves and a hat, it wasn’t a bad day to be at the zoo with the twelve or so other guests who had the same crazy idea as we. I also think many of the animals were as excited to see us as we were them. The gibbons and penguins seemed especially interested in our presence and sauntered up to say hi. We managed to catch the sea lion show, see the baby penguin and otters, watch the penguins eat, see a monkey chase a porcupine, feed the stingrays and get a personalized experience along with two other people at the bird show.

Baby Blizzard, that fluffy gray penguin on the right, was born in January. His feet are huge!

Feeding the rays is always a treat (for them and us).

Of course we didn’t venture out to see most of the animals, but with a yearly pass we didn’t feel cheated, and with all the enclosed exhibits, great keeper chats and shows, it turns out that the Kansas City Zoo is actually a pretty nice place to visit on a chilly, no-school snow day.