It's a zoo around here!

With our spring weather in full swing, we have been enjoying the zoo passes that my in-laws so generously gave us for Christmas. We thought we should enjoy them now before the weather turns sweltering and neither us nor the animals have any desire to be outdoors. The timing perfectly coincided with the discovery of this alphabet book and many others like it.

I really like these books! They work well for little kids and big kids. Each page has a stanza of a poem about the subject but then it also offers more in depth information in the side bars. Do books have side bars? Oh well. When I read it to BigBoy, we just read the poem but the big kids continued exploring the subject on their own.

The publisher's website also offers teacher's guides. Each one had lots of fun little printables that my kids are really gonna enjoy! OK, the girls will enjoy them, the boy might if he actually puts the book down and comes up for air.

So......

What do you do when you go to the zoo?
Watch all the animals...
Move like the animals...
Sign all the animals, too.
I do! I do!

So do we! We also took plenty of pictures. These are some of our favorites:

Meerkat - Bigboy's favorite
He actually has a stuffed meerkat that has been sharing Super Rrrr-bert's cape and flying time. Thanks AuntE!

It was Hug An Australian Day when we went so we made sure to stop by the Outback.

Komodo Dragon

Some kind of humongous gecko! Didn't catch the name. Was distracted by the enormous rattlesnake behind me.

This is a Harris Hawk that was going to do a demonstration but had to go inside because of some bullying grackles. Yeah... they weren't playing nice so he took his trainer and went home!

Self explanatory.

In the pond in front of the giraffes. Koi, I think, if koi can get this big.
You know what this is! Of course we broke out into song.

Turtle Rock is the perfect place
It's the perfect place to be.
Turtle Rock is not too hot
And it's not too cool for me!

Sure, we got some looks, but we had fun!

We are going to be spending a lot more time at the zoo now that I have an almost three year old who can skip his nap occasionally. It also helps that we stumbled upon the secret to saving my sanity when we showed up just to get our passes printed. No, don't ask me if we can go see the animals. It is going to be packed with school kids!

Uhhh... whoops.

If you arrive after lunch, all of the big yellow buses are leaving!!!! The place was not empty, but not so crowded you have to fear for your children's safety.

The kids all had a great time, and since no one wanted to see the Arachnitopia exhibit (spiders and scorpions), Mommy had a great time too! I bribed them with ice cream cones (the first of the season) and the promise to return next week to get them to leave peacefully. But we will be back. I'll call it a "unit study" if I have to!

* * * * * * * * *

(realizing his chocolate ice cream dripped on his shirt)
BigBoy: Oh no! I have shirt on my chocolate!