Fun at the Austin Zoo

Ready to see the zoo!

Another fun thing that I did with my "Littles" when A, B and C were at Burn Camp was to take them to the Austin Zoo.  We spent the morning and afternoon there and it was so much fun.  On the way home, I had all 4 kids asleep!  It had been a long time since I have had a car full of sleepers.  Enjoy our photos.  I think the peacocks were my favorite animal of the day.

This beauty was the first animal we saw as we walked into the zoo.  The peacocks are roaming free and they are currently in mating season so they really preformed for us later in the day.

This peacock was showing off in the tree.

We purchased a bag of animal feed when we arrived so we headed over to the petting zoo to feed the sheep, goats, deer, and llamas.

D feeding a goat.

D, E and F posing with the animals.

The goats were super friendly and not shy about asking for food.

Baby G wasn't sure what to make of the llamas.

After the petting zoo, we decided to head to see the "bigger" animals as they would most likely be napping in the afternoon.  We visited the bears and bigger cats.

Watching the bears

My Bears

F absolutely loved the tortoises.

On the move

Up close

We brought in our own picnic lunch but I let the kids each have a snow cone for a special treat.  All three of them chose 1/2 cherry and 1/2 blue raspberry snow cones!

A girl and her peacock

While eating their snow cones, the peacocks loved being around the kids.  It turns out they eat practically anything and anytime the kids would drop a bit of their snow cones, the peacocks were right there to enjoy it.  E kept asking me when the peacocks would display their feathers as she wanted to see them.  And the peacocks did not disappoint, they gave us quite a show.

I loved their feathers!

A peacock displaying his feathers.

And another one...

Side view

The Zoo is full of great photo opportunities including this amazing mural.

My E duckling.

And my monkeys...

Baby G was exhausted!

I would not recommend having this kind of umbrella stroller at the zoo.  I thought I had brought my other one that has a shade and basket underneath but when I arrived I realized I had not brought it and I made this one work.  Luckily, we were able to find quite a bit of shade and we had our hats so that really helped.  You can bring in your own food and drinks which is a huge plus.  They also have a snack cart available at certain times of the day.  We did not ride the train but that is also an option for a small fee.  All-in-all we had a super fun day and we would definitely go back again.

Fun Family Day at Cameron Zoo

I have had the privilege of teaching a preschool class in our weekly homeschool co-op this past year.  We have been working through the Before Five In A Row (BFIAR) curriculum and it has been so much fun!  I was struck last month in class when we were talking about animals and E said that she had never been to a zoo.  I thought about it and realized that she probably doesn't have any zoo memories and that would apply to F as well.  It's been a long time since we had the opportunity to have a family day together so I was so delighted that over the weekend we were able to go to Cameron Zoo in Waco.  We had such a great time and E and F were thrilled to see all the animals up close.

B with G (ready for his first zoo trip)

The orangutans were eating when we arrived to visit them.  You can see the male above eating a strawberry.

Here E is near the female who is munching on her veggies.

This baby orangutan is only a few months old!

 F posing with the Komodo dragon.

A showing F the elephants.  

D looking at the elephants

Looking at the rhinos

Rhinos

Photo Opp of the Kids

The tiger

B took this photo of the tiger, I love it!

Giraffe fun

There were three giraffes in this enclosure.

F as a butterfly

David snapped this fun photo of the kids.

D sliding down a slide near the otters.

F after a full day of fun.

Fun at the Zoo

Last week we took a field trip to the San Antonio Zoo.  We were actually hoping to meet some friends at SeaWorld homeschool day but they sold out of tickets so we headed to the zoo. 

 Check out C as a Butterfly - love the A's hat!

 Check out those eggs.

 D on a hippo.  They have a great hippo viewing area.  I enjoyed watching them swim.  E was fascinated by the hippos.

 E enjoying the view with Daddy.

Tree house fun

Surprisingly I didn't take as many photos as I would have liked.  I am officially into my third trimester of pregnancy and fatigue has set in again and I think this played into it.  I cannot believe that in a few more months we will have a newborn again - so exciting!  The San Antonio Zoo currently has lots of baby animals so it was a sweet reminder.  We saw baby tigers (2 months old), a baby monkey (4 days old) and the famous two headed turtle, Thelma and Louise, born earlier this year.

Happy Birthday David!

My beloved turns 34 today!  The kids and I have been hard at work putting together his "zoo" themed party.  We kicked off the celebration by going to our local zoo last weekend.  Tonight we will celebrate with cake/cupcakes and presents.  My biggest present is the cake, my labor of love so to speak.  If you know us well, you know that my amazing hubby makes all/most of the cakes in our household.  I really wanted to bless him this year with an all out cake so here it is!

This is almost the final product.  I still have a border of gumballs to do on the top and a few other minor details but you get the idea.

 Th cupcakes we made were owls, pigs, turtles, monkeys

 And worms

 This was my first time to use fondant, not too bad.

 So, what do you think?

And by the way, I have to give credit where credit is due - a big thanks to withsprinlesontop who inspired this cake :)