Zoo school trip

Our Zoo Membership expires at the end of August so we decided to take a quick trip down to the zoo. I had told the kids this had to have some educational value and they were totally okay with it. What I did is gave them notebooks and labeled all the continents on the top of different pages. They then just wrote the names of the animals under which continent the animal lives on. I was really only trying to get them to read the plaques but it really worked. Lily and Joe totally loved it. Lily wrote down every name she could see, even animals she didn't see. Joe liked to draw pictures of the animals as well as write down there names. Isaac didn't like turning the pages but he did like writing down the names and so he made a huge list of all the animals we saw.

What was great about it was that the kids really enjoyed it and they were to distracted to ask for toys, candy, food, carousel rides etc. They didn't fight or argue, it was great. We didn't get around to seeing the whole zoo because we really didn't want to rush the kids but it was completely okay. We just lazily walked around righting down names and having fun. I just love to see the kids getting excited about learning.

Lily petting a crane.

This is a great statue but I must ad, Clara was not sad she was just posing.

Joe and Clara posing for the camera. Clara posed when she was sitting here and I was telling Dave how funny her poses were. Another couple was there too and starting laughing with us. She just went from pose to pose all very good but all so sultry. The other couple left and you could still hear them laughing clear down the path.

This is the only picture we have of all four kids. Don't think we didn't try though. They were just all over today. Not in a bad though, just all over.

There are tons of bunnies around the zoo. A couple were even in the gorilla exhibit and we saw a gorillat actually chase one.

The Aftrican Wild Dogs were no were in sight and all of a sudden they just rushed out of no where and charged the glass. It was great.

"They're African Wild Dogs, Not Hyenas" is what Joe kept on saying over and over again when we went to this exhibit. After we went in and read the plaque a whole group of people came in and it didn't matter how much Joe told them they continued to call them hyenas. He was so funny running around trying to inform people of what they were.

The hippo was very active. Swimming around, blowing bubbles, pooping for us, and then climbing out and pacing the exhibit. It must have been feeding time because he kept on going towards the door. Isaac especially liked the hippo.

The African penguins were so funny, fighting over leaves. At one point the biggest grabbed this one leaf and took it inside there den with all the other penguins following him. Another time a smaller one was trying to give the bigger one a branch with three leaves on it, with all the others fighting to get it. We decided that they females must be making nests and by bringing in leaves it makes the males look really hot.

The sloth slowly worked his way across the area until he went right behind a rock. Some birds started screaming at him. We still don't know why but it didn't seem to bother him to much. A few minutes later he poked his head around the other side and climbed around the exhibit some more.

The Orangutan was carrying something in it's foot, like a piece of wood.
He dropped from the next still grasping on tight so it didn't drop.

One lonely Gorilla

The Gorilla in the back was quite the bully.
The other one starting moving away as soon as he saw the back one coming.
The back one then chased the front one away before going back to his spot.

Feeding time for the pelicans.
The one on the right almost always caught the fish and the one on the left was pretty bad at it.
We liked how their bottom lips would stretch side ways to catch fish.