Daddy's Taking Us to the Zoo!

Ok... today, actually. Daddy took us to the zoo today.

We spent last week doing afterschooling 'zoo' activities in preparation for the long-awaited and much-anticipated yearly trip to the zoo, new and improved with the second cousins from B.C. this year! So fun!!

Liony fruit snacks :)
(Papaya, peach, banana & raisins)

 I printed and laminated various photos of animal habitats so the girls could sort their animal crackers accordingly.
It was pretty fun, so I ended up making more and Laura used them with her fruit snacks and then again with stickers.

We also played with a set of animal flash cards we have had for a while, but used them to learn about the different animal groupings: mammals, birds, reptiles/ amphibians, insects, and fish. Laura was really into it, and I feel like finally all of the man-hours she's logged watching Diego may have paid off. ;)

We also tried a tape-resist art project to make zebra stripes, which turned out okay, but next time I wouldn't use masking tape.

My sister wanted to take Laura to the African Lion Safari this summer, but Josh wasn't comfortable with her going without one of us, so on Saturday we had a Laura-Mommy day (with her Aunties) and Rachel had a Dadurday (her first one!). Laura was not overly taken with the driving and animal-watching part of the Safari... she much preferred to just bounce around the car sans seatbelt. She did enjoy the other parts of the park - the splash pad, playground, train, and the elephant ride, though!


    And today, our trip to the zoo!

The new panda exhibit

Rachel spots the giraffe!

All the cousins checking out the white lions
(which I now realize you can't even see in the pic,
but I was just trying to take it as quickly as possible before anyone fell, etc)

And managed to pile them all on top the hippo statue!