Ela's Birthday Party

For Ela's birthday this year, we decided to go to the zoo. She's really into animals right now. We were lucky, and the weather held out for us. It was cloudy, but fairly warm. Also, Ela had slept well and eaten a good breakfast, so she was in a really good mood. We dressed her in her birthday finest, armed ourselves with gift bags and cupcakes, and set out.

All the way there in the car, Ela said "We see lions! We see elephants! We see monkeys!" and proceded to make all the animal noises. As soon as we got there, we met up with a few friends, and the animal viewing began. It's early in the season, so the zoo was not very crowded at all. We were able to get up close to each of the exhibits and take our time watching without feeling like we were in the way.


Ela was delighted to get to see all the animals. She ran along between exhibits saying "Running! Weeee!" as we all trailed after her, just trying to keep up. She only slowed down to look at her favorites. The pandas got a long view, and I think she would have been happy to stare at the elephants all day. She watched a monkey who was hanging out right at the edge of his enclosure for a long time before announcing, "Bye Bye, monkey! I'll miss you!"
Finally, we all got hungry, so we took a lunch break. We stopped into the Mane Restaurant and got hamburgers, nuggets, and fries for everyone. Also, we had cupcakes. Here's what they looked like before I packed them up and they got hauled along in the stroller for several hours.


I forgot to bring the number 2 candle (which we had used on her cupcake the night before), but I suspect the zoo would have frowned on it anyway. So we just sang, and Ela was happy with that.

With renewed energy from all the sugar, we set off to the petting portion of the zoo. The kids were very excited about the chance to touch the cow. The also enjoyed having a look at the donkeys and goats.

Our final stop was to see the lions. They have cubs at the zoo right now, and they were out when we arrived. Ela watched them, as well as the grown ups, with a very serious look on her face for quite some time before announcing, "Simba!" They really were quite fun to watch as they capered around.

By the time we finished looking at the lions, all that walking and the fact that it was well past nap time was catching up with the kids, so we decided to call it a day. Everyone agreed that it had been a very pleasant visit. I love having a free zoo so close by, and it worked out really well for the party. Ela was finally ready to get back into the stroller for the hike back up the hill to the car.

I think she had a good time!