Baby's 1st trip to the zoo

We had a birthday this week, our big girl turned 4. Unfortunately her paternal grandparents couldn't make it to her party, instead we met up at the zoo yesterday to spend time with them. It was Baby Nell's first trip to the zoo and it was fantastic, our best day at the zoo, yet!

We caught the train to there. Harri finds all the signs on trains fascinating. We look at the map of all the lines and stations and she points to different spots asking if we know anyone who lives in the area. We also talk about what the illustrations alongside the rules mean. Yesterday Harri noticed the "no graffiti" rule for the first time and informed us that it meant "no salt allowed on trains" :D

 The day before we went to the zoo Harri coloured in some of the sheets I had for UnKinder and told me that she would like to give her pictures to the butterflies and the elephants at the zoo. There didn't end up being attendants with the elephants or butterflies when we went to those spots in the zoo. Instead, Harri gave her pictures to one of the members of staff at the gift shop and let her know where to give her gifts :)

We saw many different types of apes, which were a big hit with the girls. At the orangutan enclosure we watched them swing from rope to rope right up against the window. It was like they were putting on a show for us :) At another ape enclosure we were looking in when BANG there was a little monkey face right in ours! It was incredible. We stood there for a while saying hi to this little guy, actually making up close eye contact. Nell was understandably amazed, quite a treat for a first trip to the zoo (which in my experience are usually slept through LOL).

The elephants and giraffes were also a hit (old favourites, those animals). 

This morning we were woken to "can we go to the zoo again today?" so methinks a membership might be on the cards for our family. For all the wonderful animals we saw yesterday, there were plenty we missed and Harri is asking about them. If you've never been to Melbourne Zoo, or it's been a while, we strongly recommend getting there. It has changed so much in the years we've let pass between visits.

I leave you with some of the other pics we got :)