Zoo tots

Our zoo offers classes for children starting when they are 6 months old. I started taking Audrey when she was itty-bitty and she has always loved them! We haven't been since she graduated from the baby class to the Zoo Tots class so I decided to take her last Friday. Each class has a theme and this class was on African Animals.

The classes are very hands-on and age appropriate. Audrey got to make an African mask, touch a leopard gecko, a tortoise and see Madagascar cockroaches (hissing cockroaches). It was a fun class for both Audrey and me!!

*She also got to play with her sweet friends, Addie and Peyton. Audrey loves these two kiddos and talks about them all the time. They are both in her MDO class. Her teacher told me the other day that she asked Audrey who had fixed her hair that morning (Audrey had just told her that her Mommy "didn't do nuttin'"!) and Audrey's response was "Peyton". Ha! Also, Clay asked her who her best friend was during bath time and she said "Addie". She normally responds with one of us so it was a surprise to hear her say "Addie"!*

Addie doesn't look like she cares much for the leopard gecko.

Holding one finger up so they could touch the animals.

Peyton was the only one who liked the cockroaches!

Audrey loved every animal that the teacher brought out for them to see except the hissing cockroach. She told the teacher to "put it back in cage"! Ha!

Neither of these two girls wanted anything to do with the cockroach!! I don't blame them!

 Our zoo has a brand new Trails of Africa exhibit and two new elephants (one more on the way)! We are so excited about the elephants and the new addition to the zoo. It is AWESOME! For part of our class, the teacher focused on elephants and their size. This photo shows the footprint of an elephant in comparison to Audrey's size 6's (at that time she was a 6-- she's grown two shoe sizes since I've had Shelby Claire!! She's now a 7 in a Sun-San sandal!).

Here she is making her elephant mask. Around this time sweet Shelby Claire decided to wake up and eat. I had to do some juggling of the two of them! It worked out! Thank goodness for other mommas who were there to help!

Please look at this picture closely. Audrey is trying to open a marker and unfortunately hit this poor girl in the eye. I can't believe I actually got a picture of it! Poor little girl! She didn't cry until about 5 minutes later!

The second portion of the class is actually out in the zoo itself. The teacher takes us around and showed us African Animals-- including the elephants!

Audrey loves seeing the animals but if I am completely honest, her favorite part of the zoo is just getting to run around freely and pick up rocks. These little green shorts are a little big for her in the waist. When she added about a pound of rocks to the pockets, they were barely staying on her!

We spend a lot of time at the zoo. I love to take her there because she can move around on her own without having to hold my hand and we can get some fresh air. We have a routine and a route we take around the zoo each time we go. We typically end our trip by either eating at the zoo cafe or going to eat somewhere around the zoo. It's usually a fun day!