Birthday at the Zoo!

Yesterday, I spent my birthday at the Philly Zoo with my nephews and my brother and sister-in-law! It was a terrific day! My nephews were entranced with the animals - the 4 year old kept asking to see specific creatures that he knew were kept at zoos and the 1 and 3/4 year old kept saying goodbye to each animal after we saw it :-) We saw the new Big Cats exhibit, which was basically the same animals in a guided walk through their habitats in a way that allowed one to get much closer to them. We said goodbye to the elephants - apparently they are going to move to another zoo after having been here for over 30 years due to concerns about their housing. My nephews were convinced that the crocodiles weren't real because they weren't moving for so long...and then one blinked!!! They were disappointed to learn that red panda are not the same as black and white panda. They were entranced by the primate house, but we had the most fun watching the otters at play!!! I was very touched that they loved the otters as much as I always have. We will definitely go back to the zoo.

Then they came over to my house for pizza and cake. Whew! It was a whirlwind of potential destruction. I had thought that my place was mostly childproof, but they proved me wrong by finding all sorts of unexpectedly breakable or potentially toxic things within reach. And they chased the cats, who didn't seem to mind the extra play, but it just added to the chaos. The contrast of quiet after we put on Winnie the Pooh was quite striking (at least until they started messing with each other while watching it). They gave me the X-men III DVD, which I had refrained from buying myself, hoping that it would be a birthday gift (while I didn't love the movie as much as the first two, I thought it was something I would watch again). It was simply adorable to see how my nephews understood the concept of birthday parties and how connecting it was for them to have a party for me (they wanted to know why my friends didn't come to the zoo for my party. My brother was gonna say that I had no friends :-P but then explained that I had wanted to spend the day with just them). This plus puzzld1's visit on Friday definitely made up for my having spent last year's birthday in the hospital having my appendix removed. I was exhausted by the time they left, but I had an amazingly fun birthday!