Going to the Zoo...

We always go the zoo each year with the extended family for a bbq dinner...this has been going on since well before we had J-Man. His first zoo bbq was when he was 2 weeks old, and I was still nervous about breastfeeding in public- so had expressed a bottle of milk for him to have!

I figured since we needed to catch buses anyway, we may as well make a day of it.

We left around 9am and went to the mall to watch a movie. Princess, Tombliboo and I went to see Hotel for Dogs, and J-Man went (alone for the first time ever) to see Nightmare before Christmas 3D. I have said the last *several* times that I won't go to a movie again until Tombliboo is bigger...I relaly mean it now, lol.

I hardly saw anything. At one point, as I was running up and down the hallway, the usher commented, "You're not seeing much of your movie". Didn't offer to refund my ticket price though, lol.


We went up and down the lift, and then he discovered the Time Out area and wanted to sit on or in *every* ride. Every time I managed to get back ot the theatre, he would say, "I need a toilet"...that is the sentence above all others that he knows I will move for.

He tried out his lungs in the toilets (screamed as loud as possible), and after the third one, the usher and a security guard came running. I was so embarrassed, but I think they saw in a second that here was a happy child having a blast, and an esaperated mother trying (very unsuccessfully) to make him stop. I expect they were suprised not to see me with a carving knife sawing off his legs.

None of this is new of course, so the real quesiton is why on earth do I keep doing this?

Well, the answer is simply for the big kids- they ahd a great time, they both enjoyed their respective movies very much, and were glad to have gone. We also went with new firends, so it was a bit more fun.


Afterward, we stayed near the Time Out place for a while, where Tombliboo was set to climb in the prize hole and up in to a machine where you win balls. He probably could have done it too had we not extricated him fairly quickly.

We went to McDonald's for lunch annd some time at the Playland... I also had very little money fo rhte day, and logically probably shouldn't have gone out all day...still, it worked in the end :0)

We left there about 2pm, and caught a bus to Onehunga...it was a long trip- Tombliboo and J-Man went to sleep, and Princess nearly did too...she was like me, gradually closing her eyes, then jerking them open the next instant.

The bus was late to the next stop, so we missed out next bus and had a half hour wait...but that was fun, we chatted to a vietnamese mother and her two pre-schoolers. J-Man thought we should invite them for dinner, or at leats to play some time.


We caught the bus to Western Springs and walked through the park to the play area. Tombliboo loved talking to the birds, and all the kids had loads of fun.





We moved from there on to the zoo, and met up with the cousins, uncles, Aunt, Nana and Daddy. The memory card on our camera was full before we got very far, unfortunately.




The highlight was seeing tiger cubs (about 6 months old)...they were simply beautiful and all the kids (from age 2-13) were in awe.



This is the mum, we didn't get a good shot of the cubs even though we were very close to them.

We ate a bbq together, and headed off when it began to get dark.



It was (once again) a very nice evening at the zoo.