San Diego Zoo

To cut back on the number of gifts received, and the amount of work I have to do, we only allow the kids to have friend parties on their even birthday. Braniac turned five this year so he opted to go to San Diego Zoo. This is a trip that doesn't cost us too much, since we are members. :)

We started with our usual Chick-fil-A stop for breakfast and present opening.

Braniac went for the present he knew he wanted. He could tell from the feel that it was what he'd asked for. He'd been dreaming of this since he bought one for his friend's birthday earlier this year.

Yep, it's Little Mermaid. He loves it coz it swims in the bath. Pink doesn't hurt it either. He's still in a pink phase that all my kids, save Thing 1, have gone through. For those of you who have problems with boys playing with pink toys, take your girls out of soccer and softball, and stop letting them wear pants and play with Lego's. If you still have a problem I will laugh at you and label you. :D

Thing 2 bought him a Lego set he (Thing 2) said he wanted. We're not exactly sure who really wanted this. ;) But Braniac was happy with it.

This is a bonus gift. Another bath toy but this one has a fountain and uses bubbles to power itself around the tub. He loved playing with it on Friday. :)

Braniac wore his giraffe hat/scarf/mitten thing we bought him for Christmas. He was quite happy and, quite honestly, he was the envy of most of the kids at the zoo.  I felt bad for any parent that tried to find it at one of the stores. :)

For those unfamiliar with the San Diego Zoo, there is a small scale ride on train just outside the entrance to the zoo in Balboa Park. Because they are on Easter break hours it was open on Thursday. Usually it is only open on Saturday and Sunday.

The whole crew, with stuffed animal friends. Those aren't ours, they belong in the train...except that giraffe. ;)

We opted to eat in the park this year. We will never do that again. Bleh. For the price I would have expected some flavor.

First we visited the giraffes, of course.

As an aside, Braniac likes to wear two different colored socks. As he was putting them on I thought how lucky my kids are to live in this day when at least no one will say anything to me about it. They may gossip, but most people will ignore it. When I was a kid you just didn't do things like that. :D

Dad with Babycakes, who, despite being terribly exhausted due to no nap and an oncoming cold, was more pleasant than some who should know better. ;D

Here's the giraffe on the Skyfari, which was his next choice of things to do.

Finally got to the Elephant Odyssey. We haven't been since it opened. I know, that seems neglectful, but we don't go that way usually. We ordinarily only go up to see the polar bears and reindeer. Now that we've done both I know why, the kids were very tired when we were done with all that walking sans strollers (you can't take the strollers on the Skyfari).

Here's Braniac, with Thing 1. He wanted to take a picture of him signing 'elephant.' :)

After we came back down on the Skyfari, Braniac got his face painted. Betcha can't guess what he chose. ;)

Yep, a griraffe. :)

Last, but not least, we rode the bus around the park. If we had known that you can get the hopper bus for free with a regular bus ride we would have ridden the bus first. In June, I can assure you we will. :)

Finally got to see the elephants roaming when we were on the bus. When we had walked through earlier, they were all put away.

Back at the giraffes. I'm sure the real giraffe is confused as to why there was a giraffe in the bus. ;)

Then he got to pick out something (inexpensive) at the zoo store. I suppose the choice comes as no surprise by this point.