Animals Week

In the 2nd week of the holidays I decided that the kids and I would do some adventure days. Due to having done the renovations I thought it best to do some activities that wouldn't cost a lot including ones that we have annual passes for. This resulted in us going to Taronga Zoo (thanks to Grandma giving us money for it), the Aquarium and the Reptile Park. Therefore I called it this week 'Animal week'.

On Monday Jenny and Oscar came to our house so we could follow them to head to Taronga Zoo. 
I first needed to change my scarf because Jens and I were matchy matchy.

We had a lovely day walking around, seeing the different animals, chatting, hanging out. I do like that Grandma offers to pay for us to go to the zoo so we can do it together. Here are some photos from the day.
I loved seeing Daniel and Oscar choose to hold hands as they walked along. Too sweet!

 

The money shot

2 of my monkeys

Watching the squirrel monkeys. We unfortunately just missed out on going for a walk in their enclosure. Next time!

Playing 'ring-a-ring-a-rosey' while waiting for Osc and Daniel

The obligatory photo with the gorillas

We loved watching the baby gorillas wrestling, rumbling and playing

We found the giraffes. Grayma was worried that we wouldn't find them but they had been moved to the male elephant's enclosure. No clue where he had been moved to.

I took the pram. I wish I hadn't. It created tension with Eliza wanting to be in it most of the time even though I brought it for Eliza. I planned for Alexander to use it. Next time no pram. Although it was nice to have Daniel and Oscar take turns in pushing the pram for me.

Watching the Tasmanian Devil

 We watched the meercats for a little while. So cute!

 We stopped to have some morning tea and the kids enjoyed talking selfies (or trying to take selfies)

 Eliza spotted a kookaburra in the tree next to us. Next thing we knew the kookaburra swooped down and took an apple from a ladies hand. Rude!

Watching the elephants

We loved seeing the baby elephant come and play

The baby elephant was great to watch. I have never seen an elephant play in water in real life. It was just so cute and funny.

We then headed to the seals and penguins. So fun watching them swim around. The kids each needed to cuddle a penguin.

Watching the seal

Cuddling penguins

Watching the seals swimming under water

Mesmerised by the seals while eating lunch

Silhouette

Last of all was a cable car ride back up to the start after waiting in the long line. The gondola always brings smiles.

We had some money left over from Grandma so we decided to get an ice cream to finish off a fun day. Alexander was given the choice between a banana and an apple. He chose a banana and was happy with that.

The kids then played on the equipment poles and Alexander was happy to be like the big kids and walk along it.

Thanks Grayma for a fun day at the zoo!

Love these crazies

Tuesday morning we woke early and got ready to head to the station. Today's adventure - we were heading to the Aquarium. We arrived at Hornsby and hopped onto the train that was there. The kids were great on the train! We had fun taking photos to fill in some of the time.

The boys

The girls

Daniel was desperate for Alexander to sit on his lap. He obliged

We arrived at the aquarium at around 9:40am and headed to the entrance. I was expecting it to open around 10am but it was great that they openned the doors and were already letting in people with passes. Having an annual pass has its positives. We showed our pass and headed in. It was great because there weren't many people in there so we could look in all the little windows which was too hard last time we went.

We loved watching the penguins swim around and play. They kept waving to the kids. They weren't very keen to keep moving through the aquarium but I managed to encourage them to keep going.

There was a little scientists section which was open. The kids were able to feel and look at different shells, some sea creatures, look at things under a microscope. The kids were quite interested in it all and the ladies explaining it all were very interesting. 

Alexander holding a shark egg

The kids then had fun digging for dinosaur bones.

We headed 'under Sydney Harbour' to see the different sea creatures that live there.

Then we went down to see my favourite animal, the dugong. It was so cute eating its lettuce.

We also enjoyed watching the huge stingray swim over our heads.

The kids then had a go at speaking dugong to each other.

We then headed down to the shark tunnel. As we came to the start there was a big turtle sitting at the window. It was beautiful.

We then had fun walking through the tunnel watching sharks and stingrays swim over our heads and behind us. It was great being early because there weren't very many people in the tunnels so we could take our time and enjoy it without crowds.

So cool to see the sharks resting on the glass at the start of the tunnel

Where's the stingray

There it is

There's a shark

What's behind me?

A big fish!

We then headed to the penguin boat ride. The kids enjoyed seeing the penguins again. The boat ride is short but fun.

We liked watching the penguins at the end of the boat ride. 

He just loves chatting with the penguins

I loved Eliza leaning over to kiss Alexander on the cheek while watching the penguins swim around.

The kids again enjoyed the touching pool. Daniel was especially into it, touching everything he saw.

At the end there was a chance for the kids to design their own canvas bag. What crazy mum decides that her 3 kids aged 2, 4 and 6 can paint their own canvas bag? This one. What crazy mum didn't think about paint not drying immediately and needing to carry it on the way home and having 3 kids to guide too? This one. But the kids had a great time painting their own bags. At the end I tried to wipe off the excess paint to help it dry a bit faster and hopefully not go everywhere. Great concept, just not too sure the execution was thought out.

Another reason for heading into the city was to see Daddy and have lunch with him. It was lovely. We headed over to the Darling Harbour park and enjoyed our sandwiches and some hot chips.

The kids then liked playing in the park on the flying fox and then playing in the water area. It is still a stressful thing having the kids at the water park with so many other kids there. At one point I lost Eliza and that was stressful. Fortunately we found her on the big slide and I reminded her that I needed to see her and know where she was the whole time. Fortunately Daniel was great at letting me know where he went and wanted to go this time.

We then headed to the light rail station to catch a tram back to Central, easier than walking back to the train station with the kids. The kids of course were keen to wave to the driver and he was kind enough to wave back to them.

We then caught the train back home. The kids were proud of their new bags (which fortunately dried in the sun during lunch time and didn't go all over my clothes, just a little bit on the leg which I could get off with a wetwipe). 

Another awesome day and fun adventures with my 3 kiddies. 

On Wednesday morning we hopped into the car and headed to the Reptile Park, day 3 of animals week. The kids were keen for a day of seeing the different animals.

It was the 60th birthday celebration so there were some different activities that the kids could do and they really enjoyed them. First up was face painting. It was Alexander's first time getting his face painted. He did really well with sitting still for it and then not touching it.

Eliza was first up and desperate to have a butterfly

Daniel was keen to have a bee. So cute!

Alexander sitting still for his cute bee.

Next up was the jumping castle slide. The kids were on this for around an hour. Had we seen any animals yet? Nope. So glad that we have annual passes because otherwise it would have been a bit frustrating paying to see no animals. Ha. They did have a blast on the slide though! And being early there weren't many kids on the slide. I loved watching them go down all together with big grins and giggles.

I finally managed to get them off the slide and we went down to see the dingo puppies in their enclosure. We then headed over to the reptile show. The kids enjoyed some morning tea during the show. They then lined up to get a photo with a dingo puppy. While waiting they were allowed to pat a crocodile.

We then got to pat the dingo puppies.

Patting them while they waited

Happy to be holding them

One of the puppies started to look at Alexander

He wasn't too sure about it. Ha

The kids were hungry again so we had some lunch. While eating lunch Hugo came out for his walk so the kids went over to say hi and give him a pat.

For the holidays there was a new interactive experience of feeding the wild lorikeets. Daniel was desperate to have them feed from him. I admire his commitment. While we sat and ate, he stood under the trees holding up the food but the birds just weren't keen on it.

After a long time the lorikeets flew down and landed on one of the tables. Daniel headed over there and a lorikeet actually came over and stood on the side of his plate to eat. He was so happy.

Eliza was then keen to try and a couple came and ate from her plate too.

And of course Alexander wanted to join in as well so he got a plate and one of the lorikeets ate from him.

They then got scared away but it made Daniel very happy that they had fed from his plate. We then went for a bush walk and of course went to the large koala for a cuddle.

On our way out we went past a dinosaur. The kids wanted to get a photo with it so we had a bit of fun pretending the dinosaur was catching them.

What a fun day!
Thursday wasn't a proper animal day because we had mothers' group but it was cute that Eliza decided to get dressed as an owl. Too cute!

I do enjoy the holidays and going on adventures with my kiddies.