Boo at the Zoo

Since we live so close to the city we decided to take advantage of one of the best things Philly has to offer kids...the zoo! The Philadelphia zoo was the first zoo in the US and it is pretty incredible. Not only do they have tons of animals, they also have a lot of other things to do, including a zoo balloon (a hot air balloon that is anchored to the ground), horse and pony rides, camel rides, a train, a new carousel and a few other things for older kids. We bought a yearly pass that includes all of the rides, every time and will get 2 visitors in free each time as well. We are pretty excited about it if you can't tell :)

Gigi and I went last week for the first time and while we were there we found out that on the weekend before Halloween they have something called boo at the zoo where they encourage you to dress up in costumes and they provide additional activities, prizes and trick-or-treating booths. David went with us and we had a lot of fun.

Here are some of the extra-fun things that we did:

Gigi got her face painted like a flower. She loved getting her face painted a few months ago so since it is close to Halloween we splurged and she got her face painted again. This time she handled it even more professionally. She sat just how she was told to sit and held still the entire time. Too funny!



She got a ton of treats at the booths and of course saw many animals, but she was most excited to see the elephant. Last time the elephant wasn't out so this time I was really hoping it would be, especially since she dressed up like an one.


Because of the season they had pumpkins in with some of the animals. Check out this cougar digging into one, it was pretty funny:




The highlight of the day was when she was able to be in a parade with some other kids, including a sweet little girl named Liliane that was dressed up like Mulan. She seemed to really think this kid was Mulan and was thrilled to hold her hand and be in the very front of the parade. Ever since David took Gigi to a 4Th of July parade Gigi has done a lot of imaginative play about parades, so it was pretty cool for her to be in one in real life.



A radio station was there and their mascot, a bee, danced with the kids. Gigi really got into it!



After the parade Gigi rode the brand-new carousel. She and Liliane held hands all the way to the carousel and even rode together on an alligator. She smiled and waved the entire time.


The only bummer about the day was that it was a bit rainy so the other rides were closed. Last time Gigi was able to ride on a horse and she was very excited to ride on "Boo" with Daddy, but she handled her disappointment very well. David was pretty bummed to not be able to ride the camel and I was sad that the zoo balloon wasn't open again (it is closed if the weather is at all questionable, which it has been both times that we have gone). Other than those small things we had a perfect day at the zoo!

Our poor little elephant really wore herself out!


So here is yet another reason why you need to come visit us in Philly :)