tubbie time at the zoo

So its been, what, over two months since boy child turned five and I'm just now getting around to posting pictures of his trip to the zoo? Right now I'm considering myself a most excellent parental specimen since I am actually putting up photos, albeit a entire season late, rather than crying into a wine bottle, which is what I feel like doing right now, since it seems the older boy child gets, the more he reminds me of teenage me. And he's only five. What is he going to be like in ten years?

I digress.

We decided last year that instead of giving our kids a birthday party (because I am a crappy hostess and we loathe parties) that we would give them an outing of their choice. For his birthday in April, boy child chose to visit the Calgary Zoo. To see the dinosaurs.

If you are from around here, you will know that we have a world class dinosaur museum very close to the Calgary Zoo. The Calgary Zoo is also a world class institution, but not for their plaster dinosaurs.  I think it has something to do with live animals but it might actually be the playground, which is also pretty rockin'.

Bringing all of this to boy child's attention proved fruitless and merely reinforced my belief that the rationale of children should never be questioned. You can go with it or enforce a time out, but never, ever ask why.

So, to the zoo we did go.  To see dinosaurs.

And touch them.

And... wait...

Ha.  Oops.  And because we're all science-y and stuff, boy child had to get underneath to check to see if they were boy dinos or girl dinos.

It seems all the dinosaurs at the Calgary Zoo are girls.

I just thought of why the Calgary Zoo is famous - or should be.  It's their endearing and hilarious signs made by people who have never met nor were ever children.

This is what the childs think about the zoo's signs:

This is also what the childs think about the zoo's signs:

Just so's you know, I yelled at them immediately after taking their picture.

This is my favorite sign:

Somewhere along the way we realized that we made a collective family fashion gaffe and came dressed as the Teletubbies.  Again.

Although I did have a great time referring to The Man as 'Tinky Winky' and getting him to hold my purse, I was truly grateful when the sun came out and we could strip off our jackets.

Boy child, after some convincing, did allow us to actually see some animals.  Which were amazing.

And adorable.

And nobody we know was eaten.

Mostly.

Here's a funny thing.  All through the tours of the various animal enclosures, girl child was all ho-hum, not really interested.  Then she requested to see the butterfly and botanical gardens and, among the plants, she bloomed, so to speak.  From slumping ten feet behind us all day, rolling her eyes as all tweens must, she suddenly wants to pose for a picture with... a bromeliad?!

She treated ferns like they were rock stars and insisted that she have her picture taken with no less than four different types of moss.

Then she stole my camera and took this picture:

And this:

And here:

And this:

And about fifty thousand more photos of various plants before I could wrestle my camera back to record some of the more interesting elements. Like the signs!

Oh funny zoo signs, you're so deluded!

So the girl likes plants. 

And the boy likes dinosaurs.

Apparently neither one really wants to see the zoo part of the zoo.  But girl child has already asked to visit the zoo again for her birthday.  

And now you know why I don't question the rationale of children.