Happy 6th Birthday Amara!

The bald eagle looks fake, but he's real, and he's really big!  His talons were impressive!

We went to Hogle Zoo for Amara's 6th birthday.  She was blessed to have lots of cousins come too.  We loved the bird show there- it's a must see!  And Amara got a picture with her favorite animal- a bald eagle.  Amara has loved birds for the past several years and at home she can be seen either pretending to be one herself or making one out of paper so that she can fly it around the house.  Eagles are her definite favorite.  Even as I'm typing this, Amara is flying around a seahorse puppet and saying it's a golden eagle.  She had me put my arm out so she could put on a pretend protective glove for the golden eagle to land on.  I love it.  If you're considering the bird show at the zoo, the 4th row on the end is the place to sit in order to have birds fly directly over your head, and I mean directly.  An owl actually grazed the side of my head as it swooped down to his trainer.  It was so cool!

There's a beautiful parrot in the brush behind Jaxon and Amara.

This an impressive golden eagle.  We see these flying around the desert near our house all the time.

And Amara was lucky to get to ride her favorite animal on the merry-go-round!

I think everyone liked their rides on the carousel so much that they paid no attention to me as I tried to get their pictures.  Here are the best ones:

Lily on the tall ostrich

Max and Mandy saw me, but Rex and Jaxon were busy looking elsewhere.

Missy and kids are in the background

It was a hot day, but we sure enjoyed visiting all the animals and exhibits.

Lily is as tall as a male gorilla, but her arms are not quite as long.

Amara is as tall as a female gorilla.

 There were lego displays everywhere.  This display was of and orangutan and her baby.

 The elephants were cute, especially Suri, the baby (sorry, not pictured).  They put on a show for us and even waved to us with bandanas.

 The statues were just as much fun for the kids as the actual animals themselves. :)

 Look out!  Bears!  I have recurring dreams about bears coming into my house, so it was a little eerie to be so close to bears with nothing but a waist-high, chicken-wire fence between us.  They weren't interested in coming near to visit (thank goodness).

 See the lego-polar bear behind Lily?

 There was also a wildlife show-n-tell that we sat in for.  Afterward, they let us pet the tortoise and opossum.  We skipped on holding the tarantula.

 I didn't get a picture I guess, but there was also a splash pad for the kids to get wet.  It was way crowded, but the kids went for it anyway and had a good time.

 At the zoo entrance, we could build towers using giant legos.

 Steve helped Amara make one taller than him.  Lily built one taller than herself all by herself.

Later that evening, we gathered with additional family members for cake and ice cream at Hindley Park.  Amara is so loved! 

Amara chose this chocolate fudge mousse cake from Costco.  Yum!