We LOVE the zoo!

I really did not intend or plan to take the kiddos to the zoo Sunday afternoon. It was kind of a spontaneous decision! We were here at the Beach House and we were talking about the events of this upcoming week. I reminded the kiddos that their mom's birthday is Friday and then two days later is Father's Day! Emma immediately said that she wanted to pick a gift out for her folks over at the gift shop at the zoo. So … away we went!

Christopher with two bald-headed eagles

These grandchildren and I had not been to the zoo together since early last summer … and we had SO MUCH FUN!

YAY! We finally saw a TIGER!

We climbed all the way up to the tippy top of the zoo to meet the tigers. We were not too lucky, however, because the tigers were in their new run area and were not interested in being up close. They are such beautiful animals, aren't they?

These three kiddos are FAST! You have to really be on your toes to keep up with them. They really really had a great time at the zoo, though, and I was happy right down to my toes just watching their fun.

We stopped to visit the budgie birds and decided to each purchase a feeding stick to see how many birds we could feed.

Christopher was so excited about the birds landing on his stick ...

I love seeing Christopher this happy ...

Isn't he a beautiful boy?

And Emma! She was hilarious in the bird cage. She loves animals to pieces and I have never seen an animal that didn't love her right back.

She has such a gentle spirit with them and such a sense of wonder ...

And Matthew was simply a crack-up in this cage! He had so many birds surrounding him, it was crazy!

His facial expressions are so funny!

But Matthew was SO pleased … look at him!

The other big hit was, of course, the stingrays!

I love it how the boys just get right in there and touch them and feed them … with hardly any fear, and so good for them.

This was the first time Matthew had actually touched one. Last year, he was more timid and just couldn't bring himself to do it. This year, he was quite bold!

Emma too. Last year, she really would NOT touch them. This year, she couldn't get enough of them. I loved watching their faces and seeing the JOY they experienced. Nothing better in all the world.

Our last stop was the gift shop where Emma successfully picked out gifts for her mama, her dad, Kaity, and even a gift for herself (!). Since we are celebrating Matthew's Golden Birthday ALL YEAR, he picked out a mood necklace for himself, and Christopher picked out a snake (because we needed one for our Bible story).

When we got back to the Beach House, we continued our story about Moses. This week we studied the plagues and I titled our lesson: "Let My People Go!" We had such a great time studying about the power of God and His mighty rescue plan for the Israelites.