it was a beautiful, sunny day. we had a very relaxing morning. we stayed in, had coffee and breakfast, and chilled. olive took a nap mid morning and we planned on heading to the zoo after her siesta.

you can never predict what olive will do and we were hoping we would get out to the zoo earlier {we wanted to get out late morning but instead, we left early afternoon}, her nap was for quite a long time. once she got up, i had to feed her, get her ready, get myself ready, make sure grace got herself ready, and then we could finally head out the door!

when we arrived at the zoo, it was a madhouse! there were at least 25 buses leaving the grounds. kids were leaving the zoo in herds! good timing on our part, that meant it wouldn’t be as crowded. we bought our tickets and trekked inside, ready to explore.

[the crazy, busy zoo]

[waiting to see the animals]

[excited to explore]

[a very warm day]

we were excited to see the new baby bison! it was so adorable to see, the baby was side by side with her momma. she was like her shadow, nuzzling and following her mom…it was so sweet to see. brookfield zoo hasn’t seen a newborn of this species since the 70’s! what a cool moment to experience.

[bison // can you see the baby bison that was born on may 31st?]

[my pensive girl]

[can you spot grace?!]

as we were walking through the zoo, they had little stations set up to give temp tattoos. i asked grace if she wanted one! we looked at the examples and she decided upon the wolf. it’s a pretty cool process, she airbrushed it on and then sealed it with a powder. it turned out great!

[grace getting a wolf tattoo]

while we were at the zoo, i totally regretted that i had not found a sun hat for olive yet. honestly, i had been shopping around for the past month looking for a hat. boutique after kid’s boutique, i still hadn’t found a hat i loved. so now when push comes to shove, i’m out and about with olive in the direct sun and i needed a hat! so, i had to buy one there! i was glad to have found a plain, white, cotton canvas hat. it was really what i was looking for {most kids sun hats have crazy prints and patterns all over it, and i’m not a fan}, i wanted a plain white hat for olive so it could match with all her outfits. voila! it was meant to be!

[a fishy world // olive in her new sun hat]

grace and i had a wonderful time watching the penguins. one of our favorite spots. they were so cute. waddling around, peeking out from the little caves, and there was one penguin that kept on showing off! he would swim around in the water, do flips, turns, and swirl around in the water.

[humboldt penguins]

[heading our way to the big cats]

as we were heading our way to see the big cats, we saw a pop up shop where you can pet stingrays. so cool. grace was hesitant because we had to buy tickets but i insisted! it was something fun and interactive for grace. she had such a great time! she said they were slimy and smooth…ewww, gross.

[pit stopping at the stingray petting pool]

[defending herself against this attack cat!]

[snow leopard]

we were able to see the bisons, aquarium house, african safari, the big cats, and a lot of animals in-between! it was a fun, relaxing afternoon with just us gals. what a fantastic time spent together. i had so much fun with my girls.

xoxo